TRUST BECOMES ADVERTISING’S MOST VALUABLE CURRENCY IN AI ERA

Advertising has spent years perfecting the art of finding consumers. Whether consumers are delighted to be found is another matter.

As data, artificial intelligence and commerce media reshape the industry, trust has become both more valuable and more difficult to earn. Consumers want relevant advertising, but they don’t want the eerie feeling that their phones have been eavesdropping during brunch.

That tension shaped a Cannes Lions panel featuring Lauren Griewski, head of go-to-market at Chase Media Solutions, Vihan Sharma, CRO of LiveRamp, and Michelle Cordeiro Grant, founder and CEO of energy drink brand GORGIE. Zach Rodgers, principal at Sensical Consulting, moderated the discussion.

Trust starts with the experience

Griewski cited Virgin Voyages as a brand that has earned her confidence by delivering an experience consistent with its marketing.

“They build trust through the experience,” she said. “Everything that you do, the cast members know your name.”

That personal attention can turn customers into advocates in ways that advertising alone cannot. A campaign may introduce the brand, but the customer experience determines whether anyone recommends it afterward.

“An ad campaign can’t do” what a genuine relationship with customers can accomplish, Griewski said. Brands need “exceptional experiences that are built on trust.”

Of course, knowing customers by name is charming on a cruise ship. When an ad platform knows someone recently whispered about hemorrhoid cream, the enchantment fades rather quickly.

Relevant advertising shouldn’t feel like surveillance

Consumer data can improve advertising when people understand how it’s being used, Griewski said. Trouble begins when the targeting feels inexplicably intimate.

“If I just had a conversation with a friend and now I’m being retargeted about something in an intimate discussion I had, that feels like my trust is being eroded,” she said.

Advertisers therefore need to be transparent about the signals behind their messages. They also must use those signals to provide value rather than merely prove they possess an unnerving amount of personal information.

Sharma said the industry has a communication problem if even advertising professionals suspect their phones are listening to them.

“We need to do a better job as the ecosystem to ensure that the consumers don’t feel that their data is misused,” he said.

Apparently, “Don’t worry, the surveillance is much more complicated than you think” isn’t the reassuring consumer education campaign the industry needs.

AI is a tool, not a character reference

Artificial intelligence presents another trust challenge. It can improve customer experiences, accelerate creative work and help brands understand their audiences. It can also produce content with the emotional warmth of an airport parking receipt.

“Fundamentally, I don’t believe that AI is either inherently trustworthy or not trustworthy,” Griewski said. “AI is a tool.”

The responsibility rests with the people deploying it. Brands should use AI to enhance consumer experiences and support their teams, not to flood the world with synthetic material that nobody requested.

Younger consumers are already developing an eye for AI-generated content, Griewski said.

“Young kids inherently don’t trust anything anymore because they look at content and they’re like, ‘This is AI,’” she said. “They just know.”

Grant offered a more optimistic view. GORGIE uses technology to learn from its community and keep an ongoing conversation with customers.

“AI is helping us get closer as human beings globally,” she said. “It’s a tool to shorten the bridge to community.”

That bridge still needs humans at both ends. Otherwise, brands may discover that an AI can generate 400 versions of a campaign before anyone asks whether the original idea was worth repeating.

Brands can build trust with customers

Grant described GORGIE as a brand built alongside its audience. Before launching, she sought feedback through TikTok on flavors, ingredients and caffeine levels. Customers even helped shape the formulation.

“You build it with them,” she said of establishing trust. “Ask them and then verify.”

Certifications provided additional credibility, but Grant said brands first need an emotional connection with customers. Facts can reinforce trust after interest has been established.

She also emphasized customer retention over the more glamorous pursuit of customer acquisition. If buyers don’t return, pouring more money into advertising simply introduces a larger population to disappointment.

“Retention-based data is everything,” Grant said. “That will make a business profitable faster than anyone realizes.”

Measurement needs an impartial scorekeeper

Trust is also lacking between advertisers and the platforms measuring their own performance.

Sharma described a marketplace where media sellers frequently grade their own homework. Unsurprisingly, everyone keeps receiving excellent marks.

“We don’t really have a problem around technology,” he said. “I think we have a problem of scorecard.”

Platforms use different methods to attribute sales and demonstrate effectiveness. That leaves advertisers with multiple reports claiming credit for the same revenue, a mathematical miracle that rarely appears in the company’s actual earnings.

Griewski said marketers have long sought to verify that advertising led to a transaction. Walled gardens provide useful data, but their limited view can prevent brands from seeing every interaction that contributed to a sale.

“The holy grail of marketing has been being able to validate that a transaction has happened,” she said.

Chase’s view of verified consumers and transactions may help advertisers connect media exposure with commerce across more environments, including physical stores.

“Eighty percent of retail still happens in store,” Griewski said. The industry must account for those purchases alongside online exposure rather than act as if commerce begins and ends at an e-commerce giant’s checkout page.

Trust, in other words, isn’t secured through another targeting feature or an especially flattering attribution report. It’s built when brands explain what they’re doing, deliver what they promised and measure the results transparently.

You’re watching The Beet.TV Leadership Sessions at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Chase Media Solutions.

You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 on Beet.TV.

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