CEOs explain the benefits of using a proprietary OS

“Great to see you as always,” comes the reply from Michael Treff, CEO of Code and Theory. This casual beachside exchange at Cannes Lions 2025 sets the stage for a conversation at Stagwell Beach with real substance. Not about hype, but about how technology is transforming marketing workflows and what it takes to connect creativity, data, and culture at scale.

Asked what feels different this year, Treff doesn’t hesitate. “By far the hottest temperature year for sure,” he jokes. “But the real difference is how much is happening outside, so many more conversations, and so many more people.”

“We have a lot more technology here. A lot more CTOs. And a lot more talk not just about data for marketing, but data for business enablement.”

Treff points to a wider trend across the festival: the collapsing of traditional departmental silos. “We’re seeing convergence between marketing, data, tech, and product. That’s a great thing.”

The Machine

This convergence is exactly what The Machine, Stagwell’s proprietary AI-enabled OS, is built to support. “We’re building The Machine to connect people, data, and tools. It’s our work orchestration tool,” Treff explains.

Rather than functioning as a standalone product, The Machine is designed to sit at the center of how agencies and clients work together, whether in single or multi-agency engagements.

“We’re integrating our data, media, creative, insight, research, with client data in a clean proprietary environment,” he says. “The goal is to build an orchestration layer that connects our teams with client teams, bringing data and enablement into the actual place where people do the work. Whatever software you’re on, whatever stack you’re using, we bring the insights to you.”

Treff is clear on the value proposition: automation isn’t about reducing quality; it’s about reallocating time. “We want to shift time away from labor-intensive deliverables to imagination, orchestration, and control over the work we’re creating,” he explains.

The Machine is built on an open architecture, meaning it can integrate with tools clients already use, Adobe among them. “We have a great relationship with Adobe,” he says. “Workfront will be a key component; it’s the glue that enables the orchestration layer.”

Open architecture

But Treff is equally emphatic that integration doesn’t stop at the big-name platforms. “Because it’s open architecture, we want to integrate the proprietary tools we have within Stagwell, and Locate is a central thesis of that.”

Locate, Locaria’s platform for transcreation, research, and localization, allows teams to manage adaptation without breaking the creative flow.

“Why is that important?” Treff asks. “Because we’re tying transcreation and asset specificity into one workflow, from upstream insight and audience development, to brief creation, brand platform concepting, all the way through.”

Freeing time

Treff is cautious about focusing too much on individual software. “Everyone’s asking, ‘Are you using this tool or that one?’ And honestly, I think that’s the wrong approach.”

“The tools will get there, whether we build them or someone else does,” he says. “There are 25, 45, 100 new tools a day. We’re focused on integrating and orchestrating them so that they interact with our clients and businesses without forcing them to change everything to fit our stack.”

When asked about the future balance between human and machine, Treff is direct.

“We’re all lying to ourselves if we say there won’t be an impact on labor,” he says. “Of course there is.” But he stresses that it’s not about replacement, it’s about refocus.

“Let the machines do the things that take too long, that are uninspiring, that aren’t value-additive to clients,” he says. “That frees up time for imagination, real concepting, real strategic insight, things that move the business needle. We want humans focused on orchestration, connecting teams, workflows, data, and tools. And making sure we understand what we want our humans to be doing and maximizing that.”

Bespoke, specific

Ben brings the conversation back to language and culture. “In the language world, only 1% of content is translated,” he explains. “That’s why many languages go extinct. But with AI, we can now create any piece of content, in any language, at any moment in time. That’s never been possible before.”

Ben says this is a major step forward. “Today, it’s often just changing the language or visuals. But by connecting downstream transcreation with upstream insight, we can create entire bespoke pieces of content for specific targets in specific markets.”

He adds: “We focus less on linear translation, more on the irrational, unpredictable human aspect of language.”

And, Treff concludes: “We don’t want the telephone game of asset creation. We want a bespoke, specific, and purposeful asset for that moment, for that person.”