In our previous conversation, we explored how customer experience is shifting from structured, repeatable journeys to real-time, AI-driven interactions.

The discussion continued recently at Cannes Lions, where Joy Bhattacharya, CTO, Accenture Song, and Varun Parmar, SVP & GM of Adobe GenStudio and Adobe Firefly, met with marketing, technology, and business leaders from around the world. While industries and priorities varied, a clear theme emerged: AI is no longer an experiment. It is moving into the core of how organizations create content, engage customers, and drive growth.

At Cannes, one message surfaced consistently: AI is no longer a pilot project. It is becoming a core business capability.

The question leaders are now asking is no longer "Should we invest in AI?" but rather "How do we operationalize it responsibly and at scale?"

In this follow-up conversation, Bhattacharya and Parmar move from concept to execution, exploring what the new experience model looks like in practice and the steps organizations can take to get started.

Parmar:

In our last conversation, we talked about the shift. Today, let's make it practical. What does the new experience model actually look like in practice?

Bhattacharya:

Three things stand out.

Discovery is moving into AI assistants. Browsing is becoming a conversation. And customers are no longer just consuming — they're shaping products and experiences in real time.

At the same time, commerce is increasingly agent-assisted, and experiences move seamlessly across digital and physical channels.

The key shift? Every interaction feeds back into the system. That's what makes experiences smarter over time.

One thing we heard repeatedly at Cannes was that AI has moved beyond pilots and proof of concepts. Were you hearing the same?

Parmar:

Absolutely. Last year, many conversations were about possibilities. This year, the conversation was about execution.

Organizations are no longer asking whether AI will change marketing and customer experience. They're asking how quickly they can scale it across the enterprise. The challenge has shifted from experimentation to adoption.

And that's where many leaders are realizing that technology alone isn't enough.

Bhattacharya:

I agree. One of the strongest themes we heard was the importance of change management.

Many organizations have invested in AI capabilities, but value comes only when people are comfortable using them. Building trust, creating new ways of working, and helping teams understand how AI supports, rather than replaces, their expertise is becoming a critical part of transformation.

So, if AI is no longer the experiment, the question becomes: how do organizations move from ambition to action?

Parmar:

That's exactly the conversation we were having throughout Cannes.

The leaders making the most progress aren't trying to transform everything at once. They're taking a practical approach. They start by understanding where AI can create value, putting the right foundations in place, and then scaling from there.

We often think about that journey in a few key stages.

First, assess your readiness. Understand how your brand shows up in AI environments and where the biggest opportunities exist.

Second, codify what you know. AI is only as effective as the information it can access, so brand guidelines, product information, policies, and business rules need to be structured and usable.

Third, start building. Pick a focused use case, prove value quickly, and learn from it.

Bhattacharya:

And alongside that, organizations need governance from day one. Trust, compliance, and accountability can't be bolted on later. They need to be part of the foundation.

Parmar:

Once something works, how do organizations scale it? And what ultimately creates an advantage?

Bhattacharya:

Two steps to scale.

First, scale across journeys and teams to move beyond pilots into real operations.

Second, create a feedback loop. Every interaction should improve the system.

That's where learning becomes a competitive advantage. The organizations moving fastest are treating every interaction as a source of intelligence — continuously improving experiences, content, and decision-making over time.

That's another lesson we heard at Cannes. Leading organizations aren't treating AI as a standalone initiative. They're embedding it into how work gets done across marketing, commerce, sales, and customer service.

And for the advantage, from my perspective, it comes down to three things:

• Owning your intelligence layer
• Orchestrating experiences across content, data, channels, and AI
• Embedding governance and trust in real time

Because in this model, experiences aren't delivered — they're assembled.

And the organizations that win will be the ones that can do that continuously, at scale.

Closing thoughts.

The shift to unrepeatable experiences is already underway, and it rewards organizations that move early.

If there was one message that stood out from Cannes Lions this year, it was that AI has entered a new phase. The conversation is no longer about experimentation. It is about adoption, orchestration, and organizational readiness.

The opportunity now is to move beyond isolated use cases and start building the systems behind them by connecting data, content, decisioning, governance, and people into one continuous engine.

Because in the end, advantages won't come from doing more. It will come from doing it smarter, faster, and in the moment, every time.

The organizations that succeed will be those that combine technology with strong change management, helping their people embrace new ways of working while developing the intelligence and orchestration capabilities needed to drive sustainable growth.

The opportunity is no longer to experiment with AI. It is to operationalize it. The organizations that move now, building the right foundations, skills, and governance, will be the ones best positioned to create unrepeatable experiences and sustainable growth.

Ready to move from concept to action? We'd love to continue the conversation.

https://business.adobe.com/fragments/resources/cards/thank-you-collections/firefly