Neither vision is right or wrong. Both are real and both are accelerating. Many agencies will lean toward one future or the other, depending on factors such as scale, capital access, talent mix and client needs.
But there is also a middle path. A path which is growing in importance and scale. A path that many an independent and new agency models are vying to make their own. And technology is enabling this to happen at speed and at scale.
The Venn diagram below indicates where technology and creativity overlap—agencies as tech-enabled strategic partners. These are organizations that fuse data-informed creativity with consultative problem-solving, using AI to enhance, not replace, human imagination. Success is measured in outcomes, but driven by insight and originality.
In speaking with agency heads at all points of the size and ownership spectrum we see a shift in agencies sharpening and clarifying their specialties so they are clear on where they compete and can offer clients unique value. They build ecosystems which offer them flexibility and the ability to navigate this new future – from workflow, to content production platforms, to data and analytics stacks, to defining their AI tool stack. And they also form partnerships with other specialists—connecting using AI—to scale seamlessly around client opportunity.
We would be remiss not to mention talent and its importance in any model.
While there are predictions of further staff reductions across our industry, there is a growing understanding of the need to recast roles within agencies as well as deploy new team formations.
Agencies will need to relearn the rules of attracting, upskilling and retaining the best talent. And rewriting processes where humans and machines work together.
And team formations will evolve. Data and creative will partner more closely, workflow and strategy will define strategy and execution routes together, and integrated analytics will bring a new accountability to creators, who will have deeper partnerships with agencies.