In an AI world, taste is a competitive advantage for brands

Marketing leaders gathered at Business Insider's "The AI Marketer" roundtable during Cannes Lions 2026 with a message that cuts against the prevailing AI hype. The competitive edge in an AI-saturated market will not come from automation or scale. It will come from taste.

The panelists argued that as generative AI makes content production cheap and abundant, the scarce resource becomes curation – knowing what to say and what to leave out. "Taste" in this context means the ability to make creative judgments that algorithms cannot replicate. Several marketing executives at the roundtable said the brands that thrive will be those that treat AI as a tool for execution, not a replacement for creative instinct.

Apple offers a useful real-world test. The company's product design, retail experience, and advertising have long been defined by a consistent sense of taste – restraint over clutter, simplicity over complexity. That brand equity is hard to duplicate with a prompt. While competitors can use AI to generate thousands of ad variants, Apple's advantage lies in choosing which one runs.

The roundtable discussion signals a broader shift among advertisers. After two years of frantic AI adoption, the focus is moving toward strategic differentiation. Taste, unlike compute power, cannot be bought. It has to be built.

The roundtable took place on the sidelines of Cannes Lions, the annual advertising festival. The festival's 2027 edition will be closely watched for how brands translate this principle into campaign spend.