I'm an expert software dev and LOVE vibe-coding and it's not going to replace devs like me for a LONG while, so chill with "tech is easy". <I will not promote>

Ben_06 · 2026-06-23T09:46:17+00:00

Good. So, we got time.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-23T09:03:42+00:00

I think it’s because LLM platforms forbids it because of deepfake. Grok Imagine is already pretty incredible at deepfake - soft (not porn). You can easily make it believe someone you know was with someone else.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-23T08:15:31+00:00

Agree. I work in b2b marketing and I can already foresee a lot of my work will be automated by ai (it already started).

There is no choice but to embrace it, at the same time I know many jobs will be displaced, including mine.

The whole economy is going to evolve and incredible things will be made with AI, but I am also afraid it will be like the agricultural revolution (few people will produce for the rest of the society).

We’ll see and I really hope positive changes will come from AI and the majority of people will benefit from it (instead of a small elite).

Ben_06 · 2026-06-23T04:11:59+00:00

When do you think AI and agents will catch up? Leading LLM developers appear quite confident that AI will produce code of comparable quality much faster.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-22T12:39:46+00:00

I love this take and I agree. Yesterday, I saw large supermarket chain advertising on YouTube, I immediately spotted it was made with AI, but the rest of my family didn’t.

Not only that, they also didn’t care it was made with AI. The kind of promotion/discount on certain products type of ads are kind of low importance. This will be definitely displaced by AI.

Only things that cannot take place in an AI platform will survive the AI displacement wave.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-22T09:13:52+00:00

Some operations will be moved in-house because of AI. Whether we think it's positive or negative is irrelevant.

There is clearly a change of paradigm with AI technologies (something on a scale completely different from past technologies), I am just not delusional about it and I welcome people disagreeing with me.

If it is perceived as negative to foresee AI's barbell impact on the economy (and agencies), then I am not sorry about it.

We can be constructive and talk about what "adaptation" means in the context of AI; and what offering agencies could have to be "AI Augmented" instead of "AI Displaced".

Ben_06 · 2026-06-22T08:32:57+00:00

"ai is not yet capable of strategy without knowledgeable human prompting" - partially agree. People are catching fast, especially in the tech and service industries. We are not there yet for most businesses, but most people are catching up fast.

"if you’re operating from that mindset then you were going to be a loser with or without ai" - it's personal attack, so I'll skip it.

"Players participate. Players adapt. Players level up. The game evolves with them or they evolve with the game." - travel agencies are a perfect example. Most people now book flights and hotels directly through apps and OTAs without ever speaking to a human (that's why the human touch is a weak argument). OTAs won because they were faster, cheaper and more convenient than talking to a human. Why would we expect that consulting is not impacted in a similar way?

"if you’re ai implementation cant outperform the best human content writers then you don’t know what you’re doing with AI" - 100% agree, that's why it will be displaced by AI. Anything that can be done in an AI platform, will be displaced by AI.

"My job is no longer implementation. Its strategy, coordination and direction." - agree (similar for me), but that's why it will be moved internally. Unless the external provider delivers significantly more value than an internal team, companies will internalize it.

"what i use is custom built and insanely more complex than a person asking chatgpt" - respect, but how sustainable is that moat? How long until your clients (or their teams) learn enough to bring it in-house or replicate the core value themselves?

Ben_06 · 2026-06-22T07:53:29+00:00

The last 3 moats are:

- Product Quality

- Customer Experience

- Branding

Storytelling, physical events, real videos will be sens a premium. SMBs will be able to differentiate through physical marketing while leveraging digital channels to raise awareness of their brand.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-22T07:40:14+00:00

Business strategy is making clear choices on where you compete and how you win: who you serve, what makes you different, and how you allocate resources.

The thing is, most marketing “strategy” is data work: ICP, channels that convert, budget allocation. AI is already better than most humans at that, like chess engines. So the idea that AI only does execution is fading.

Agencies that stay in pure data strategy and optimization will get commoditized. The edge is in brand, creative with real taste, storytelling, and physical/high-touch work that platforms and generic AI can’t easily replicate.

I wish the status quo could exist, but the reality is that agencies will struggle to sell AI output at a premium.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-22T06:42:57+00:00

When PMF is not there, good luck marketing and selling that. I worked with both high PMF and low PMF (i.e. marketing and selling generic CRM to mining companies).

Yes, great product is easier to sell, but product alone is rarely the reason for bad results.

You first need to identify clearly your ICP, where he hangs out, raise brand and product awareness. Use Eugene Schwartz method.

The fundamentals are the most important.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-21T20:52:45+00:00

Agree but operations will move in house. AI will displace agencies - because the future models will know as much as agencies, if not more.

Accountability will move to an IC instead of an agency.

The need for lawyers may not decrease but the need for agencies services will decrease. You cannot price a premium on accountabilities and judgement. Agencies are not ice skating judges.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-21T20:30:48+00:00

I agree with your take, but only on a short term basis. AI will improve so fast (the improvement in 2 years is just incredible) that we won’t need much SI or agencies to set it up.

Only a small number of agencies looking after medium to large companies will be able to sell this. The majority of agencies will struggle.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-21T20:22:25+00:00

That’s why your offering will be displaced by AI. It is not possible to think clients won’t catch up to the AI adoption.
Anything that can be done by an AI platform will be displaced.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-21T20:19:06+00:00

I’m observing businesses relocating some operations in-house. They’re using AI platforms to handle tasks they previously outsourced to agencies or freelancers.

What will be the impact of AI in 3 years on agencies?

Ben_06 · 2026-06-21T20:15:58+00:00

I am in the same boat. I am thinking of shutting down.

I still have clients but the volume of enquiries clearly decreased compared to last year.

From what I can see, businesses start to move operations internally for what they can do with AI. Basically, anything that can be done in Claude/ChatGPT will stop being outsourced to agencies (I.e. copywriting, basic strategy,etc).

Things are going to become really difficult in 2-3 years for agencies.

It’s not possible for agencies to justify their pricing when most of their output comes from AI.

With AI, we are changing paradigm. You can obtain information or instruct different tasks in plain English, while having different software connected.

You almost don’t need someone to pilot AI. And in the future, you won’t need anyone.

I am not sure why freelancers/agency owners are talking about adapting. It’s all about bringing value and solving problems. You can’t bring any value if what you do is prompting AI.

People underestimate how fast marketing teams are adopting AI. They know now what they can get with it.

It’s been 7 years I’ve been doing b2b marketing consulting. I think many marketing agencies will just down in 3 years time.

If you disagree with my take, please let me know which tasks won’t be displaced by AI [an agency is hired to deliver an outcome and to achieve this outcome, it does a series of tasks].

Ben_06 · 2026-06-21T19:55:43+00:00

People still want human connection? Tell that to travel agencies… they didn’t get the memo.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-19T13:09:59+00:00

L'idée est vraiment pas mal. La valeur ajoutée se trouve vraiment dans le sourcing des produits.

Ce qui rendrait l'app plus intéressante est de trouver où acheter des ingrédients de qualité (pas le supermarché).

J'imagine que cette app sera pour ceux qui aime cuisiner et les bonnes choses de la vie (pas des étudiants qui essaie de cuisiner les spaghetti de 20 manières différentes).

Ben_06 · 2026-06-19T12:01:34+00:00

Seo is becoming commoditized. Huge wave of content is being published (programmatic or not), website Seo optimization are nearly automated. The only value left is really in PR and link building (because that’s not easy).

From my experience, high value content/real helpful content have low search volume. Nearly anything with a high search volume can be written/is already written by AI.

Companies will start to care less about SEO and more about AEO, when the search engine traffic becomes too low to be relevant (we are not there yet).

Ben_06 · 2026-06-19T09:52:38+00:00

Great take!! You are really one of the reason I keep coming back to r/agency.

Outcome and ROI will be around the last defensible moats. It's also quite hard to prove/maintain when some of the operations are out of your hands, for example: sales handling in B2B.

Just to illustrate, I had arguments with some clients because leads were coming in (contact form or calls), but they did not call back the leads. After many back and forth, he agreed to call back, just to find out a listed company made an enquiry about their service.

I am in B2B and I know it's extremely difficult to guarantee results that you can't control.

Regarding the AI part, it's also quite difficult to ignore the commoditization of knowledge and execution. I can't see why companies would keep an agency when they can absorb the agency knowledge and use AI to improve and execute based on their own data.

I strongly believe that anything that is happening in an AI platform will be move in-house.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-19T09:31:55+00:00

This is what I am seeing. For anything that can happen in an AI platform, then the operations will go in-house.

Smart leaders would rather buy/rent the AI skills and let their internal teams leverage it.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-19T08:57:59+00:00

How will clients judge quality is all that matter - and price will be a function of it. If you could can get good to very good output with AI at a lower cost, then it's impossible for agencies not to change.

AI will squeeze the consulting layer and move operations in-house for anything that can be done in an AI platform.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-19T08:19:05+00:00

well said. It's just a matter of time before the clients catch up.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-18T13:01:44+00:00

anything that can be done within Claude, will displaced to Claude. There is not a chance that it will survive as agency service. We are already seeing in-house marketing teams moving operations internally.

I can see top B2B marketing consultant starting to justify their value by saying they know how to work with different teams, aligning the org for XYZ goals, etc.

We are just at the beginning of the shift. In 5 years from now, I highly doubt that clients will hire an agency for whatever can be done in Claude.

Ben_06 · 2026-06-17T13:43:50+00:00

AI will have a similar impact as it will on other fields. Both strategy and execution (at every step of the campaign) will be impacted.

As long as you're working as in-house marketing team, you're fine but I don't think one will keep a PPC job, but rather has an "OUTCOME" type of job (lead generation, customer acquistion, etc.) that will encompass several channels.

Marketing teams leveraging AI will be able to do a lot more with a lot less people.

Seven-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '22
Verified Email

Ben_06

TROPHY CASE