- AI is transforming creative agency workflows, redistributing effort from execution to high-value strategy, taste, and storytelling, where true differentiation lives.
- Efficiency isn’t the endpoint; impact is. As AI accelerates the expected, agencies must refocus on elevating ambition, creativity and outcomes that AI alone can’t deliver.
- Clients shouldn’t pay for hours; they should pay for impact. The new agency math is about doing more with the time AI saves, not just doing it faster.
Let’s start with the obvious: time has always been money in the agency world. But in the age of AI, we need to update the equation. Too many brands and even agencies are equating faster with cheaper – and that’s a false equivalence that will erode creativity and value delivered.
The AI reckoning is upon us
Every agency is now reckoning with the same shift. AI has entered the chat…and the meeting, the brainstorm, the pitch, the render farm, the edit suite, the CMS. It’s automating the routine, accelerating the expected and fundamentally changing where we invest our hours, our dollars and our people.
Automation and AI are accelerating workforce reductions across agencies – Forrester projects a 15% reduction in 2026. As Forrester says, “This shift is not just about efficiency – it’s about transformation.”
This transformation is fundamental to the skillsets we require and develop; the order of workflow and the tools at each point; and resetting expectations for clients and with our colleagues.
It’s easy to see the new math of AI as just subtraction, but that scenario is a lose-lose for all involved. The truth is much more nuanced – and vital for everyone to embrace.
AI changes where the work happens
While AI does introduce efficiency, it’s not always in a straightforward “faster equals better” way. I’d argue that AI actually reveals mediocrity and bad craft, leaving the unoriginal nowhere to hide.
The truth is that AI hasn’t eliminated strategic and creative work – it’s redistributed it. The hours we used to spend executing are now hours we must spend elevating. On higher order strategy. On taste. On storytelling. On ethical thinking. On emotional intelligence. On taking big swings.
Because creativity is no longer just about delivery – it’s about discernment.
Yes, some tasks can (and should) be accelerated by AI – but others demand the same careful craft, judgement and expertise. AI lets ideas take shape in ways that were previously impossible or prohibitively time-consuming, but the work still demands the same careful craft and oversight.
The new calculus of agency value
The rise of AI means agency economics can no longer be measured solely in hours. The whole concept of timelines needs to be reconsidered because:
- Some work accelerates, like initial mockups, research or early visualizations
- Other work remains complex, such as high-level strategy and creative refinement
- Value grows with complexity because when the work is more ambitious, the hours spent may be the same, but the potential value rises
Pricing should reflect this: clients aren’t paying for speed alone. They’re paying for expertise applied to where it creates the most impact.
At Park & Battery, we talk about this as Data with Soul. Yes, we use AI to help move faster and smarter. But the soul? That’s human. That’s where our value lives. Not in how fast we make, but in how deep we think. How boldly we show up. How brave the work becomes when machines take on the grunt work and we take on the brave work.
Ask not how long, but how much
AI is reshaping how agency work comes together. Time can be spent differently, ideas can be explored more fully and decisions can be made with greater confidence far earlier in the process. For clients, this changes how work can be experienced and assessed – because even when timelines are similar, the swings we take at the ball can be bigger and the outcomes can be more impactful.
This new math emphasizes value in ways that go beyond hours, instead creating opportunities to do work that was previously out of reach and to discover what value true agency expertise can create.
This is the new agency math is this:
AI might save you hours. A great agency earns you impact.
So the question we should be asking isn’t how much time did it take?
It’s how much did we do with the time we saved?
