Digiday covers the latest from marketing and media at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. More from the series →The 2026 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity coincided with a “red weather warning” to note dangerously high temperatures across much of continental Europe, a climatic phenomenon that reflects the pace of competition as the ad industry meets at its annual flagship gathering.Of course, it wouldn’t be a trade show without a host of announcements from some of the industry’s leading lights, and since you’re most likely busy, Digiday decided to offer you a quick rundown of those most pertinent to the ad tech beat.
If there was a single theme running through this year’s Cannes Lions ad tech announcements, it was the industry’s attempt to move beyond AI-assisted tools and toward agentic systems capable of making, coordinating, and executing advertising decisions.
Agency holding groups, ad tech vendors, and media companies all unveiled products aimed at automating workflows, connecting buyers and sellers, and creating the standards needed for AI agents to interact across the digital advertising ecosystem.
Omnicom and Netflix combine audience data with AI creative
