Observed Signal · Jun 24, 2026 · Thought Leadership · Source: The Drum · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Klarna CMO: Agency Monopoly on Creativity Has Fallen
At Cannes Lions 2026, Klarna CMO David Sandström argued that AI’s biggest impact on marketing is not creative replacement but the shifting role of the CMO toward organisational architecture, data and workflow design. Sandström said AI has automated tedious tasks—translation, legal documentation, resizing assets—freeing marketers to focus on creativity and strategy. He described a rising hybrid role he calls “marketing engineering,” and predicted specialist roles (copywriter, art director, social manager) will blur as brands develop in-house creative capability and use agencies as collaborative partners rather than sole creators. Sandström also forecasted a renewed emphasis on branding and emotional connection as AI commoditises data-powered performance tactics.
Provides influential CMO perspective on how AI is reshaping marketing organisation, creative workflows and agency roles—useful directional insight for marketers and agencies but not a technical product or policy change from a major platform.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- David Sandström is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Klarna and spoke to The Drum at Cannes Lions 2026.
- Sandström previously led DDB Stockholm before joining Klarna almost a decade ago.
- He says AI has automated tasks such as translation, legal documentation and resizing creative assets but has not removed jobs, only tedious tasks.
- Sandström coined or described the emerging role of “marketing engineering” — marketers who blend creativity and technology.
- He argues the traditional agency monopoly on professional creative execution has fallen and agencies will become collaborative partners embedded within client teams.
Connected Companies & Entities
1 Entity mapped““The role has evolved way more into architecture, structure and infrastructure,” says the Klarna CMO....”
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Stop Forcing Marketing Into False Binaries
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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: 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.
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