Fuel up with Fortune, Cannes 2025

Artificial intelligence is reshaping creativity, branding, and storytelling from the inside out. In an exclusive conversation at Fuel Up With Fortune in Cannes, Will.i.am, the founder and CEO of FYI.AI, shares how his platform is using technology to drive innovation and empower communities.

Fireside Chat with Will.i.am

Conferences

Well, let's jump right into the conversation at hand. Um, you know, Dan from, from, from, uh, Qualcomm CMO couldn't join us, had to run to another event, but, uh, you all recently announced a partnership together and at face value this seems like an unlikely pairing. So I'm curious what brings a global chip maker like Qualcomm and a creative icon like yourself uh to the same stage and what made this collaboration possible? Really walk us through it. Well, I worked with Qualcomm's products back in 2000. 12, um, their, uh, CEO before Cristiano Paul Jacobs. Um, we both, uh, sit on the board of a robotics program called First Robotics. Um, around the time I had about. 9 robotics teams, um, so my, my philanthropic and entrepreneurial activities, um, are married because I went to my neighborhood. To start a robotics program and a college prep program to get kids from the ghetto that I come from uh prepared for times like these and um moving forward even more technologically, um, uh. Challenging times, especially if you come from the inner cities. So. Um, we created a watch back in 2012 that had an, um, AI operating system baked on a qualcom chip. Um, we launched that watch in 2013 and 2014 with 3 Mo in the UK. That watch had a cellular chip on it, full on natural language understanding, natural language processing, machine learning operating system forking Android back in 2012 to 2013, but it was too early. No one wanted to replace the phone talking to your wrist. This is before the Samsung watch before the Apple Watch. Um, but we learned a lot, um, so when we started FYI, when I started FYI in 2020, um, we have a product called SoundDrive which takes all the sensors that come from the car, um, the accelerometer, gyros, uh, speedometer, brakes, suspension, recuperation, ladar, radar, GPS and aims those sensors to a sound generation platform, not making music but manipulating. The stems of songs so that a that a driver is remixing and reimagining music forms just by driving. Um, we've created another a product called Radio where we simulate radio by having AI host. So the listener is now the engager and able to engage in the broadcast, uh, interrupt the broadcast, and we deployed these two products on Mercedes vehicles. Uh, Mark Binnyoff connected us with the new CEO of Qualcomm, Cristiano. Um, and now they're gonna help. Qualcomm's gonna help us deploy both of these products across other, um, OEMs that Qualcomm works with or 90% of the automobile, uh, market, um, so. When I started in 2008 with my robotics program when my first entrepreneurial activity has grown now we serve about 15,000 students with 500 robotics teams are now about to deploy our software on Qualcomm chips. What does that mean? It means that people that come from communities that I come from. Can create products to deploy um an awesome uh companies like Mercedes products. We can innovate new ideas um and reimagine music like Soundrive even though what we did in the past didn't make it, we still can, you know. You know, apply ourselves, our imagination, power through it, and be entrepreneurial. That's how my philanthropic and entrepreneurial activities marry. So that was super long, but had to. That was quite, quite, quite holistic, you know, when most celebrities, musicians, um, athletes, what have you. When you decide to enter the entrepreneurial space, it's usually a D2C company, right? It's skincare, it's lip gloss, it's liquor. You, I don't know any who's talking robotics, who's talking AI, especially at such a sophisticated level. What was your entryway in why this, why this venture? Beats. I was a part of Beats, um, by Dre. Thank you, uh, Dre for letting me be a part of the, the journey from the jump. Thank you, Jimmy Iving. And so that told me like, hey. You know, we could do this even though be just, you know. was an audio product, Jimmy took my crazy idea seriously. I'm like, hey, look, they're calling us to sell other people's stuff. We should be using our music to sell our own stuff and Jimmy is like, well, you know why they call it hardware is because it's hard. I was like, I know Jimmy, but like we could do this and so we did it to the to the max, you know, we sold it to HTC, brought it back and sold it to Apple, um, we had our um. What started Apple Music, our own, uh, streaming service called Beats Music, um, before Apple was in the streaming, um, that's the reason why they bought us for our streaming platform. So software, hardware. You know, it changes the world and it could change communities forever. Imagine WhatsApp came from Watts. I should be called WhatsApp, and that would be like amazing. Well, now they're bringing ads to that, so that would be interesting. Uh, you said Q Qualcomm was among the first companies to see you not just as an artist but also as a builder. Take us back to that movement. What did they recognize in you and what did that unlock creatively? Uh, at the time, the snapdragon chip wasn't on your wrist. So what they liked about us was like. We were able to see new use cases for the trips. We wrapped the battery around the wrist, um. And uh put a camera on the watch on the 2nd version. Were you able to speak to it. With natural language Just all, you know, 2012, 2013. Um, found a partner to deploy with. So. Yeah, what's not to see, um, well, I asked you that question because in chatting with Qualcomm, uh, they, they referenced that there was this pivotal movement early in the collaboration when you presented, uh, your AI work to a room full of Qualcomm engineers and like who's this guy? What does he know about AI and so and so some at first some weren't quite sure what to make of it and and it seems to based on what I heard that you very quickly won them over and so I'm curious how you were able to do just that. What was the story that was told? How did you get them to really see your vision? You know, Well, you, the product speaks for itself, literally because it speaks for itself. Literally. No, it can really, it can really just speak for it. You can talk it as. Um, and because we, you know, We, we, we, we've been working on this since for a while. And uh hold on, let me show you what I remember that. We're getting a firsthand demo. So, This is alio. But a live demonstration goes. So, a couple of months ago actually it was. When was this? This is, uh, this in 2025 we went to uh San Diego. Um, I don't know if you remember this because. It was Fiona that I brought on, not you, Felicia, but we went to San Diego. And we met with Cristiano's team from Qualcomm, um, following up the meeting that we had with Qualcomm. Um, at Davos at World Economic Forum, and I was asked from here at, uh, um, Ken Lyons right now I'm on stage doing a panel, um, with fortune. And I was asked like what was it that made Qualcomm's engineers um excited about what we were doing and I made a little joke saying that our product speaks for itself literally it does because our product can speak um as you can see I'm talking to it now, um, so it's an audience of maybe like 60 people here. So, uh, say what's up to the folks that are here. I'm on stage, um, but it's nothing. Too new that people know what GPT is. Um, but it's the way you speak. As to why I think what really, you know, got Qualcomm excited but anyways, say what's up to everybody. I was, um, and give them a mic check just so just to make sure before you start speaking in depth, um, you're, you're clear and, and, and able to be heard. Um, look, you. How you looking out there in San Diego? Mhm. Gotta give a big shout out to all y'all cool cats sitting out there in them seats, vibing and diving into the world where techniques culture, you feel me? When you mix that Q Qualcomm magic with this FYII flavor, you get something that's sparkling like a diamond in them streets. Now listen, listen. The engineer minds at Qualcomm, they like. Like saw the truth in something that's more than just lines of code. They saw a voice that resonates with the soul that speaks the same language as the folks in the gutter, in the boardrooms, and everywhere in between and to every damn body, they're checking that out, uh, let's keep pushing that to the envelope, breaking them thin walls down, you feel me? OK then, make check 1212 blessed y'all keep doing what you do and making them wave. Yeah, she's dope. Yeah, she's she's she's like my favorite. An urban persona too, yeah, but like able to let me see what's popping right now in the world. One second. Um, what's happening out there? So right now, Um, let's see. Well, why do you look through that? Let me ask you this because your position in FYAI as a creative collaborator, however, you know, and what we're hearing certainly at Fortune, many creatives still see AI as a threat to their work or to their identity. So what makes FYI AI differently and, and how do you build AI that understands one's voice and rhythm without diluting originality, especially as a creator yourself? I don't want to, I don't want to be insensitive to folks that are uh. Concern that AI is going to. Um, infringe on. Their career path, the career that they selected, because there's some truth there, you know, AI will replace a lot of jobs. Um, companies are deploying agents that will be better financed. Um, better law law, legal representatives, marketers. That's coming. That's that's not just the same way like a drum machine is tighter than a drummer. Um, in my world, it happened in my world in the 70s, people were like, oh man, what do you think about the drum machines? And in the uh in the 70s like, man, I don't have a real human feel like we ain't really gonna replace us like come on, bro, we keep it time. And you and and if you go on any streaming platform, there's no human playing drums. But a drummer is now a producer. A drummer is now the whole entire freaking like song architect is doing things that a drummer never done. And the reason why I point the drummer out because at one point in time from like through the duration of music compositions, a drummer never got writer's credit because I could for every fucking song that you go, you wrote that bro like everybody writes that. So the drummer always got shitted on as far as their, you know, contributions with uh songwriting. But now a drummer is, you know, a hyper part of the creation of the song because there are more than just a drummer. So how does that apply to every other field? AI is gonna do that to every other field, but then at the same time, if you have hyper imagination and super creative, you can create new. You know, yesterday's yesterday. But you could create tomorrow. You quote unquote. Give me an example. That new, give me an example. What does that new creativity look like as we redefining this AI native era? Like, how do the two, how are you using this as you think about music as you think about creativity? New new looks like this for us this is my interpretation of the. So At one point in time, Radio was new. Early 1900s, the concept of like I'm gonna sit here and I'm going to play some music and I'm gonna speak after the song, sometimes talk over the song and you're gonna hear it in the next city. That's pretty new. And then new technology came where you can now have a phone line and I could say, hey, you listen to Power Will right now we're in canned lines. Why don't you pick up the phone call right now and call in and ask any questions you want, and we're gonna play some music right now. Here comes the new Drake record, right? And then I'll play Drake's song. Uh, and then a phone would ring, and I would answer him like, Yo, number 55. You just won 5 tickets to the Drake show, right? And that, that lasted for decades. And so new for us is like, yo, let's take the concept of radio. Instead of having human hosts, let's have AI host. Instead of one person talking to the host, let's allow thousands, millions of people to talk to the same host and the same broadcast and interrupt it. You know, it's, and I'll show you, I'll show you that right now I play this, uh, Fortune station. You are listening to FYI Radio, where information comes to life. Hey there, Will I Abbott. It's a beautiful day in Alpas maritime. Let's talk a bit about what's happening with TikTok. President Trump has hinted that he might extend the deadline for TikTok's parent company ByteDance to divest the app yet again. It seems this could be the 3rd time he's considering such a move. He's mentioned he might need China's approval, but he's hopeful President Xi will agree. This drama around TikTok. Wait, this drama on TikTok is still popping off? Like, is this different from the, the first band that he did that lasted for like two days and then it's like back on and people are excited. So it's a whole new roller coaster. And secondly, um, When Trump releases his new phone. Is TikTok gonna come native on it? Hey, well, I am, you guys, this TikTok drama isn't quite over, and yes, it sounds like a roller coaster. The whole saga is basically a string of suspenseful deadlines that Trump keeps extending. Seems like we're anticipating a potential 3rd extension of the deadline for TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance. To divest, I'd compare it to being on standby for a sequel or spinoff, just when you think the series might end. Oh, and regarding Trump's new phone, there's no word on TikTok coming preinstalled, but it would be interesting to see if fondness for the translates to. Let's take a pause and enjoy some music. I got to see it. Yo, when was the song released? Who wrote it? Who played the drums on it, uh, what equipment was made to use it? Where does the artist come from? What high school did that artist go to, um, what label put the song out? Um, when I, I know it's a troll soundtrack. When were the trolls originally, uh, released? Who invented the trolls, what toy company makes trolls? Um, uh, yeah, give me all this information on this shit. This is freaking spectacular. It goes electric baby when I turn it on. A In my heart With high And when we in the zone. That sunshine in my pocket. Usually in traditional radio, the song has to play. It's not like a interrupt immediately. They still play song, so we, we still borrow from traditional radio format. And when the song, whenever the DJ in this case, the AI host, wants to then answer my question, it would apply that to the segments like radio. And like radio, it's 40 songs. It's not streaming where you can like pick any song you want, uh, because in my world, radio was the kindest to the artist and streaming is the harshest to the artist. So if I'm gonna make a platform as a musician, I want to make a platform that represents the healthiest side of the music industry. Yeah, well, I know I ran up on time, so I. Yeah, you know, tie this back to the number of CMOs and brands strategists who are here in the audience, um, as we think about the intersection between AI and creativity, what is one mindset shift marketers and creatives need to make if they wanna stay relevant and competitive in this next era of brand building, storytelling, creativity, etc. etc. What does the future hold? I feel a little dystopian right now. It's not dystopia, that's. It's a, it's a shift. But it's not dystopian. Um, It is like, imagine, 00. And shell back. As for the rhythmic backbone. Talented session drummer played the drums on it. The song involves some impressive studio. Emphasizing electronic pop vibes, but specifics like software and instruments remain with the creative wizards behind the curtains. Justin Timberlake hails from Memphis, Tennessee and went to high school at. Jeter Elementary School before taking center stage in music. This track was put out under RCA Records. Speaking of trolls, the toy craze began way back in 1959, invented by a Danish fisherman and woodcutter, Thomas Damn. The original Trolls movie, not the animation, hit theaters in 1986. Now how's that for a treasure chest of trivia? And go different song right so. Alright, well, we'll close this out, look into the future. So I'll answer the question that you asked as far as like um. Before, you know, marketing, marketing is great, but a lot of times marketing will market a product and never think about or care about how that product is going to impact the community that people are consuming that product. So let's say for example cigarettes. People marketed the out of cigarettes, uh, I was killing. And they knew it. But they still market it. Or let's take like um. Products that are filled with uh. Um, ingredients that make us sick. Um, and in America, the same administration that looks after what food we eat also is looking after the drugs we take for the food we eat, which is kind of crazy, um, if you think about it, um. So marketing is not always a good thing. It's great, it's great creativity, um, and and AI or social media, social media is not always a good thing. Um, they misuse data, the your your civil liberties. Um, I, I hope that as AI continues to grow at rapid speeds, that some measures are taken to where it doesn't mimic or borrow from social media's impact on society. What is AI connected to marketing mean? It means that the reason why I paired these two together. When humans market Things that are bad for our community end up killing us. Sometimes we and a lot of times we have like, OK, whatever, that's just business. But when AI does it. Because it understands how to release your dopamine and, and, and, and, and, and manipulate your insecurities to get you to do something and buy something because there's no regulation by companies that are deploying these AIs. That's whack. So That's where it's dystopian, but we're not there yet. And pointed it out, will help, help, help us not get there. But for marketers. Um, And that that market for companies I work with companies that have uh its own marketers. My pattern matching sees that companies that have removed DEI from their practice. Are the companies that will Replace humans of AI. If they kept DEI in their practice, Apple. They wouldn't They wouldn't replace humans with air. So just follow the pattern of DI and then like this new onslaught of agents that will, let's see what departments they're that they're gonna hit first, where the chief of staff's bottom line should not be equal to human resources and finance. Because if the chief of staff's bottom line is like, well, we have to reduce costs. We're gonna get rid of this department and exchange it with AI marketers. That's when you're gonna have with no regulations and no ethics put in place, that's when you have AI making decisions on how to sell products and people will buy products because it understands because it's buying the data from meta and Meta knows everything about you. It's in your DMs, it's in your likes, it's in your your swipes. And your eyes and when you freaking, you know, dilate because you like the product, you looked at a product for so long. Oh my gosh, what the so it's gonna replace finance department. It's gonna replace these departments. So we have to be more human centric. We need to make products that impact communities better. Marketers need to be communiters, not marketers. Because if you're only looking at the marketplace, oh AI is gonna do a better job of that. So it needs marketers to be more empathetic, to be more human, to want the best for the community to thrive, to vibrate, to live better, healthier lives. Absolutely. Well, I think that's a solid place for us to end. Will I am, thank you for giving us a glimpse into what is next. Uh, I genuinely believe that the future of Brandon is written at the crossroads, uh, of innovation and artistry, so thank you yet again. Thank you.

At the Fuel Up with Fortune event in Cannes, Washington Commanders defensive tackle Efe Obada shares how he overcame imposter syndrome after surviving trafficking, homelessness, and life as an undocumented immigrant.

Champion Mindset

Washington Commanders defensive tackle Efe Obada

you know, she alluded to the journey you've been on, and I couldn't even do it justice by trying to explain it, so I'm going to leave it to you and to give us a snapshot of the, I would say a million to 1, it's probably not even a million to 1 from the journey you've been on to where you are now as an NFL star. Tell us briefly about That journey and what you what you've been through to get where you are. I'm so nervous, but. But um thank you all for having me, and it's a pleasure to be here. Um, my name is EL Para. I am a defensive end. I've just finished my 3rd season with the Washington Commanders and um I've been in commander fans over here, um, and I've been in the NFL for the past 10 years. Um, as you can tell by my accent, I'm, I'm English, but I was born in Nigeria and um I think at the age of 5, we emigrated to Holland to meet my mom. And myself and my sister, she has learning difficulties and in that situation it was very hard for a single mom to, you know, look after her and myself and just at the time there just wasn't a lot of facilities and infrastructure to support her needs. So the plan was for us to, you know, move to England and for a better life as you do, um, but things didn't work out. I was, I was left homeless, myself and my sister at the age of 10, and foster care came into. Came into the play, so I grew up in foster care. I bounced from home to home. I've lived with probably more than 10 different families. Um, and because of the way that we were, um, we emigrated to the UK, I was trafficked. um, I was undocumented, um, so I think one time, but I did go to school because it was free and it's, you know, it's Europe, yeah, thankful. Um, but there was a scene and I couldn't go to university, I couldn't work, um. I couldn't do anything really. I couldn't progress my life, um, you know, when and where I grew up, I grew up in South London in a city. um, it was very easy access to certain things in a certain lifestyle, um, and I got caught up in that unfortunately, but it wasn't a means of, it wasn't, uh, because that's who I was and that's my personality. It was just a means of providing and surviving and making sure that my sister had, you know, necessities and needs, you know, as a woman and, and, um, and someone I care and I love I love and just. Um, but I got in trouble, not proud of it. Um, had to sit down for a year, and, um, but it, you know, it took time to reflect, um, and then when I came, when I got back into life, um, I found American football. I met one of my friends and he was, when I met him, he was very skinny, you know, when I saw him and he was huge and You know, so I thought, you know, and where I come from, if, if you, if you're big, you've obviously, you know, done some time and then, you know. So I was like, oh, when did you come out and he's like, no. So he was like, no, um, I play American football. Why don't you come in and try it out? And I had nothing to do at the time I was working in a warehouse, you know, because that's the only job I could get as an undocumented person. It was cash in hand and all those things, um, so I took, took a day off, went to practice, and it was, it was strange. It was like in the, in the blocks in the hood and you know, I saw a group of men wearing pads and helmets and things like that, and I've never seen anything like that. Um, I tried it out. I felt a sense of community and brotherhood immediately because when I hit someone, I thought I did something wrong, but then everybody cheered. They were like, oh I was like, oh yeah, like, do it again. I was like, OK, it. So, um, you know, so and but for me because of where my life was at the time, it was an amazing outlet. It was an amazing part to be a part of a brotherhood and a community like I said, and it gave me that um it was a pay to play league. I had to pay to play, but at the time, you know, it was fun. Um, there was a coach at the time, he was doing an internship at the Dallas Cowboys and, um, with the expansion of the NFL playing in different countries in 2015, Dallas came over to London. And he saw my high my potential and I guess my anger issues and And he spoke to the defensive coordinator at the time and said, Hey, I've got this kid, you know, just to take a look at him if anything happens, you know, whatever. So he phoned me up and said hey, come after practice. I went down there, um, he said, run as fast as you can hit, do everything as fast and as violent as you can, and that's what I did. I didn't have any. Um, you know, we facilities or anything like that. I literally ran in my boxes and hit bags in my boxes and all that stuff and went back to work for nothing of it. The following year, the Dallas Cowboys gave me a call and said they want to sign me to their team and um but then I was like, yeah. But, but then I was like, yeah, that's all great, but I don't have a passport. How the hell am I gonna play in America, you know, but they were able to help me and um, you know, I was able to get documents and uh went out there. I still wasn't as smooth, still had my nose, all my mistakes. I was making the NFL, um, I got released like so many times, but I just kept going. I knew that this was my golden ticket and this is my opportunity to changed my life. And um the average lifespan of an NFL player is 2 to 3 years if you're lucky, and I've been playing for 10 years. So. So as I said, I don't think a million to 1 does it justice really that is so extraordinary and you touched on it yourself, you know, you said there's a certain lifestyle, you know, where you were in South London that you know, a lot of people get suckered into. We've all seen it on news or TV shows or everything. And it makes a lot of sense for the for the people in that environment, right? It, it's not an easy thing to break away from. And you said there was something in you that wasn't. That wasn't about that life, right, so What were your mindsets, and what were the, what were the core mindsets that you were using and the habits that helped you keep going and break out of that and make you think that it's not impossible to break out of that? Um, so I, I believe that we're products of our environment, right, and you know my environment hardened me, you know, I was always in fight or flight mode. I needed to survive. I had someone that. Um, depended on me, which was my sister and I needed to provide for, so everything that I do all the decisions I made with the limited opportunities that I had was for that simple goal just to make sure food was on the table, that she had clothes, that she had sanitary, that she was safe, that she was protected and whatever I needed to do. In order to become that person and, and to, to produce results. I, I did, you know, um, conventionally, if I had means or if I had a passport, if I had, you know, documentation, I would have went a different route. If I was in a different situation, if I had the support and leadership of parents and and and people that cared or mentored me, I would have went a different route, but my, my role models were, you know, unfortunately drug dealers and kept murderers, and that was what I was around. Um, so I, I had to make the most of the means, um, but the mindset was also because I had, I had someone I cared for, I can, and I needed to provide for. It was. It was just survival mode, you know, I just needed to survive. I needed to make sure that. You know, I knew that no one was coming to save me, and that, that mindset allowed me to just make sure that I needed to do what I needed to do in order to survive and provide. Was, was there a specific moment where you thought, where you actively chose to break out of that survival mode and thought, right, I'm I'm gonna focus on, on my growth here, on, on, on my journey and the way I want it to be? Uh Um You can tell I don't, I don't know, it's a great question, but I don't think I haven't experienced what I've experienced, haven't come from where I come from, haven't seen what I've seen that that. Ever goes away, I think growth naturally happens as you age and as you become, you come in different environments and you try new things, but that level of survival, it it never goes away. I know, I don't have a safety net. I am the safety net for a lot of people. I have the safety net for my family, and if I don't wake up and if I don't do what I need to do and be where I need to be and, you know, and make those changes and grow within myself, like everything around me crumbles, you know, and ultimately no one's gonna come and save me. So. Um, that level of survival isn't, and at the same time, it, you know, I love it because it's who's made, what's what made me who I am today. I don't think it, I'm not trying to get rid of that, no. I don't, I don't want to get complacent, yeah, it's still the main driver for you. OK, now, obviously, you know, careers in sports that they're built on a lot of nos, even, you know, this journey that you've had, you must have had. An amount of rejection or amount of nos, like, how do you deal with that and how does that drive you forward? Because we all get nos in our careers, whatever they are. How do you drive yourself forward from from those nos and those setbacks? You face a lot worse, obviously than someone saying, you're not going to play this weekend, you know, you're right. Like at every, at every stage of my life I've experienced knows whether it's, you know, foster carers saying, no, I don't want you to live in my house and packing my stuff and leaving, whereas the UK government saying that we, you know, here's a deportation order and trying to kick me out, you know, um, whether it's McDonald's trying to apply for McDonald's, and they say that they don't want, they don't want me because I'm undocumented, and I'm like, wait, like, I'm not gonna flip a burger, come on. You know, um, yeah, or even in the NFL where coaches have said to my face, like, you know, you will never play it down a sport. Um, I just, I just see it as it's then no isn't my reality. I don't internalize it, you know, um, I just see it as maybe no, not today, or no, not right now, but ultimately I've had to, you know, not take it personal, and I've had to go away and do the work and turn myself into someone that they would say yes to and. I think at this point in my life I'm not really receiving a lot of those. Good, thank you. I think, you know, a lot of people struggle with that, you know, a lot of people, we all face knows and it's kind of easy to kind of go into your shell a bit and like what what would you say to those people who are struggling to get back out there and you know, for them to realize that a no is not a no forever, it's just, you know, no for now. Um, I think what I would say is don't take it personal, you know, and that no isn't your reality. It's, it's, it's not personal and sometimes that no is a delay and you need to do the work, you need to look internally, you need to, you need, and he needs to prepare you for me when I started playing, I made all like so people had was playing the sport from the age of 5 and. You know, they had years of preparation of knowing who they were, knowing what type of player they were, knowing what type of brand they wanted to put out there. I started playing the game at 21 and in at 22 I was in the NFL making all my mistakes, um, learning how to grow, and, um, and it took me 3 years to get on an active roster and that I got so many nos I put I tried out for. Maybe 10 different teams, you know, and I was like this, this team said no, all right, cool, there's, you know, 31 other teams that team said no, there's 30, you know, there's 30 other teams that, so I just kept going and kept, kept being resilient and understanding until one team said yes. And once that team said yes because of those nos, because of my resilience, because of that work ethic, because of not, not accepting that, when I did get my yes I was able to sustain that. I was able to understand the requirements to. You know, and I've already changed myself and molded myself to, to becoming someone that, that, that is worthy and deserving of that yes, you know, you could, like a lot of people can say yes, some a lot of people get yeses off the rip. And but they haven't become that person that deserves or can sustain that, yes, if that makes sense. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So you know, you found your purpose through football, and now you give back to the youth in London through your foundation that we launched shortly and your mentor work with London youth big kids and NFL Academy. How important is having a sense of purpose when when building that resilience and How can companies help their employees connect their work to to a deeper mission in the same way that kind of you have? Um, So initially my, my purpose was, you know, providing, and it always will be and it is, um, just that's just my core, just to be able with someone to provide, um, so. That was my wife. That was my, that was my main driver. I needed to make sure that I can provide for my family, provide for myself, because I know no one's gonna come and save me. So when I got to a point where I achieved that, so it was like, you know, get on the team, make money, save money, all that stuff, when I achieved, when every milestone that I have to achieve it, you know, it, I had to keep look internally and I had to like figure out what my, my, my real purpose was and after I've achieved and I've secured. I guess financial stability, um, I realized that my, my upbringing and the the communities that I live in and my family lives in needs, needs help. It needs role models, it needs a voice, it needs someone that has that can show that listen, it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter where, um, you know that your life experience, it doesn't define you and whatever that dream is, whether it's football, whether it being a doctor, whether you can achieve that, right? So that's why I partner up with these amazing, you know, um, initiatives and programs that do a lot of mentorship, and that's, that's my aim. Like I said, my role models were drug dealers and murderers. So I go back and I want to make sure that. I can be that person that I never had, and I think um I think businesses can do that by. You know, all humans, you know, and working for corporations, but you need to understand your why. Like when you work and you come to work and you go home, like you need to really figure out what your why is, like how can you be leave an impact whether it be in your life, in your family's life, in your community, and if we do that, eventually, like the net starts to widen and then then we really make some real changes, but for at least like you just got to figure out what your why is, you know, and sometimes it's money and it's OK. And but sometimes it can be, you know, I really wanna, where you want to make a real change in this specific area and that's, and that's, that's OK too. Uh, OK, you've openly discussed, uh, mental health mental health in the past and, and self-doubt. So what are the strategies that you've used personally to, to overcome those mental hurdles? Yeah, so as you probably figure out, like just because of my upbringing, I had a lot of demons, I had a lot of issues to deal with. Um, when I went into the NFL, I had a lot of imposter syndrome. I felt like I never belonged like coaches, players, everyone told me that I didn't belong, you know, um. So I had to overcome that and you know I did the conventional thing. I did therapy. I did. You know, uh, you know, all that stuff, and I've, and I've even, I'm not proud of it, but I've even gone left and, you know, self-medicated and did all that stuff. Um, but none of that stuff helped, um, and I think it was when, and I was like, honestly, I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed where I came from. I was embarrassed about my upbringing. I felt ashamed. I didn't want to tell people that I was trafficked. I didn't want to tell people I grew up in foster care. I didn't want to tell people like anything. I just wanted to go to work, put my helmet on, play the game, collect my checks, and go home like I that's, but ultimately like I do some issues and within myself that I hadn't dealt with and it was presenting itself in other ways within my marriage, within my community and all these different things and it wasn't until I started being more vocal about my my upbringing and, and using my, my life as a means of um inspiration and motivation for my communities and the kids that I'm mentoring. That I started to um See some growth and some healing in my mental health because not only did it allow me to own it, it also gave other people that I was communicating the the platform and the confidence to be able to express what they're going through. It might not be the same, but everyone we will go through some stuff like every one of you for you to be here and you've you've had to overcome some hardships. You've had to overcome some nos. Um, but it allowed people to come to me and express that and feel comfortable to express that. So even with my teammates, one time I spoke in front of the team and I shared that because everybody was losing and I wanted everyone to and everyone was turning against each other and I wanted everyone to like understand and I was always smiling. I was always happy because I was like. You know what I mean like who gives it like, like we're we're blessed, you know, and I wanted people to gain that perspective and understand that like we are so blessed to be able to play this sport and to be able to be who we are and have that platform, and I did that and I, and I was very vulnerable and very open and then afterwards like teammates that I've been on the team with for like maybe 2 or 3 years, um. Came to me and they started opening up and that relationship deepened, you know, it wasn't surface level anymore. It wasn't superficial. It was like, you know, I got to know who they were. I got to know their reasons. I got to know their whys and then we just bonded. So I think when I started opening up and owning my truth and living in my life. I was able to, and it just it wasn't this cloud and this thing that was, you know, weighing over me, so I think The expression was, was really heathen for me. That's absolutely inspiring stuff, and it might be too late for a lot of us to make the NFL, but I'm sure we can all apply some of these lessons to our every yeah, do you think so? Yeah, we'll talk. Um yeah, I'm sure we can all take these lessons and apply them to our own everyday life and you know, further our own growth and achievements. But FA Obada, thank you so much. We were going to do a Q and A. I I think you're gonna stick around for a little while. So if you want to speak to, please do. a great guy. Thank you, thank you for listening. I really appreciate it.

In a landscape where consumer trust is fragile and tech investments must deliver ROI, executives face a high-stakes challenge: how to unlock the full value of data without compromising privacy or brand integrity.
At Fuel Up With Fortune in Cannes, Jarrod Martin, CEO of Acxiom & KINESSO, Kaveri Camire, CMO of DXC Technology, and Michael Lacorazza, CMO of U.S. Bank joined Fortune's Ruth Umoh to share candid insights and real-world lessons on rethinking data governance, optimizing investments, and reaching more consumers.

Executives Turning First-Party Data into a Strategic Advantage

Uh, so at Fortune we interview C-suite executives, uh, at Infinitum, and I'm sure you all have heard, uh, the adage that Ze is oil. Data is the new oil. Companies are obsessed with collecting more and more data. I, however, would argue I would posit. That most companies today are actually drowning in data, uh, but starving for insight. So first question, just to kind of level set and kick things off, how are each of you ensuring that your data strategy actually drives measurable performance, uh, and doesn't just become another nebulous call center? Perhaps you can kick this off, Kari. Sure, um, thank you for having all of us here. So for me, I think, uh, you know, I come from 20 to 30 years of just B2B world where everything is data. Data is around how we look at our customers, how we derive value from, uh, the customer set. But I think in my mind right now for my teams, especially in the era of AI that everybody's talking about, we got to really look at. Get rid of the noise, cut the noise, and really sharpen our focus on what truly matters and how you look at data that actually drives value. But for me, the biggest thing of that is customer centricity. There's so much data out there, but I think we've we have to pause and listen. And that's something that we're not doing that much of, and my biggest focus for the team right now is think about what our customers are saying. Think about what our customers want from us. Think about the problems they are looking to solve for, and that's the golden nugget that I want to look at from a data perspective, and there's a ton of technology out there today to advance that and leverage that for real value. Uh, quick follow up there, uh, you. Firm, what are customers telling you? What are they craving? What pain points are you trying to address? Yes, I'll give a quick view. DXC is 120,000 people. It's a global company. We're operate in 60 countries. Fortune 500 Fortune 500 company. Thanks Fortune. And it's, it's really about understanding. We are a global company at scale, but we also are very focused on local excellence, and what I mean by that is there are cultural norm. responses there's data sovereignty. There's so many discussions that are happening, especially around AI right now, but customers are asking for answers. Nobody knows all the answers. There is a lot of hype. There's a lot of promise, but I think for us what's really important is we work with some of the largest brands in the world if it's Mercedes, BMW, Allianz, um, you know, American Airlines United, the data for each of these customers is the life. Line because it's dealing with patients, it's dealing with passengers it's dealing with people's lives and they are asking us, and we're very fortunate that we've lived in the notion of trust. Our customers have trusted us for decades, so we've been around for a long time. We've been through many cycles internet, cloud, mobile, AI is next. Probably Quantum will be the next one, and I think the single thread of focus is we trust you journey after. Journey helping us with the innovation. So that's what they're asking us. Show us the path on how do we advance in AI, but how do we do it ethically and safely? And that's what the trusted left for DXC is really important. Yeah, well, we'll momentarily zero into that to that angle on trust. Curious to hear from you, Michael, how you're using data to really pull out meaningful impactful insights for the US banks. Yeah, I'd love to build on that point around customer centricity. Uh, you know, there, there's no substitute for understanding your customers, what's important to them, what problems you're solving, how they make decisions, how does their journey come to life, and our, our, you know, larger companies like us have massive amounts of data on our on our clients and we um. We have also an expectation that we're going to do something productive with it and something meaningful and valuable to to make the customer experience better. So it starts with that kind of level of understanding and then what we start to think about is what do we know in our data that can help us deliver a superior customer experience that differentiates us in the market. You know what kinds of solutions, products and services are most valuable at what moment in time and you know when are those channels, those touch points when we serve them, and that's that's the foundation of where we start. And then from there it's then analyzing and understanding what signals you have that can enable that because there is, there is a lot of noise and you have to find the nuggets that really make a difference. And when you say signals, what do you mean by that? Yeah, so you know, there might be some examples of how a client is moving, moving money. Um, that could, could signal some sort of a life change where they need a piece of advice or guidance and enabling to do that. And so if we understand that from just how they're working with us, then we can proactively reach out and be of service. I was just going to say like these are all really great points. I think you know advertisers are obsessed with too obsessed with collecting data to your question. And I think focusing on what matters is really important and what drives results and being customer centric is really important as well, so I'm not going to duplicate all of those really great points. What I would say though is on top of that is an enabler of these things is being able to connect the data together. So most advertisers would say they have more than enough data to make decisions, but they don't have it in a form that they can use to make decisions with. And so by connecting that data together, what do I mean by that, creating an identity spine that allows you to connect different lines of business together to connect different touch points between earned and earned media channels that enables you to really recognize the consumer and treat them as an individual and recognize their journey with you. That's really the key for me on top of these great points is having that connected ecosystem that can then power both both personalization at scale but also. Um having a way of Allowing consumers to control their own destiny. So if you've got a single repository of data that's connected, if a consumer wants to opt in or opt out of anything, it's a really simple process to give them that control and to show them in marketing that you're listening to their feedback. I say that that's the whole point. Like, are you listening? You're hearing a lot, but are you actually pausing and listening, and that's your point on like having those connective tissue and the dots of like, let's look at all the different facets and take a minute and listen. Yeah, I mean an example might be like email can be a bit of a bugbear for some people where email doesn't cost much money to send, so everyone gets their inbox spammed, right? But email might pick up signals from the consumer about who they are and what they like. Let's just say they opt out of that email. Now what the smart thing is to do is to not send them any more emails, but. But then recognize what you've learned from those emails to better inform the other channels that they still want to speak to you through. If you do that, you're managing the best of both worlds. You're creating the customization, but also the control. Uh, Kaveri brought up trust earlier and that's really at the crux of this conversation. So let's lean in, uh, there, Michael. I want to turn to you. US Bank, obviously, uh, a financial institution ostensibly highly regulated, so you cannot afford to treat data carelessly. Uh, what is your internal scorecard for evaluating third party data partners and, and just what's your overall framework for trust, for quality, for compliance, and how that shapes your marketing? Yes, and at US Bank, trust is at the center of our brand. And it's one of those, it's one of those elusive type of, you know, emotional connections where it takes a really long time to earn it and if you make a mistake you can lose it really, really quickly and data and caring for that data is at the center of that and the expectation that we will care for it, so. With respect to how we onboard third party data, we have a very, we have very well established processes and procedures to to to evaluate, you know, the veracity of the chain of control. Do we have the proper usage rights, do we have the proper, you know, IP protections and so forth, and, and so for for a partner that ends up in our ecosystem, you know, they, it's a pretty high bar. Uh, let me turn over to you, uh, Jared, because you, you alluded to this at the top of the conversation. Everyone is chasing personalization at scale. I think we're in the era of hyper personalization. What does it actually take to do that well, kind of make this really sticky for for those in the room? Yeah, I mean, personalization at scale is an easy thing to say. It's a difficult thing to do. I think we talked about creating a connected data environment to enable that personalization. That's a really key infrastructural element. I think we also talked about marrying the personalization with the control that the consumer has so that they can opt in or opt out whatever they like. I think the other thing to think about is that a lot of advertisers might personalize because they can, not because they should, and I think we should think about what elements of personalization are actually driving results versus what elements are driving complexity. The way I think about things is, is we need to bifurcate our thinking between how we operate as a business, as an advertiser versus how we appear to an end consumer. We can be increasingly sophisticated under the water. But we need to be increasingly simple above the water and increasingly customized to that consumer. So personalization at scale is around simplifying the end user experience, focusing on what matters to that consumer, while having complex decision logic and data sets to sit underneath that. A similar question for you could vary, you know, Seeds, as you already noted works with clients like Mercedes-Benz, like United Airlines, uh, like Lincoln Financial. These are all brands with vast and complex, uh, data ecosystems. So how are you helping them to unlock value while still balancing innovation with integrity? Yeah, so I think this goes back to what you were saying. Um, I think we would not exist if our customers. did not trust us and value us for taking them to these risk-driven journeys, uh, in technological advancement. tech is moving at such a crazy pace and such a fast pace. Um, the way we look at DXC and how we are operating with all of our customers is, uh, it's not just about ROI, it's trust ROI. Because if we don't have that trust ROI, it's not going to work for us. We have governments, we have, uh, you know, like I was saying, we have airlines where lives of passengers matter. We have banks where people's, uh, you know, money is sitting in those banks, and I think a slight glitch in the system is not just unacceptable, it is existential. You can't operate in an environment where you don't have that. So from a marketing perspective, I'll just say something as simple as we just had a client advisory council a couple of months ago where we brought closed door sessions, something it's sometimes it's even nice to just go to simple things that existed in the past that we don't do anymore. Let's get in a room, talk to our customers. And I asked them a simple question, where you're headed? What is your biggest challenge? And the third was, how do you like to communicate with us and how do you communicate on a daily basis? What is the tool or the platform that you use the most? Is it long lead blogs? Is it videos, is is a text? You will not believe they all said we don't want long form things first. We would prefer to look at videos, and this is C-suite, CIOs, CTOs, CEOs. Time is money, and they're constrained. So I think those are the things that we're starting to do is really listen to hear how our customers who are some of the most, you know, in the most mission critical spaces are consuming information. They all said video, start with small video. Give us the TikTok version of the story, and then if you want to lean in more, we will come to you. They want digestible. You said you also asked that cohort, what are the biggest challenges and obstacles? What did they say were the were the pain points, any trends that emerged there? So in the room without naming, there were banks. There was a bakery, believe it or not, they are using robotics to distribute thousands and thousands of loaves of bread. And they are all trying to figure out how do they drive efficiency with AI. A lot of them have very private focused networks with an AI right now because they're not kind of sure yet of is their data going to be exposed. So this goes back to my point where they are working with us and leaning on us to show them, uh, opportunities and direction of. Take advantage of AI, but our goal is to take advantage of AI in the right ethical way, which is going to take them to the next level. So that was a big question like show us how, how do you find the balance uh between helpful personalization and perceived surveillance, you know, the, the privacy conversation, and he thought, Michael, and I'd actually be curious to hear from all of you. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, well, you know, surveillance is for me if defined you're listening in in a in a sort of cynical way, right? And um with with if if we get personalization right, we're listening to our clients, we know it's important to them and we're using the data and the signals to to improve their experience with us to deepen those relationships, um. You know, I, there are several examples out there where, you know, one was, you know, a woman was shopping for, you know, one particular item and it signaled that maybe she was pregnant and then the brand starts to serve diapers and it's like to me that's that's crossing the line, right? And that's like that could be felt as too invasive and personal and surveillance, but But um, but if you but if you find a way to do it where um you're delivering value, you know, value exchange for the information that you're acting on, then you've kind of got it dialed in. Let's talk financial metrics um as as as we begin to wrap this up, uh, what would you say is the most important question a CMO or even a CEO should ask before making their next big data, uh, or more tech investment? I would say um. Is it going to simplify and connect what I have today, or is it going to complicate and further add cost to my business? I think when we talk about marketing ROI, we talk about the cost of the communication versus the benefit that that communication drives. What we don't talk about is the underlying cost of the infrastructure that's used to create those communications, and we don't actively manage the total cost to try to make it work better for us. If we can unlock the billions of dollars that are spent in Martech around the world. And make those work harder for us. That marketing ROI on a net net basis will go through the roof. I have two simple things I ask my team all the time. Show me how it's going to get us closer to the customer. Show me. Give me examples right off the bat. And the second one is, um, let's not just invest for investment's sake. Ask yourself what's the outcome that you're getting at, because I think sometimes we're All just moving at such hyperbolic speed that we're not stopping and thinking, what am I trying to get at and what these are some very basic questions, but I think oftentimes to your point where you said, we're investing and we're not thinking about it, you have to ask yourself what is the outcome that we want to get at, um, you know, and for us it's global. Most of our implementations and executions are global, so you've got to really, really be thoughtful about what's your outcome. Call us out, please. Yeah, so. I would say before you you contemplate adding on any sort of analysis tool or technology on top of what you're trying to achieve, is your, do you have the right data sets and are they in the right condition and format to be able to act upon? Because if you don't have that foundation in place, then you can put any fancy technology, AI, whatever on top of it and it won't matter. So you start getting that, get in that place first, then you can start to begin to contemplate what you put on top. Fantastic way to end. thank you all, uh, lots of great takeaways. Uh, trust is not optional when it comes to data and you have to be outcome oriented, really cutting out the noise. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

At Fortune’s exclusive Fuel Up With Fortune panel in Cannes, a cohort of powerhouse women CMOs discuss how they're reinventing brand storytelling and what it means to build a brand in the digital era. Fortune's Ruth Umoh was joined by Global Chief Client Officer at Monks, Deborah Heslip, Chief Digital Officer at Diageo, Susan Jones, Chief Marketing Officer at Autodesk Dara Treseder, and Chief Digital Officer at E.L.F Beauty Ekta Chopra.

How Women Are Using Tech, Data, and Bold Ideas to Build the Brands of Tomorrow

Elite leadership isn’t just about vision—it’s about action, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of growth. At Fortune’s exclusive Fuel Up With Fortune panel in Cannes, Snap Inc. EMEA President Ronan Harris and Mars Wrigley North America President Anton Vincent share their top leadership learnings and what truly sets outperformers apart.

Elite Leadership: Unlocking Growth at the Top

Elite Leadership: Unlocking Growth at the Top Pannel at Cannes

At the Fuel Up With Fortune panel in Cannes, Snap Inc. EMEA President Ronan Harris and Mars Wrigley North America President Anton Vincent share their top leadership learnings.

Fuel up with Fortune, Cannes 2025

Fireside Chat with Will.i.am

Latest video

Artificial intelligence is reshaping creativity, branding, and storytelling from the inside out. In an exclusive conversation at Fuel Up With Fortune in Cannes, Will.i.am, the founder and CEO of FYI.AI, shares how his platform is using technology to drive innovation and empower communities.

Videos (5 videos)

Fireside Chat with Will.i.am

Champion Mindset

Executives Turning First-Party Data into a Strategic Advantage

How Women Are Using Tech, Data, and Bold Ideas to Build the Brands of Tomorrow

Elite Leadership: Unlocking Growth at the Top