Passes x Cannes Lions Recap

Passes made its mark at Cannes Lions last week, connecting with the creative industry while diving deep into the evolving advertising landscape. Beyond hosting our brand-activated cabana on the Creators Rooftop, our founder and CEO Lucy Guo took center stage as a featured speaker on the Future Gazers panel. She joined an impressive lineup including Sun Yi, Founder of Night Owls and Night Owl Nation, and Marina Mansour, President of Beauty + Wellness at Kyra, with the discussion moderated by WIRED's Deputy Global Editorial Director Greg Williams.

Lucy delivered compelling insights on the creator economy and AI, presenting her vision of how these forces are converging to reshape the future of influence.

Drawing from her experience as a serial entrepreneur and investor in over 100 companies, Lucy made the case that we're entering what she calls "the collaboration of the decade"—an era where creators will harness AI not as a replacement, but as a powerful tool to amplify their reach, scale their impact, and unlock new levels of creative potential.

The presentation reinforced Passes' position at the forefront of creator monetization technology and highlighted our commitment to empowering creators with AI-driven tools for the future.

Creators are Tech-Enabled: The creator economy only exists because of technology and social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube that lowered barriers to building audiences and businesses. Creators have grown to rival Hollywood stars in influence.

Overcoming AI Skepticism: While may currently have reservations about AI, Lucy believes this will change when they see the benefits. She positions AI as a collaborative copilot, not a replacement.

AI's Role in the Creator Economy

The 80/20 Principle: AI excels at repeatable, non-creative tasks (80%), while creators retain their uniquely human qualities—creativity, empathy, and relationship building (20%).

Cost-Effective Content Production: AI-generated ads can save 90% of production costs compared to traditional creator collaborations that require travel, studios, and equipment. Creators like Grimes are already licensing their voice and likeness for AI remixes.

Synthetic vs. Real Creators: While millions are being invested in synthetic creators, Lucy believes they'll coexist with real creators rather than replace them, serving different audience needs around authenticity.

Business Applications

AI-Powered Management: AI can handle 80% of creator management tasks - finding brand partnerships, negotiations - while human managers focus on the final 20%. This allows creators to keep more revenue and managers to work with more clients.

At Passes: Lucy created Passes to solve creators' income inconsistency from fickle brand deals. The platform helps creators monetize their fanbase directly, with most making 80-100% of their income through it. Our AI features help creators understand audience behavior and optimize content pricing, resulting in 3x revenue increases.

Lucy concludes that just as technology created the creator economy, AI represents the next frontier that creators must embrace to continue succeeding in their monetization journey.