The water level is rising

There’s a lot of talk about AI “coming” for agencies. A flood, ready to pull them under. I don’t buy it.

There’s no flood. But the water level is rising. And when that happens, you either move to higher ground, or you quickly realise how low you were standing.

If a tool can suddenly replace a chunk of what you sell, that value was already on shaky ground. AI’s just made that harder to ignore.

You can see how we got here. Parts of the industry have drifted into selling output. More stuff, faster, cheaper. Strategy gets squeezed because it’s harder to price, or even given away to win the contract. That works for a while. Until it doesn’t.

It’s not a phenomenon. Once your work is easy to replicate, you’re no longer that differentiated. You’re one of many options. It's always been that way. Now one of those options just happens to be a machine.

The opportunity sits higher up. Clients aren’t suddenly expecting something new. If anything, they’re going back to basics. They want help making decisions. They want someone to say, “This is worth doing. This isn’t.” They’re looking for a bit of judgment.

And that sits higher up the value ladder. Some agencies have been climbing it for years. Others are still on the lower rungs. But the path up is there.

AI makes it harder to stay where you are. So it may be time to start climbing.