I run in circles where agencies used to be king. Creative, branding, copywriting, design, dev — bundle it up, bill it big, scale with people. That’s the model I came up in. I’ve worked for them, with them, and even built one myself.
But now I’m watching that model quietly — and sometimes not so quietly — fall apart. The culprit? AI.
And I don’t mean the flashy demos on Twitter or the “write me a poem” fluff. I’m talking about real tools replacing real services.
Clients Are Asking New Questions
Two years ago, a founder might’ve asked, “Can you build me a pitch deck for investors?”
Now? They ask, “Can ChatGPT do this?”
And the answer is: kind of. But even kind of changes the math.
When clients can generate a brand voice, summarize a market report, write 30 Instagram captions, and mock up a homepage wireframe in under an hour — the question becomes, “Why am I paying an agency $10K+ for this?”
It’s not that AI always gets it right. It’s that it gets it close enough to challenge the value proposition of agencies built on time and deliverables.
What Used to Be Billable Isn’t Anymore
I’ve seen agencies whose entire model was based on content calendars, ad copy, product descriptions, and blog post packages. Now those things are half-automated. Clients still want human polish — but they expect speed, scale, and AI-enhanced pricing.
Same goes for UX flows, visual design options, brand strategy docs. We used to bill for discovery phases, brainstorming sessions, and early iterations. Today, AI can produce 80% of those raw materials in seconds.
That shifts client expectations. Dramatically.
Team Structures Are Changing
Agencies were built to scale with people — more work meant more headcount. But with AI, the ratio breaks. I’ve seen one-person brand shops run circles around five-person creative teams because their AI stack handles first drafts, outlines, email sequences, moodboards, and more.
I’m not saying people are replaceable. I’m saying AI changes the leverage. A strategist with a prompt library is more dangerous than a team without one.
Agencies that don’t lean into AI augmentation are going to get outpaced — not because they’re less creative, but because they’re slower and more expensive.
So, What’s the New Value?
If you run an agency (or are thinking of starting one), here’s the shift I’m betting on:
- From labor to leadership — clients don’t just want you to do the work, they want you to guide it.
- From deliverables to direction — AI can generate content, but it can’t decide what’s worth saying. That’s where strategy lives.
- From headcount to headspace — your agency wins when it becomes the thinking partner, not just the output factory.
Final Thought
AI isn’t killing agencies. It’s killing lazy ones. It’s killing bloated ones. It’s killing the ones that charged for things people can now get in a Chrome extension.
But the ones who adapt — who build faster, think deeper, and lead smarter — those are the agencies of the next wave.
I’ve stopped selling time. I sell clarity, systems, and outcomes. The future’s not less human. It’s more augmented. And it’s already here.
