McKinsey Partner: Slow AI Adoption Could End Businesses — Cannes Lions Debate

Bullish Gator

Marketing leaders at Cannes Lion warn 7% succeed with AI; discuss messy data, ROI trade-offs, rapid innovation, budget risks, and stakes for leaders—how to turn experiments into profitable AI-driven growth before it’s too late.

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What stands out

At Cannes Lions a McKinsey partner bluntly warned that slow AI adoption could cost companies their existence, and the panel with Sandeep Seth of Tapestry made that warning concrete for brand-heavy businesses. The session riffs off one stark line, only 7% have actually made AI pay off, and then unpacks the blockers: messy customer data, expensive experiments, and marketing teams that can move fast or move frugal but rarely both. For investors in consumer names, it is a reminder that AI is less a magic lever and more an operations test.