After the previous post about OpenAI's advertising at Cannes Lions, I decided to break down the session itself.
The festival hosted one of its most anticipated sessions — "Advertising in the Age of AI." Julia Boorstin (CNBC) interviewed Denise Dresser, OpenAI's Chief Revenue Officer.
I was curious what words and meanings they'd wrap their platform in for the fickle ad market. It turned out predictably dull. Once again it confirmed: corporations don't change, and they're staffed by the same people with the same mindset — no matter how powerful the AI in their hands.
The official part — what they tried to sell
- The ad industry is shifting from a "media operating model" to an "intelligence operating model": AI becomes the main interface through which people search for information and make decisions.
- Brands need to learn to work in "conversational environments," where the user doesn't google but talks to an AI.
- Dresser spoke at length about OpenAI becoming an enterprise platform and helping corporations adopt "Transformation Intelligence."
Verbatim from the stage: "…there's this movement around personalization. So personalization is also having this evolution, which is not just about how you reach multiple people."
The reality — an insider from the room
I got feedback from someone who sat in the audience. The verdict was short and merciless: "bland crap."
It seems that instead of real insights or a glimpse of the future, we were once again fed a set of safe corporate slogans about "efficiency" and "new horizons." While the world waits for breakthroughs from OpenAI, the stage is busy discussing how to carefully sell this to enterprise clients without scaring them off.
Revolution is revolution, but lunch is served on schedule.