'We just don't talk anymore': AI hits agency relationships

The increasing uptake of AI tools appears to be starting to weaken the decades old ethos of client-agency relationship, with almost two-thirds (62%) of marketers in the UK now contacting their agencies either once a week or less, with only a third (29%) maintaining daily contact.

So says new research from global insights company GWI, which quizzed nearly 500 UK marketers to uncover how AI is redefining marketers’ roles.

It found AI to be the cause of this reduction in external collaboration, as it is now deeply integrated into workflows. More than a quarter (27%) of marketers say it is improving time efficiency, while 24% cite productivity gains, and 21% point to cost savings as a benefit.

Common uses of AI include content creation (28%), virtual assistants or chatbots (27%), customer service operations (24%) and personalisation tools (22%).

And, as AI replaces many agency functions, marketing teams are pulling more work in-house, although the report warns that cutting back too far on external collaboration risks losing the outside perspective that keeps content effective.

In a separate GWI survey, nearly half (44%) of UK consumers said they would like content less if they discovered it was made using generative AI tools.

When looking at apparel specifically, nearly a quarter (24%) were less likely to actually purchase clothes or shoes if they were designed using GenAI tools.

The findings also reveal that only 17% of consumers feel that AI can be more creative or innovative than a human, a perception shared equally by marketers.

For marketers scaling back on agency contact and turning to AI to manage more in-house, the report insists that success will depend on three things: which tools they use, what tasks they give them, and how strict they are with keeping humans in the loop.

GWI chief marketing officer Birthe Emmerich said: “While AI can manage repeatable tasks with ease, its creative ideas and creative outputs need interrogating and this is where the client-agency relationship is redefining itself.

“With many agencies proving their value as strategic partners over content generators, marketers need to balance using AI to do more with less, without negatively impacting how consumers receive their marketing activity.

“The real value of marketing lies in human insight and understanding what your audience thinks, feels, and cares about. The marketers who succeed will use AI to work faster and more efficiently, while anchoring every decision in real audience insights.”