Most marketing agencies have AI now, as well as every freelancer and every graduate. And that means AI capability is no longer impressive: it’s the bare minimum. The real question is whether you have an answer when clients ask “so what?”
Everyone has easy access to the same AI tools. Your graduate hire’s probably on the same ChatGPT plan as your Creative Director.
Feedback in the Marketing AI Industry Council’s 2026 Marketing Talent AI Impact Report, underlines what I’m seeing: AI adoption is now a market expectation. The total addressable market for those who aren’t engaged is shrinking fast.
Pitching "we use AI" in 2026 is like pitching "we have email" in 2010. Clients are pretty sure you have it, they want you to tell you why that matters to them.
Are you solving the wrong problem?
Most agencies are stuck in “pilot purgatory”, namely running pilots to prove they have AI capability.
The uncomfortable truth though is you’re building proof of concept when clients already assume competence.
And that competence means being able to answer these questions.
- Where does AI stop and human judgement start?
- How do you ensure quality?
- How do you handle data privacy?
- What happens when AI gets it wrong?
How’s your team using AI?
Most businesses have shadow AI: individuals using tools the organisation doesn’t know about; making decisions that haven’t been reviewed and creating workflows that live in their heads instead of being written down somewhere secure.
This isn’t malicious, it’s what happens when enthusiasm and the speed of tech evolution outpaces structure and governance.
That’s why my advice is always to start with an AI amnesty. Ask your team, with no repercussions, what they’re using and learn from it.
What role does leadership have?
Someone has to turn individual AI experiments into organisational capability. Someone has to define quality standards. Someone has to establish review points. Someone has to make shadow workflows visible and repeatable.
And, spoiler alert, that’s leadership.
TL;DR
AI is the baseline, not the differentiator.
Every agency has access to the same tools. What sets you apart is how you use them.
Clients want clarity, not capability claims.
They’re pretty sure you use AI, they need confidence you use it ethically to benefit them.
Transparency requires visibility first.
You can’t explain your process to clients until you know what your team is actually doing.
How do I tackle this?
- Declare an amnesty and audit your shadow AI. Ask what tools they use. What tasks they have automated. What prompts they have built that worked really well. This isn’t about control, it’s about knowing your own process well enough to explain it with confidence. And when clients ask how you ensure AI outputs meet quality and compliance standards, you can. Even if your competitors can’t.
- Turn your most common AI workflow into a documented standard. Pick one task your team does well with AI regularly. Get it written down and clarify which tool to use, where human review happens, and what quality looks like. Show clients the process, not just the output.
