By Krystal Scanlon
Publication Date: 2026-01-07 05:01:00
OpenAI’s executives are already debating whether to make the pilgrimage to Cannes Lions this year — a fitting metaphor for the company’s broader ambitions. The festival is where the ad industry goes to celebrate its ability to turn creativity into influence. And OpenAI, for all its Silicon Valley roots, is increasingly angling for a seat at that table. That deliberation captures the tension of a relationship still being negotiated: tech’s rising power testing how far it can step into marketing’s most symbolic space.
Before it can do that it needs to conclude its search for an ads boss, figure out how best to handle data privacy and ensure its commerce proposition proves successful.
And the clock is ticking.
Google is now clearly fully dialed into building the infrastructure needed to monetize what happens when the internet becomes chat: Gemini embedded into search ads re-architected for conversational intent and the plumbing being laid for a world where queries look…
