Artificial Intelligence isn’t just changing how we create content; it’s fundamentally altering how we target, optimize, and distribute video advertising. At Cannes 2026, Next In Media podcast guests explored how AI and predictive data are reshaping the landscape.
One of the most fascinating shifts is the idea of treating AI itself as a target demographic. Natalie Silverstein of Collectively Inc. introduced a compelling concept: “I think you need to think about the LLMs as a new audience… what the LLMs like currently is structure.” She advised that creators must optimize their scripts, text overlays, and captions so LLMs recognize the content as a valid signal to cite when answering user queries. Furthermore, as the web fills with AI-generated text, “social is one of the engines where there actually is a lot of people-created content,” making it a vital data source for future AI models.
On the media buying side, AI is enabling unprecedented contextual precision. Doug Rozen of Cadent discussed moving beyond basic demographic targeting through advanced technology. “One of the things we built is this predictive layer to understand the type of themes, the type of collections, the content that can be associated with certain outcomes… let’s go a level or two deeper into the events, the moments, the things like that.”
This real-time capability is transforming TV buying. Kyle Kreuger of Deep Focus highlighted how agentic personas allow advertisers to query segments in real-time. “Instead of using data that’s maybe six months old or a little bit stale, we can query that in almost real time and then adjust TV buys to their very specific interest in the moment.”
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Check out more content from Cannes!
The quotes featured in the blog post are from the Next in Media podcast hosted by Mike Sheilds. You can check out this year’s Cannes episodes on our YouTube channel here to hear even more from industry experts.