Agency as Strategic Partner
The "Agency as Strategic Partner" model sees the commoditization of execution through AI and client in-housing, with agencies in the role of irreplaceable strategic advisor and co-author of client transformation. This future is built on a focus on human capabilities (judgment, cultural insight, storytelling) as the new IP, elevating human ingenuity above algorithms. This also rewires the business model, shifting compensation from billable hours and execution to monetizing strategic impact, creative IP and advisory value via outcome-based partnerships. Success requires rebuilding around the human differentiator—cultivating strategic polymaths who can connect technology, truth and business action—and helping leaders grasp the governance and talent implications of AI.
The following sections provide the necessary guidance and context to navigate this emerging landscape as a strategic partner in 2026 and beyond, incorporating insights from agency leaders and subject matter experts.
Feel free to explore the Agency as Marketing Purveyor model at any time.
Justin Thomas-Copeland
CEO
Agency As Strategic Partner: AI, Strategy, Innovation
As trusted stewards of client transformation, agencies embrace organizational transformation for clients, helping brands design AI operating models, enterprise roadmaps, ethical frameworks and adaptive org structures — including the governance of autonomous brand agents that will soon represent them across digital ecosystems.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Co Author Playbooks
Partner with clients to design enterprise AI roadmaps tied to business KPIs and risk.
Don’t wait to be briefed—write the brief together. Partner with clients to design agency + client enterprise AI roadmaps including custom-trained or fine-tuned models that are tied to business KPIs and risk appetite. Schedule quarterly value reviews that track both ROI and risk exposure. This reframes the agency from vendor to partner in transformation, helping brands navigate technology with clarity and confidence.
Measure Beyond Metrics
Design measurement frameworks that capture human factors like belief, intent and trust that algorithms overlook.
AI can track performance, but it can’t quantify belief, intent or meaning. Agencies must design measurement frameworks that capture what algorithms overlook — the motivations behind behavior, the momentum behind brands and the trust behind transactions. Build models that connect data to decision-making clarity: incrementality, narrative durability, brand equity and human alignment. Deepen contextual intelligence—translating raw signal into strategy the C-suite can act on.
Design an "Authenticity Stack"
Build a trust infrastructure with verification, bias testing and provenance tracking to safeguard brand credibility in a synthetic world.
In a world of synthetic everything, credibility becomes currency. Stand up a system of verification partners, bias testing, red-teaming and provenance tracking across data and creative outputs. Market it as your trust infrastructure—your agency’s version of cybersecurity for brand truth.
Educate the C-Suite
Build executive learning programs and C-suite workshops to decode AI's implications and position the agency as a strategic translator and teacher.
Build executive learning programs that help leaders grasp the economics, governance and talent implications of AI. Run C-suite workshops that decode complex tech into actionable strategy. This positions the agency as translator and teacher, the bridge between algorithms and ambition.
Rebuild Around Human Skills
Embed multi-disciplinary "guilds" that blend human expertise to interpret signals and shape decisions, rewarding curiosity and empathy.
Embed multi-disciplinary “guilds” that blend communications, data and behavioral science to interpret signals and shape decisions. Reward curiosity, context and empathy as much as craft.
Curate the Human-Agent Relationship
Act as relationship designers to define the boundaries, feedback loops and governance for client AI agents, aligning them with brand values.
As AI agents start making micro-decisions in marketing, communications and customer experience, agencies will act as relationship designers—defining the boundaries, feedback loops and governance that keep those systems aligned with brand values and human expectations. The next decade’s strategy work isn’t just about positioning brands—it’s about programming how they behave through their agents.
Stats to Watch
On the Record
Bold Take
AI will expose which agencies create value and which just create deliverables.
Quick Poll
Which company are you most excited to see new AI features from in 2026?
Which company are you most excited to see new AI features from in 2026?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.
4As Perspective
The strategic partner agency is an AI-era advisor guiding clients beyond tool adoption toward measurable transformation, ethical intelligence and sustainable business outcomes.
The opportunity lies not in automating what agencies already do, but in redefining what only agencies can deliver: judgment, cultural insight, creativity and authentic value creation.
4As Initiatives
- AI Governance & Authenticity Council: Bring agencies and industry bodies together for standards and guidance on AI governance.
- Client Confidence Charter: Establish transparency guidelines and templated language for AI policies and language for contracts with both clients and vendors.
- AI Maturity, Responsible Adoption Playbooks and Frameworks: Develop structured resources and diagnostic tools for agencies to self-assess AI readiness and guide responsible adoption.
- Org Design: Develop frameworks and change management guidance for restructuring and reimaginging legacy silos.
- Communicating Value: Our recent guide From Cost Center to Value Driver: How Agencies Can Monetize Tech Investments provides strategies to transform your agency by monetizing tech investments.
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
- Where does AI create *measured* value in your offering today—and what will you stop doing as a result?
- What controls prove your AI-generated work is authentic, safe and compliant?
- How will you evolve compensation when execution is automated but strategy and verification increase in value?
- The technology is the (relatively) easy part of AI transformation. How are you addressing other key areas like talent management, governance and ethics?
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Jeremy Lockhorn
SVP, Innovative Technology
[email protected]
Kevin Freemore
SVP, Innovative Technology
[email protected]
Agency As Strategic Partner: Compensation Models
The AI era demands a fundamental shift in the agency finance model, moving from billable hours and execution to monetizing strategic impact, creative IP and advisory value. This necessitates evolving client contracts into outcome-based partnerships and redefining performance metrics from productivity to influence.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Redefine Success Metrics
Shift KPIs away from productivity to influence
Shift KPIs from productivity to influence—measuring brand impact, client growth and idea adoption.
Value Ideas, Not Hours
Co-own outcomes. Move away from labor-based models.
Move away from labor based models. Develop financial models that monetize strategic thinking, creative IP and advisory impact. Use strategic retainers, fixed fee, performance fees and IP licensing to reflect co-ownership of outcomes.
Stats to Watch
According to a recent 4As survey, agencies use over 300 martech tools and platforms, highlighting the complexity and fragmentation of today’s media and marketing technology ecosystem. This fragmentation accelerates the need to shift from selling time to monetizing intellectual property (IP) and strategic influence.
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On the Record
Bold Take
Quick Poll
The real evolution lies in financial structure and value capture—monetizing IP, licensing tools, pricing for outcomes and treating creative intelligence as capital, not cost.
Which compensation model do you think best supports agency growth today?
Which compensation model do you think best supports agency growth today?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.4As Perspective
The model isn’t foreign to the industry but it’s the logical next stage for agencies that have already built credibility as strategic partners. The difference is that in the AI era, execution will no longer mask the absence of strategy, so every agency will be forced to prove where its value truly resides.
4As Initiatives
- Modern compensation and pricing guidance: Resources like Decoding Compensation Models, Salary Surveys, Billing Rate Benchmarks and incentive compensation white papers help agencies design value-aligned, partnership-driven pay models.
- Talent & Retention Support: Salary trend reports, benefits benchmarks and guidance on talent management during M&A help agencies build long-term, partnership-oriented incentive structures.
- Strategic relationship insights: Resources like Preserving Agency Value in the Era of GenAI, From Cost Center to Value Driver and pitch cost studies reinforce compensation models tied to sustained client value and shared success.
2025 Media Commission Insights Report
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
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How will your agency redefine and capture value as execution becomes increasingly automated?
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What financial and performance metrics will best reflect the value your agency creates in the AI-driven future?
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What governance, talent and incentive structures will your agency need to support sustainable, scalable growth?
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Nicole Rizzo
SVP, Business Intelligence and Insight, 4As
[email protected]
Agency As Strategic Partner: Government Relations
Agencies and advertisers must prepare to navigate a complex, state-fragmented regulatory landscape. As a strategic partner, the agency is an irreplaceable advisor, translating complex policy and economic volatility into proactive, human-led business solutions and helping embed compliance as a trust multiplier.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Tap into the 4As
Use training, tools and insights to stay ahead.
Make the most of your membership. Use the resources the 4As makes available to you as a member to keep on top of the latest developments in this area: webinars, guidance papers, newsletters, 1:1 deep-dive meetings with subject matter experts, virtual and live events.
Stay Politically Informed
Follow and track policy-driven news.
Stay informed. While it might not make your normal reading list, consider devoting some time to political, policy-first news sources such as The Hill, Politico, Punchbowl, etc. to get a better understanding of what's going on and breaking developments.
Stats to Watch
On the Record
Bold Take
Quick Poll
The very role of a strategic partner or advisor, across industries, increasingly feels under threat with the growing perception of strategy as easily replaceable by AI. Agencies will need to double-down on showing why their value as strategic partners can't be easily replaced with AI.
What is your greatest concern regarding legislation in 2026?
What is your greatest concern regarding legislation in 2026?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.4As Perspective
Solid strategic plans often rely on access to the best and most current data on the economy, labor, etc. A lot of that data is now under threat with changes that have been happening at federal government agencies responsible for producing a lot of the data. In this current void, the 4As is working with members via our research team and others to help agencies find the best proxy data available so they can continue to be valuable strategic partners for their clients.
4As Initiatives
- AI Policy - AI Laws by State, Advocacy Efforts
From IP and content provenance to labor issues, the 4As monitors legislative developments and is actively engaged with policymakers along with other industry partners. - The American Healthcare Tipping Point: Why Advertisers Can’t Afford to Wait
The inaugural 4As-CHC Healthcare Marketing Summit provided agencies with insights into the complex, highly regulated healthcare marketing space, highlighting growth opportunities amid rising demand and evolving challenges. - The Impact of Advertising on the US Economy
The 4As, as a proud member of The Advertising Coalition (TAC), has been actively advocating to preserve full tax deductibility of advertising, emphasizing its vital role in stimulating economic activity. The omission of changes to advertising deductibility in the final budget bill passed by Congress in the summer of 2025 is an acknowledgement that federal policymakers have recognized the importance of advertising’s role in spurring economic activity. However, ad tax deductibility will likely remain a target for Congress seeking revenue, highlighting both its effectiveness and its vulnerability.
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
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What capabilities or processes must your agency build now to help clients navigate rapidly diverging state and federal regulations with confidence?
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How can agencies proactively protect client brands in an environment where political polarization and misinformation can turn even neutral messages into risks?
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Alison Pepper
EVP, Government Relations and Sustainability
[email protected]
Amanda Anderson
VP, Government Relations
[email protected]
Agency As Strategic Partner: Media, Tech & Data
For agencies adopting a more strategic role in Media, Technology & Data, there is a shift from pure execution to a layer of human-led strategy and navigation over self-serve AI platforms. As "AI as a coworker" redefines workflows, the agency's core differentiator will be "authentic AI"—reclaiming trust through verifiable, transparent and ethical use of technology (like C2PA standards) to combat generative clutter and elevate human focus on creativity, ethics and strategic leadership.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Creative-Data Teams
Combine storytelling and analytics to unlock stronger strategic insights.
Hybrid teams: Design hybrid creative–data teams that merge storytelling and analytics, through shared workflows, common KPIs and collaborative tooling, to unlock new strategic insights.
Governed AI Creative
Integrate AI tools with clear standards and train teams in prompt-driven craft.
Governed AI creative: Integrate AI creative tools under brand governance, establishing ethical standards and training teams in “prompt design” and AI art direction.
Advisory Expansion
Grow advisory offerings to guide clients through transformation.
Expand advisory offerings: Invest in thought leadership, positioning experts within your agency as trusted guides for client transformation.
Stats to Watch
0%
of brands cite authenticity concerns in AI-generated media (Nielsen)
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of agencies are already reorganizing for AI integration (Deloitte).
On the Record
Bold Take
- Synthetic audiences will become increasingly common as proxies for research and early-stage concept testing. Clear differentiation between synthetic and real humans will be essential when evaluating performance and making strategic decisions. As adoption grows, strong standards and safeguards will be required to ensure synthetic inputs enhance rather than distort human insight.
- Complexity is good for agencies — it widens the gap between those who simply buy media and those who architect intelligent ecosystems.
- The future of measurement is not precision—it’s perspective.
Quick Poll
Do you believe AI will simplify or further complicate media?
Do you believe AI will simplify or further complicate media?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.4As Perspective
The 4As guide to content and creative provenance is an essential ingredient for members to consider as they navigate the increasingly AI-slop riddled media supply chain on behalf of their clients. AD-ID (4As and ANA venture) is also becoming a must-have authenticator for the entire media and creative ecosystem to consider.
The agency of the future must convert fragmentation into strategic advantage through AI-enabled planning, verified transparency and cross-platform accountability.
4As Initiatives
- Capability building: Support agencies in evolving their internal systems, workflows and talent strategies to identify gaps and prioritize where to invest.
- Partner assessment: Consult with members to evaluate providers, platforms and data partners with frameworks for assessment.
- Actionable guidelines: Our SMEs partner with industry thought leaders to examine the challenges and opportunities in currency, interoperability, data & tech infrastructure and more. We provide guidance and resources to equip agencies to use data responsibly and compliantly while maintaining performance.
- Industry initiatives: We partner with ANA, CIMM, MRC and other industry leaders to co-author best practices, reports and more.
- Empower with information: We help members engage confidently with measurement providers, platforms and data partners and make informed decisions.
- We connect: We facilitate partnerships between members and third-party transparency platforms.
- Outcomes over Impressions: We provide outcome-measurement frameworks and train members in incrementality analytics.
- Control and transparency: We co-lead industry initiatives on C2PA and AI labeling and publish media verification guidelines.
The 4As Guide to Content and Creative Provenance helps members navigate the increasingly AI-slop riddled media supply chain on behalf of their clients.
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
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How is your agency simplifying media complexity for clients today?
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Are you investing more in automation or in talent who can interpret automation’s output?
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What partnerships or alliances will be essential to manage rising media costs?
Share Your Take
What stood out to you? Join the conversation.
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Curious what a Marketing Purveyor Agency looks like?
Connect with Our Experts
Ashwini Karandikar
EVP, Media Tech and Data
[email protected]
Kevin Freemore
SVP, Innovative Technology
[email protected]
Agency As Strategic Partner: New Business
The future of agency partnership lies in a fundamental shift from delivering output to providing insight and strategy. Agencies must lead with ideas, demonstrate deep strategic prowess and secure longer, deeper partnerships by earning executive-level trust across the client's C-suite.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Collaborative Pitching
Transform RFPs into workshops and strategic sprints where clients experience your agency’s thinking in real time.
Reinvent the pitch as a working session: Traditional RFPs give way to collaborative workshops, strategic sprints and co-creation labs that let clients experience the agency’s thinking firsthand.
Cultivate Executive Trust
Build credibility with candid perspectives that earn confidence from CMOs and CEOs.
Cultivate executive-level trust: Growth is relationship-driven, earned through credibility, objectivity and candor. CMOs and CEOs engage agencies for perspective they can’t get in-house, not just for bandwidth.
Multidisciplinary Top Tier
Invest in visible, multidisciplinary senior talent who connect brand, culture and commerce.
Invest in senior, multidisciplinary talent: New business success relies on visible, senior-level strategists, creatives and analysts who bridge brand, culture and commerce. Agencies sell brains, not bandwidth.
Lead with Insight
Diagnose and reframe the client’s business problem before planning begins.
Lead with thinking, not templates: New business becomes a test of strategic imagination. Agencies win by diagnosing the client’s business problem and reframing it with insight—before planning even begins.
Focus on Impact
Develop deeper, problem-led engagements that prioritize client impact over agency wins.
Grow by problem ownership, not project volume: The strongest agencies will secure longer, deeper partnerships—embedded in transformation, not campaigns. The metric shifts from “wins” to “client impact and influence.”
Stats to Watch
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66% of major multinational brands now have (or are considering) an in-house agency; up 16% since 2020. (The Observatory)
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In the ANA 2023 U.S. survey: 82% of respondent companies reported having an in-house agency (up from 78% in 2018).
On the Record
Bold Take
The future belongs to those agencies that can become indispensable strategic partners to their clients, building strong relationships throughout the client organization.
Quick Poll
Where will your next wave of new business come from?
Where will your next wave of new business come from?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.4As Perspective
Agencies must charge for the high-value thinking, external perspective and strategic expertise they provide, not for their ability to 'make things.'
4As Initiatives
Much of the work the 4As does with the ANA is designed to increase industry understanding around client/agency relationships and simplify the agency review process.
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
- How are you redefining your agency’s value proposition to remain indispensable—whether through scalable systems or strategic thinking—as your clients shift more work in-house and demand greater efficiency?
- What investments in talent, processes and capabilities (tech, strategy or both) do you need to make to deliver measurable impact while also earning deeper trust and influence across your client organizations?
- How can you build a business development model that balances enterprise-level rigor (ROI, platforms, efficiency) with relationship-driven advisory (insight, strategic leadership) to ensure long-term, renewal-based growth?
Share Your Take
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Matt Kasindorf
SVP, Business Intelligence and Insight, 4As
[email protected]
Agency As Strategic Partner: Agency Ops
The next era of agency operations will define whether agencies compete on price or on purpose. Agencies that evolve into strategic partners will redefine value creation by embedding operations at the core of client innovation, technology and trust.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Knowledge Ops
Turn workflows and learnings into shared, reusable institutional knowledge.
Knowledge Ops: Create a “Knowledge Ops” layer that documents workflows, data, learnings and case studies in shared repositories so that experimentation becomes institutional knowledge, not isolated innovation.
Billable Ops
Create advisory services that improve client workflows and automation.
Billable Ops: Make Ops billable by developing advisory services that help clients improve their own marketing workflows, automation tools or content supply chains.
Native Collaboration
Build operating models that unite data, creative and strategy teams.
Native Collaboration: Make collaboration native to the agency by designing operating models around integrated data, creative and strategy teams.
Stats to Watch
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84% of CMOs report high levels of strategic dysfunction in their marketing function. (Gartner) This points to real opportunity for agencies to fill that gap as strategic partners.
On the Record
Bold Take
Tomorrow’s COO is the new rainmaker. Operations is no longer backstage, it’s where strategy, technology and client trust converge.
Quick Poll
What best describes your agency’s operational focus for 2026?
What best describes your agency’s operational focus for 2026?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.4As Perspective
In this future, operations is the strategic engine of agency transformation, uniting data, technology and creativity to enable agencies to be co-architects of client growth.
4As Initiatives
The 4As Agency Operations & Business Transformation committee continues to explore, advise and advocate for the evolving role of operations and developing resources to help agencies in their own transformation.
To get involved with the committee reach out to Mollie Rosen, President, Member Experience.
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
- If you rebuilt your ops from scratch today, what would you keep? What would you change?
- What role do you want operations to play in your agency’s future — efficiency engine, product steward, innovation partner, or a blend of all three?
- How prepared is your agency to integrate AI, automation and proprietary tools into operating models while upskilling teams to interrogate and verify them?
Share Your Take
What stood out to you? Join the conversation.
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Mollie Rosen,
President, Member Experience, 4As
[email protected]
Agency As Strategic Partner: Mergers & Acquisitions
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) are evolving into a core strategy for long-term growth and continuity and agencies build enduring value by treating succession as a strategy, testing cultural and operational alignment through partnerships. Forward-thinking agencies prioritize leadership and culture to sustain enterprise value beyond the transaction.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Cultivate Owners
Give emerging leaders real accountability and strategic decision exposure.
Develop successors to think like owners. Create real P&L accountability, client ownership and strategic exposure for next-generation leaders. The goal isn’t replacement, it’s continuity of judgment and attitude.
Codify Knowledge
Turn leader expertise into repeatable frameworks and playbooks.
Codify institutional wisdom. Turn the knowledge in leaders’ heads into frameworks, templates and playbooks. Intellectual capital is what sustains value when ownership evolves.
Shape Narrative
Communicate early so transitions build confidence, not doubt.
Plan the narrative, not just the transaction. Change management starts with communication. Align clients, staff and partners early so the story of transition reinforces confidence, not uncertainty.
Partnership First
Use alliances and JVs to test cultural and operational fit before M&A.
Treat partnerships as step-one M&A. Use joint ventures or structured alliances to test cultural alignment and shared delivery models before any equity changes hands. This builds trust, generates joint revenue and can help fund a later transaction.
Stats to Watch
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The number of new employee-stock-ownership-plan (ESOP) transitions is projected to grow by ~15 % over the next five years.
Agencies with employee ownership are 6.2× more likely to retain employees compared with conventionally owned firms. (NCEO)
On the Record
Bold Take
Most agencies still treat M&A as an exit plan. The real opportunity is to use it as a growth plan. Agencies that think like buyers, not sellers, build stronger, more valuable businesses.
Quick Poll
What best describes your agency’s current mindset around ownership?
What best describes your agency’s current mindset around ownership?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.4As Perspective
The 4As works alongside agency leadership to design real-world succession and ownership strategies. Through ValueBuild™ and hands-on advisory support, we co-create pathways for continuity - whether through management buyouts, ESOPs, partnerships or leadership transitions. Our goal is to protect culture, preserve client trust and give leaders strategic options before urgency dictates decisions.
4As Initiatives
The 4As supports agencies where leadership, culture and client trust are the business model.
- ValueFind™ and ValueBuild™ Products: Strategic discovery and partner-search offerings that help agency leaders evaluate transition options—from management buyouts to ESOPs and joint ventures—while preserving institutional knowledge and leadership continuity.
- Succession Planning Frameworks within the M&A Library (launching 2026): Featuring governance templates, leadership mapping tools and employee-alignment strategies to safeguard continuity and client confidence through change.
- Co-Sourced Transition Support: Agencies don’t outsource succession to the 4As— they co-source it with us. We work as an extension of their leadership team, providing strategic guidance, valuation insight and partner diligence at a fraction of the cost of even one full-time executive assistant, yet with the depth and rigor of a dedicated transition team. This collaborative model builds internal capability, preserves culture and ensures leadership legacy while future models take shape.
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
- How are you preparing your next generation of leaders to run the agency as a business and what disciplines are you putting in place today to make that transition seamless?
- Are you thinking about ownership as an exit, or as a way to deepen engagement and reward the people who’ve built your agency with you?
- As AI and automation reshape delivery models, how will you reposition strategic counsel as “enterprise value” for agencies and institutionalize that over the next three years?
Share Your Take
What stood out to you? Join the conversation.
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Adam Cotumaccio
COO, 4As
[email protected]
Agency As Strategic Partner: People, Talent & Upskilling
Human capabilities are the new IP in the AI era. Focus on cultivating irreplaceable skills—judgment, cultural insight and storytelling and build a learning culture to elevate human ingenuity above algorithms. The challenge and opportunity lies in positioning human talent to collaboratively master new technologies.
Forecast at a Glance
Industry 360
Hard questions, candid insight and Insider views from across the industry.
Exclusive Content: Members Get More.
Next Moves: Craft Your Playbook
Invest in People
Build programs for judgment, storytelling and cultural understanding.
Invest in people as much as tools. Build learning programs that strengthen judgement, storytelling and cultural understanding—the human abilities that make AI-enabled work even smarter and more meaningful.
Rethink Pathways
Redesign early talent routes for an AI-enabled industry.
Rethink and redesign the early talent pathways. Equip future leaders for an AI-enabled industry.
Upskill with Vision
Build learning ecosystems into strategic initiatives.
Upskill to future-proof. Envision and build learning ecosystems and upskilling into your strategic initiatives.
Embrace Ingenuity
Lean on empathy, originality and humor to elevate human advantage.
Build on the human capital talent advantage. Empathy, originality, imagination, context and humor are essential to creative and advertising roles and elevate human ingenuity.
Stats to Watch
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Over 50% of the US workforce will need to be reskilled by 2027. (World Economic Forum)
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94% of leaders say that they face shortages of critical AI talent today; about 1 in 3 report gaps up to 60%. (World Economic Forum)
On the Record
Bold Take
- The future of strategy is not about being smarter than the machines, but rather about being more human than the algorithms.
- The most innovative uses of artificial intelligence will emerge from a deep understanding of human intelligence and creativity.
Quick Poll
How confident are you that your current workforce has the skills needed to thrive in the next 3 years?
How confident are you that your current workforce has the skills needed to thrive in the next 3 years?
Polling participation and results are a member only feature.
4As Perspective
The Strategic Partner model will require continuous learning, courageous leadership and a culture that values growth over certainty. Build learning programs that strengthen judgement, storytelling and cultural relevance understanding. Turn curiosity into a performance metric and high value cultural behavior.
4As Initiatives
- AI Skills Maturity Framework: The GenAI Maturity Model gives agencies a fast, insightful way to assess their current level of AI integration and readiness. The results help leaders understand not just where they are today, but what it takes to move forward, turning this insight into action for sustained competitive advantage.
- Bespoke Training: The 4As designs bespoke AI training solutions that help agencies move from experimentation to implementation.
- LIT AI Offerings: We will be offering new programs focused on AI implementation, automation and innovation within craft skill workflows. Current offerings include GenAI Certification for Advertising, GenAI Essentials, Writing and Editing in the Age of AI, Best Practices for AI Prompting.
- MAIP AI Offerings: Through a rigorous, hands-on curriculum, mentorship and training program, MAIP prepares emerging inclusive talent to meet the evolving demands of an industry where entry-level roles require more capability than ever. MAIP ensures the pipeline does not only stay open, it stays innovative, inclusive and ready for what's next.
- Agency Engagement Index Report 2025 [conducted in partnership with Stick]: The future of advertising will be defined by how deeply agencies connect with their people. Connection is what keeps talent engaged, capable and inspired. Our latest engagement research shows that the next competitive frontier isn’t technology, it’s trust.
- AI Personalization: On-demand learning content catered to individuals by role, discipline and skill level.
- I’m New Here: A supportive community to help professionals who are new to the industry build foundational knowledge, expand their network and gain critical insights and skills.
Over To You:
Reflect. Strategize. Act.
- With fewer entry-level roles on the horizon, how are you protecting and evolving your early-career pipeline to ensure you still have the talent your agency will need 5 years from now?
- Where do you see the biggest disconnect between the skills agencies are training for and the ones that clients are actually willing to pay more for?
- If you could redesign how people learn inside your organization, no constraints, what would that look like?
Share Your Take
What stood out to you? Join the conversation.
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Curious what a Marketing Purveyor Agency looks like?
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Sylvia Banderas Coffinet
EVP, People, Talent and Upskilling
[email protected]
Sean McGlade
SVP, Talent and Learning Solutions
[email protected]
What type of agency are you?
Is your agency Marketing Purveyor, Strategic Partner or an evolving hybrid?
As you explore these models, consider not just where your agency is today, but where it’s headed. What’s driving your evolution and what’s holding it back? Which capabilities are strong today? Which ones need to be built or reimagined? Use this comparison to identify the shifts that will set your agency up for success, whichever trajectory you choose.
| Discipline | Agency as Marketing Purveyor | Agency as Strategic Partner | Hybrid Model |
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| AI, Strategy & Innovation |
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| Media, Tech & Data |
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| Mergers & Acquisitions |
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You've explored what Agency as Strategic Agency looks like. Are you ready to compare the journey of an Agency as a Marketing Purveyor?
Closing Remarks
As the industry continues to reshape itself, your path may look different from others—a strategic counsel model, a technology-driven purveyor model or something uniquely hybrid. And it will likely keep evolving.
Wherever you are on that continuum, the 4As is here to support you through every shift. At times, that means bringing you closer to platforms, partners, tools and studies; at others, it means offering strategic guidance, consulting, training and advocacy. We convene the community, foster connection and help you navigate what comes next.
We’re here to help your agency lead confidently into the next era and are committed to supporting members through every phase of growth.
Justin Thomas-Copeland
CEO
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Our commitment to empowering your success relies on your active participation as a member. A 4As membership offers access to a wealth of benefits including thought leadership, resources and industry expertise. The more you participate, engage and get involved, the greater your benefit.
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