My predictions on AI use in creative agencies - AI is no longer a 'nice to have'

AI agents are coming and no one can truly say how they'll change marketing, agencies and account management roles by 2030.

But one thing I'm certain about is there's never been more of an urgent need to use the AI tools we have available on a daily basis so we are adapting our skills with the changes.

Here's a quick overview with some thoughts and observations on AI's impact and some short-term actions to take for those in account management (this is just my opinion and I'd love to hear your view so please send me your thoughts, or comment below.)

AI predictions for impact on the general job market

Depending on who you listen to, predictions range wildly from "AI won't replace you, but someone with AI skills will," (Paul Roetzer, Marketing AI Institute, early 2024) to "AI will replace you" (Daniel Priestley, Entrepreneur, Feb 2025) - and everything in between.

Paul has recently been quoted as saying "I believe that we are entering a phase where enterprises are going to realise the urgency to re-skill and up-skill their workforces."

According to the World Economic Forum's 'Future of Jobs 2025' report, 41% of employers expect to downsize their workforce as AI capabilities (to replicate roles) expand.

Klarna's CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in a recent Bloomberg interview “I am of the opinion that AI can already do all of the jobs that we, as humans, do. It’s just a question about how we apply it and use it".

AI's impact on our clients in marketing

AI is changing the way businesses market their brands. This week Accenture has launched AI agents that help B2B marketers make quick decisions by analysing performance metrics, providing strategic insights, automating workflows and optimising campaigns - all with a speed and proficiency not possible before.

The benefits for our clients include:

• Greater certainty with which they're able to predict marketing campaign outcomes e.g. Quid
• Increased speed at which they can find insights e.g. Quantilope, produce/run/adapt campaigns
• Cost savings as some clients take certain marketing tasks in house (which once they'd contract the services of an agency for) e.g. Jasper

AI's impact on agencies

One of the most disruptive elements of AI to the traditional agency business model is pricing by the hour (which I personally think is long overdue).  As pricing expert Tim William's said in my podcast interview 'what are you going to do, price by the nanosecond'?

Our clients are using the AI tools themselves and their expectations for how quickly things can be done now is changing (it's already hard enough for account managers to manage client expectations for how long things take!).

According to the Media Outlook Survey 2025, independent marketing agencies in the UK expect a 4.5% growth rate (just 1.8% adjusted for inflation) in 2025 - which points to a need for finding more ways to be efficient and innovate.

According to Gartner by 2027 mobile app usage is projected to decline by 25% due to AI-driven interactions - how will this affect app development agencies?

AI's impact on account management

AI is no longer just a tool to enhance your agency's productivity it's important to be immersed in its capabilities for helping clients reach their marketing goals too.

In the short term account managers can be using AI for efficiencies for their project management tasks (if your role is hybrid) but we need to also use it to help us deepen our relationships with clients, align ourselves more closely to what's happening in their business and become more strategically valuable.

• Invest more time in seeking ways to strengthen relationships with 'growth' clients particularly. According to Accenture Life Trends 2025 report, 60.8% of people want face to face interactions e.g. if you have that 'whale' client (i.e. dominates your revenue) based in another country, yes continue having Teams/Zoom calls but why not invest in a face to face meeting at least once this year?
• Use AI tools like Crystal Knows to understand more about the client's preferred communication style so you can adapt yours
• Use AI tools like Google's Notebook LM to help you quickly synthesise reams of client business information so you can appear informed about what's happening in their world and find account growth opportunities (see my previous email for a use case)

 In the short to medium term, AI will undoubtedly reduce the tedious bits—generating performance reports, tracking projects and client communications, coming up with baseline copy and creative concepts quickly etc.This should liberate human account managers to become more creative, strategic, and relationship-focused than ever before - and who knows this will perhaps demand more of a premium price in the longer term too as people want to deal with humans rather than AI agents. Subscribe to the podcast for more AI insightsComing up on the Creative Agency Account Manager podcast we'll have a few AI-themed episodes starting with "How GenAI is transforming pharma marketing and healthcare communications" so watch out for that - particularly if you're working in a healthcare agency or have clients in the healthcare industry.Are you and your team ready?