In the last episode of VarietyOn the “Strictly Business” podcast, top leaders from NBCUniversal, IBM, State Farm, Autodesk and Coinbase talk and compare notes on marketing, technology and consumer trends in conversations with Todd Spangler. Variety business editor. The conversations were recorded from June 22 to 25 in the Canva Creative Cabana space at the Cannes Lions international creativity festival.

Dara Treseder, CMO at Autodesk, and Cat Ferdon, CMO at Coinbase, compare notes on how they reach the public and how they have harnessed the power of AI in their next-generation digital giants.

Treseder cited research indicating that an overwhelming number (82%) of people “are comfortable using AI in their general life (perhaps a little too comfortable; I don’t think we need AI to be our therapist), but only a third are comfortable using it in their field. Meanwhile, the growth of jobs with AI as a prerequisite has more than doubled. Therefore, there is a mismatch between job seekers and the jobs that are available.” [Autodesk] just announced a $350 million commitment that focuses on preparing the next generation and job seekers for jobs in this age of AI across design and ‘manufacturing,’ whether architecture, engineering, construction, product design, manufacturing, or media and entertainment.”

Ferdon detailed how the cryptocurrency exchange became one of the biggest brands in the emerging world of non-traditional banking and financial options. AI has been integrated into Coinbase from the beginning, he noted.

“Coinbase has been a super agent and our CEO and founder [Brian Armstrong] He’s been very public about it. So we’ve been working on our workflows for quite a while over the last year, and we’re using it to optimize everything in marketing,” says Ferdon. “But we firmly believe at Coinbase that AI can help you get creative results faster, but it doesn’t replace human creativity.”

Jonathan Adashek, senior vice president of marketing and communications at IBM, offered insight from one of Big Tech’s most enduring brands, which is increasingly focused on helping large organizations build systems that help them get the most out of their AI investments. For Big Blue, it all started by seriously embracing AI in its own workflows. It’s been transformative, Adashek says.

“Our creatives were spending 80% of their time working on derivative assets. So they’re not really getting creative. They’re doing hard work. Yeah. And that’s not what they’re passionate about,” Adashek says. “We’ve been able to get that number down to about 40% and keep falling. We did something with the Sphere in Las Vegas and turned it into a giant fish tank and used AI to help us with creative design and concepting. We thought it would take us 15 to 16 days to do it. It took us two days, and the creatives who participated actually said they got more ideas because it gave them new things to think about. As an organization within IBM, we’ve used AI and the automation and corresponding process improvement will bring out $4.5 billion of our annual spending over the last three years, and we’re going to take out another $1 billion this year.”

Mark Marshall, president of advertising partnership at NBCUniversal, and Kristyn Cooke, director of agency sales marketing at State Farm, have done a lot of business together over the years and it shows in their conversation. Cooke explains why an event like NBCU’s BravoCon fan gathering is the type of cultural event State Farm needs to have a presence at to reach the next generation of consumers.

“It’s about connecting around shared interests and relationships and your passions. And that’s what BravoCon brings to us,” Cooke says. “It’s a very powerful thing because the audience is really the story. They just are, and they’re super engaged. And we’ve learned a lot because in the beginning, when we worked with BravoCon, we created branded spaces, and then we evolved to create memorable experiences. We created a way for fans to interact and feel something in that moment. BravoCon has been really good for us overall.”

With the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles just two years away, Marshall discussed NBCU’s plans to elevate its coverage even beyond the heights reached at the Paris 2024 Summer Games with an event in his hometown.

“The last summer Olympic Games in the United States were Atlanta [in 1996]. That year, NBC aired 186 hours of programming. We will be close to 8,000 hours of programming in 2028,” explains Marshall. “The difference is that now fans can create their own Olympic experience. You can watch any sport you want live on Peacock, or you can have Mike Tirico’s smooth voice speak to you at night and tell you about the day, what happened, and the backstories of what it’s like. What we’ve started to learn is that fans love watching sports, but what they really love is the storytelling of how [the athletes and teams] I got to that. Those are the stories we are telling now. And at NBC, in the NBA, MLB and NFL, we are infusing the same strategy into everything.”