Observed Signal · Jul 2, 2026 · Industry Commentary / Interview · Source: The Drum · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Adobe: AI Redefines Where Creative Value Lies
Adobe marketing leaders Rachel Thornton and Simon Morris told The Drum at Cannes Lions 2026 that AI is not killing creativity but shifting where value is created across marketing. They said AI is reshaping discovery, production, personalization and measurement — for example, marketers must think about brand visibility on new LLM-driven search surfaces. AI is automating repetitive production work and scaling creative variants, enabling creatives to focus on storytelling, strategy and taste. Adobe is using its own marketing organisation as 'customer zero' to test features such as Brand Visibility. Thornton and Morris advised agencies to treat AI as a catalyst for organisational change and skills investment rather than a standalone tool. They cited examples including WPP, Code and Theory, Publicis and Dentsu embedding AI into workflows.
Adobe is a major MarTech vendor; its marketing leaders' perspective on AI adoption, Brand Visibility capability, and 'customer zero' testing signals practical direction for agencies and brands but does not announce platform policy or technical release that would be industry-shifting.
Track Adobe Signals & Market Shifts in Real-Time
Polaris7 autonomous intelligence agents track regulatory filings, primary sources, executive changes, and deal flow 24/7. Create your free Explorer workspace to monitor these entities.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Rachel Thornton (CMO, Adobe enterprise business) and Simon Morris (VP, international marketing at Adobe) said AI is reshaping discovery, production, personalization and measurement in marketing.
- Adobe uses its marketing organisation as 'customer zero' to test products and helped shape capabilities such as Brand Visibility.
- AI is automating production tasks — creating more content variants, speeding testing and removing repetitive work — allowing creative professionals to focus on storytelling and strategy.
- Thornton and Morris cited agencies and groups (WPP, Code and Theory, Publicis, Dentsu) as examples of embedding AI into marketing and agency workflows.
Connected Companies & Entities
4 Entities mapped“Speaking separately to The Drum for The Creativity Machine (our forthcoming documentary series produced in partnership with Adobe), Rachel T...”
“Thornton points to WPP’s work combining customer data with paid, earned and owned media, while highlighting boutique agency Code and Theory’...”
“Morris also cites partnerships with Publicis and Dentsu as examples of agencies embedding AI into day-to-day workflows to generate more crea...”
“Morris also cites partnerships with Publicis and Dentsu as examples of agencies embedding AI into day-to-day workflows to generate more crea...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Empowering Marketers: AI as a Creative Partner
In a Marketing Vanguard interview live from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Rachel Thornton, CMO of Adobe Enterprise, argues that AI should be framed as “augmented intelligence” that amplifies human creativity rather than replaces it. Thornton recommends keeping the core creative concept human-driven while using AI to scale execution—translating campaigns, producing assets, and personalizing at scale—freeing marketers from tactical tasks. She urges CMOs to demonstrate marketing’s revenue impact to the C-suite through data and customer-journey analytics, to define authentic brand positioning amid AI-generated content proliferation, and to treat customers—especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha—as co-creators. Thornton’s background includes roles at Cisco, Microsoft, Salesforce and AWS, informing her perspective at the intersection of creative tools, data-driven marketing and emerging technologies.
Adobe Becomes Its Own Toughest AI Customer
Adobe's international marketing team, led by Simon Morris, used generative AI (notably Adobe Firefly) internally as a 'customer zero' testbed and found that technology worked but existing processes did not. Internal rollout exposed siloed workflows, skill gaps and a studio bottleneck; the team built Gem Studio to let marketers self-produce content and embedded artwork libraries to prevent brand drift. Diagnosing declining organic traffic tied to LLM-driven search also led Adobe to create a brand-visibility product now offered to customers. Morris emphasizes AI automates repetitive production tasks (variants, resizing, measurement aggregation) but does not replace taste, creativity or strategic storytelling — successful adoption required rethinking processes and sustained training.
Adobe CMO: AI Shifts From Fear to Confidence at Cannes
At Cannes Lions 2026, Adweek host Jenny Rooney interviewed Lara Balazs, Adobe's CMO and EVP of global marketing, about enterprise AI adoption. Balazs said AI is delivering tangible workflow wins—citing brands like the NFL, Disney, L’Oréal and Ulta using Adobe Firefly to automate asset scaling while protecting proprietary IP. The vidcast, recorded as part of Adweek's Marketing Vanguard series and presented with Edelman, emphasized that human empathy, brand trust and strategic judgment remain essential amid generative AI adoption.
Track Real-Time Market Signals & Shifts
Set up custom watchlists to receive automated, evidence-grounded executive digests whenever material signals or shifts occur across your tracked landscape.