The Agency Edge – 2025

2025: Leading Through the AI Revolution: The new competitive edge for agencies

For over a decade, The Agency Edge has had its finger on the pulse of the agency world. Created by Drew McLellan (Agency Management Institute) and Susan Baier (Audience Audit), this annual research series goes beyond surface-level trends to uncover the real drivers of agency-client relationships.

What makes clients stay or leave? What sparks increased spending? And how do agencies truly inspire and get the most out of their teams?

The research always includes a unique attitudinal segmentation analysis that reveals client emotions and motivations, those ‘aha’ moments that change everything. From confident to anxious, from engaged to dismissive, client mindsets reveal the “why” behind the decisions they make, the challenges they struggle with, and the goals they have for their agency relationships.

This year, we’re tackling the AI elephant in the room. Our 2025 study exposes how clients feel about how their agencies are using AI in their client work. This is the key that unlocks your agency’s ability to be found, trusted, hired, and valued by your ideal clients today.

Are you ready to learn what your clients are actually thinking in the age of AI?

Some of the key takeaways:

• AI is not the threat many agencies fear. In fact, it’s a huge opportunity.
• Across the board, clients are looking to agencies for expertise, insights, and guidance when it comes to using AI for their marketing and other functions in their organization.
• Overwhelmingly, clients don’t want to replace their agencies with AI or expect widespread discounts from their agencies. Instead, clients see agencies using AI as an opportunity to elevate strategy, differentiate from competitors, improve analysis, identify efficiencies, and build stronger collaborative relationships with their agencies.
• The opportunity for nimble agencies is tremendous. But it relies on agencies leaning into AI expertise, not running away or trying to hide AI use from clients.

“If you want to be seen as a strategic partner as opposed to a vendor, you need to earn your way into those conversations and at the strategy table. AI expertise and the willingness to teach/lead is your ticket to that party.” ~ Drew McLellan

Fill out the form to download the 41-page executive summary.

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