By Heather Bollinger, CRO, Vurvey Labs
There is no sugarcoating that agencies are in the midst of the most dramatic restructuring in decades, dealing with massive consolidation, layoffs, and are being forced to reckon with the AI future and what it will mean. Most people have a dark view of the future of agencies, but I think that the future of agencies will look different, not worse.
Taken on the surface, the news lately on agencies looks like a contraction. But that’s only part of the picture. The future worth betting on is that agencies are reconfiguring, not disappearing. The next chapter of agency growth will be driven by distributed, AI powered creative engines embedded within them that make humans stronger and teams able to be more creative.
What we are witnessing is less about agencies dying and more about them reinventing themselves for a new agentic economy.
From Consolidation to Creation: What the Data Really Says
The forces reshaping agencies are not simply cost-cutting measures, they are a response to how brands market and how consumers behave.
Global advertising spend forecasts show 2025 ad spend rising above expectations, fueled in part by efficiencies unlocked through AI tools that give brands better insights, faster execution and more targeted reach.
The shift toward smarter and more efficient use of media budgets is a huge opportunity for agencies that can act as creative technologists building teams of agentic workforces that remove much of the tactical execution while keeping human creativity (I will concede on the McDonald’s and Coke AI holiday ads, but I believe that was more about earned media opportunity than AI as the new Creative Director. And also they weren’t very good.)
AI Inside Agencies: Not a Replacement, But a Force Multiplier
In conversations across the industry, it’s clear to me that in most cases, AI is being used to augment human creativity and strategic insight, not replace it. Think about research as an example. You can now draft a brief, push it live into the field of Human and AI Populations, ask it questions, make changes to your product, and go to your executive team with all of the data you need to launch a new ice cream flavor or running shoe in a matter of days. This is work that used to take weeks.
McKinsey’s research shows that the largest economic impact of AI will come from human-AI collaboration, not replacement. By restructuring work around people, agents, and automation working in concert, U.S. organizations could unlock up to $2.9 trillion in value by 2030 (McKinsey Global Institute, Human–AI Skill Partnerships, Nov 2025).
Imagine an agency where AI helps them to craft their audience, simulate campaign outcomes before rollout, automate repetitive tasks, optimize creative formats for dynamic contexts, and create reporting so that you know your performance before you even launch.
This type of innovation makes agencies more strategic and more valuable. If we view AI as an internal partner that can free human teams to focus on strategy, culture, ideas, and creativity, we can build better teams that have more free time for creative thinking.
The New Agency Model: Autonomous Innovation
As AI becomes embedded across agencies, we’ll see the first autonomous companies long before anyone expects it. Not a robot CEO but human teams that are powered by networks of agents that run core loops like research, concept, planning, forecasting and scenario testing in an always on manner. Imagine an agency where the system never idles, and while we sleep the strategic works continues.
As this becomes normal, corporate roles shift fast. Jobs stop being about translation and status updates. They evolve into orchestration. People oversee networks of agents carrying the work, while the human advantage becomes sharper: judgment, taste, emotional intelligence, and the ability to manage outcomes with clarity. The people who thrive are the ones who can connect dots, guide the system, and lead with instinct.
A Bright Future Built on Human + Machine Collaboration
The headlines are talking about layoffs and consolidation, but underneath those stories is a transformation that will birth a new kind of agency that is faster, smarter, and more adaptive. Instead of measuring agency success by volume of output or time and materials, the next generation will be defined by how well they translate data into meaning, how effectively they blend human intuition with machine precision and how creatively they engage people throughout the process.
In this future, media and creative agencies will still matter, they’ll just look different. The winners won’t be the largest hold cos based solely on size, they will be the ones that can orchestrate with AI.
