Under mild reaction conditions with inexpensive cerium and nickel catalysts, easily accessible free alcohols can now be utilized as operationally simple and robust carbon pronucleophiles in selective C(sp3)-C(sp2) cross-couplings. Facilitated by automated high-throughput experimentation, sterically encumbered benzoate ligands have been identified for robust cerium complexes, enabling the synergistic cooperation of cerium catalysis in the emerging metallaphotoredox catalysis. A broad range of free alcohols and aromatic halides can be facilely employed in this transformation, representing a new paradigm for the C(sp3)-C(sp2) bond construction between free alcohols and aryl halides with the extrusion of formaldehyde. Moreover, mechanistic investigations have been conducted, leading to the identification of a tribenzoate cerium(III) complex as a viable intermediate.