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AI Disrupts Agency Production: Brands In-house Execution, Agencies Face Revenue Risk
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Storyboard•02-10-2026, 08:47
AI Disrupts Agency Production: Brands In-house Execution, Agencies Face Revenue Risk
- •AI could shift 35-50% of mid-tier agency production work in-house within 12-24 months, impacting agencies reliant on manual tasks like resizing and localization.
- •Agencies billing for hourly manual production work are seeing revenue disappear as brands build internal AI-led content capabilities.
- •The future for agencies lies in becoming strategic and technology partners, guiding clients' internal AI systems rather than focusing on execution.
- •Routine production costs are plummeting as AI enables tasks like resizing 50 ad variants in seconds, collapsing traditional hourly billing models.
- •While big creative ideas and shoots remain with agencies, routine content is increasingly handled internally, leading to potential consolidation in agency rosters.
Key Questions Answered
Artificial intelligence could put between 35% and 50% of mid-tier and transactional agency production work at risk of moving in-house or being disintermediated over the next 12 to 24 months.
The shift is expected to hit production-heavy models hardest, particularly businesses dependent on execution-led tasks like ad adaptations, resizing, localisation, and social assets traditionally billed by manpower and hours.
As AI turns routine production into commodity software that completes tasks in seconds instead of hours, the hourly billing model collapses. Clients are now pushing for lower fees, with simple adaptation costs falling by half or more.
