Every year, the 4As Look Ahead gives us a chance to step back from the day-to-day and ask a bigger question: Where is our industry really headed, and how do agencies prepare for what comes next?
This year, we wanted to go further to ensure the Look Ahead wasn’t just about the industry, but truly from the industry, for the industry.
Over the past several months, we’ve spoken with agency CEOs and senior leaders, brand marketers, consultants and experts across the ecosystem. We also drew on the insight of our own teams and the many conversations I’ve had on the road with agency leaders across the country.
What made these conversations especially intriguing, and often illuminating, was how clearly the themes surfaced from very different vantage points.
Vineet Mehra, Chime
As Vineet Mehra, CMO, Chime puts it, “We’re in the middle of the biggest platform shift our industry has ever seen—this AI shift—and we’re completely recalibrating what value looks like. Instead of selling hours, agencies have got to productize growth-oriented outcomes.”
Michael Frohlich, WPP
On the other hand, the place of strategic partnership seems more crucial than ever, as Michael Frohlich, Chief Marketing and Corporate Affairs Officer, WPP shares, “Our future role is to be indispensable strategic partners for our clients. We have to help them navigate a phenomenally complex, AI-driven world, and we are evolving from a service provider to really a growth partner for our clients.”
Together, these perspectives underscore the choices agencies are grappling with and the opportunity to define their own path forward. What emerged was not a single prediction, but a clearer picture of the choices agencies are facing. At the center of the 4As Look Ahead 2026 are two dominant trajectories shaping the agency landscape.
On one end is the agency as strategic partner: deeply human, insight-led and focused on creativity, judgment and cultural understanding. On the other is the agency as marketing purveyor—platform-led, tech-enabled and increasingly productized for scale and efficiency. Most agencies aren’t living at one extreme or the other. Instead, many are navigating a growing middle ground, where AI, data and creativity converge into a new kind of tech-enabled strategic partner.
Abbey Klaassen, Dentsu Creative
As Abbey Klaassen, US CEO and Global Brand President, Dentsu Creative and 4As Board Chair notes, “Agencies that connect creativity, technology and media to build systems that scale, evolve and perform, are the ones that are going to thrive. Being interoperable by design and not a walled garden is really important.”
Rather than directing agencies toward either path, this year’s Look Ahead invites you to explore these models side by side, compare perspectives and determine what makes the most sense for your business, your clients and your people. In a moment when certainty is in short supply, clarity comes from understanding the landscape, and your place within it. The 360° insights featured in our Look Ahead 2026 will help you find this clarity and chart your path forward.
What also makes this year’s Look Ahead different is how it’s experienced. In addition to the downloadable report, we’ve created a richer digital experience with expanded context and video interviews, allowing you to engage with the insights in the way that’s most useful to you. Some content is exclusive to 4As members, reflecting our ongoing commitment to delivering meaningful, member-only value.
At its core, the 4As Look Ahead 2026 helps agencies see around the corner and navigate what’s next. I hope you explore the Look Ahead, engage with the perspectives and use it as a tool to spark conversations inside your organization. The future of agencies isn’t predetermined, but it is being shaped right now. By design and not by default.
Author
Justin Thomas-Copeland is the CEO of 4As.
