Clients are Expecting Their Agencies to Lead Them With AI: What Are You Waiting For?
Only 26% of Clients Think Their Agencies Are AI Experts. Here’s Your Blue Ocean.
On April 3, 2010, Steve Jobs launched the iPad.
As an early adopter, I bought one that week.
The next day, I was running out to see our largest client, Forever Living Products, Int’l, with my shiny new tech in tow.
My lead copywriter, we’ll call him Joe, was with me. He rolled his eyes at my new “gadget,” dismissing it.
Understand that Joe was still using a flip phone.
In fact, one day I couldn’t reach him. When I finally tracked him down, he said his mobile phone wasn’t working.
“What, did the hinge break?” I smirked.
Joe asked why I was bringing my iPad to our client meeting.
“Because I always want all of our clients to know that we are one, two or three steps ahead of them with advancing trends. That’s what they pay us for,” I coached.
“I thought they paid us for our creative,” he said.
“No, they pay us for our strategic leadership first, and then everything else, including creative,” I raised.
“Watch how they are going to fawn over this new ‘gadget'”.
Our client spent the first 15 minutes of the meeting playing with my new iPad. Posing lots of questions. Test driving it.
As an agency principal, isn’t that what you want to underscore to your clients?
That you are always ahead of the curve? The marketing trends? The tech advancements?
Because if the client ever catches up with you, what do they need you and your people for?
As an Agency Principal, You are in the AI Leadership Moment
That iPad moment was 15 years ago.
And right now, we’re living through another defining technology moment, only this one is on steroids.
But most agencies are acting like Joe with his flip phone instead of showing up with the shiny new iPad.
They’re hiding their AI usage (if they’re using it at all). Downplaying it. Hoping clients won’t notice.
And something that caught my eye in the 2025 Agency Edge Report is that just 26% of clients think their agencies are AI experts.
That’s not an iPad moment. That’s a broken hinge moment.
The Research That Exposes the Opportunity
Drew McLellan from the Agency Management Institute and Susan Baier from Audience Audit just released their annual Agency Edge Report titled, Leading Through the AI Revolution: The New Competitive Edge for Agencies.
For over a decade, they’ve tracked what makes agency-client relationships work, what makes clients stay or leave, and what drives increased spending.
This year, they surveyed 401 agency client decision-makers about AI.
And the data reveals the biggest opportunity agencies have seen in decades.
But most agencies are missing it completely.
They’re stuck with flip phones while their clients are looking for iPad-carrying strategic leaders.
What Clients Actually Want From AI
I spoke with Drew about this on the Business of Story podcast.
You know what keeps agency leaders up at night? The fear that AI means fee cuts and commoditization.
I get it. I ran my Phoenix-based ad agency, Park&Co, for 20 years and have stared at that 3 a.m. ceiling.
But the research reveals something completely different.
- Clients expect agencies to deliver better strategy with AI (58%)
- Generate more new ideas (56%)
- Improve marketing analysis (55%).
Fee reductions? Dead last at 31%.
As Drew puts it:
“The underlying message here is that AI can actually help agencies charge a premium for their thinking.”
Big time!
Just like that iPad in 2010, AI expertise isn’t about the tool. It’s about positioning yourself as the strategic leader who knows how to use the tool to deliver value that your clients can’t get anywhere else.
The Three AI Mindsets Your Clients Are Living In
Drew and Susan identified three distinct client mindsets through attitudinal analysis.
AI Embracers (31%): They trust their agencies completely and want you to lead them through AI transformation. As Drew notes, “These respondents have very tight relationships with their agencies, and they want their agencies to lead when it comes to AI.” These are your iPad-fawning clients who will reward your leadership with loyalty and increased spending.
AI Skeptics (41%): Your largest segment. They’re anxious but desperately want agency guidance. As Susan observes: “I think they’d love having an agency partner they can trust to help them use AI productively, and confidently.” They’re not anti-AI. They’re anti-uncertainty. These are the clients waiting for you to show up with the iPad and explain how it transforms their business.
AI Opportunists (28%): They think AI tools can replace agencies. As Susan warns: “Trying to please these clients will be a race to the bottom for agencies unless we can help them see the light.” These are the flip-phone Joes who’ll learn the hard way that gadgets without strategic expertise don’t deliver results.
The Agency Communication Crisis and Opportunity
Half of clients rate understanding HOW their agencies use AI as a top priority.
But only 50% of agencies have fully discussed this with clients.
We have a transparency problem.
As Drew says, “The truth is, we are not shouting to the hills about our AI usage because many agencies still feel behind the curve or unclear about where they stand. We can’t afford to stay in that spot.”
When you don’t explain your AI usage, clients fill in the blanks with worst-case scenarios. They make up stories about you.
What’s the Story Driving Your AI Leadership?
Over my 40-year advertising career, I’ve learned one fundamental truth.
The tools change. The technology evolves.
But the vital storytelling structures that move human beings to action? Those are eternal.
This is where proven storytelling structures animated by the latest tech create an advantageous position for agencies in the market.
Lincoln used embedded ABTs (And, But, Therefore) narrative frameworks in the Gettysburg Address to move a nation. Hemingway mastered the six-word story that makes people cry. Jobs is the king of entrepreneurial storytelling, selling Apples.
They were intuitive storytellers.
When you become intentional with these classical structures through AI, you revolutionize how you communicate.
AI without proven human-centric storytelling frameworks produces generic bot content.
But AI enhanced by classical narrative frameworks? That creates competitive advantage.
It’s beautification vs botification.
It’s the difference between showing up to your biggest client with a flip phone or an iPad.
The AI-Powered Agency Wealth Creation Engine
What if your agency fully embraced AI without having to be trained on it? Spend months learning how to embed it in your brand storytelling work? Trying to rope everyone into dispersed and quirky GEN AI agents?
What if you could tap this Wealth Creating Engine now? In one place?
The StoryCycle Genie™ is your 2025 iPad moment…Your dynamic Agency Wealth Creation Engine, created by agency principals for agency principals.
It’s the first platform that is guided by the proven Story Cycle System™ with AI technology – an ecosystem of dozens of expert agents working simultaneously in our Cognitive Mesh Architecture (CMA), applying classical storytelling principles on our proprietary Brightsy platform that secures your branding IP from the prying eyes of competitors and GEN AI itself.
Instant AI Expertise:
Run client brands through the Brand Story Grader in under 60 seconds. Show them where their storytelling breaks down using narrative frameworks that have helped me grow brands by as much as 600 percent. You demonstrate and provide a wealth of knowledge.
Transparent AI Integration:
You’re showcasing how classical narrative frameworks enhanced by AI deliver superior results. Show clients exactly how the ABT (And, But, Therefore) narrative framework applies to their brand. Transparency becomes your differentiator. Brand story brilliance becomes your specialty. You model a wealth of AI expertise.
Strategic Value Over Cost Savings:
Just like when we grew engagement by 400% across five countries on LinkedIn for Trimble’s global SaaS platform by reordering their content using the ABT. You deliver a wealth of human-driven sales and marketing story content at scale.
Segment-Specific Positioning:
For Embracers, show the ecosystem. For Skeptics, walk through transparent frameworks. For Opportunists, run comparisons proving classical storytelling wisdom beats generic AI. You provide a wealth of leadership in how to leverage advancing technology now.
Building Camaraderie in Your Agency:
You expedite brand storytelling strategy to expedite go-to-market campaigns so that you can handle more clients in less time. You release a wealth of time and energy so your teams can do their finest work and more of it.
The Truth Hinges on Innovation Leadership
Most agencies are hiding their AI usage (if they’re using it at all).
But the research proves the opposite.
Clients want you to be AI experts. They want you to teach them.
Heck, if I were still running Park&Co, I’d reframe it from an Advertising Agency to an Aidvertising Agency. (Ai, of course, means artificial intelligence.)
And I’d be guided by my new mantra: EI + AI = ROI: Your Return on Intelligence, demonstrating your wealth of innovation.
Because your clients want you to lead them.
The agencies that will dominate aren’t the ones with the most AI tools.
They’re the ones with the deepest brand storytelling expertise enhanced by AI technology.
The StoryCycle Genie™ Quickly Evolves You Into an Aidvertising Agency
The 2025 Agency Edge Report is your roadmap.
Most competitors are still uncertain about positioning.
That’s your blue ocean.
The StoryCycle Genie™ gives you classical storytelling foundation and technological precision to dominate it as an Aidvertising Agency.
Because when you combine millennia of proven narrative structures with cutting-edge AI technology, you create genuine AI expertise rooted in timeless wisdom.
It’s the modern equivalent of showing up to your biggest client meeting with the iPad while everyone else is still using flip phones.
Except this time, you’re not just showing them a new gadget.
You’re demonstrating how classical narrative frameworks transform AI from a commodity tool into a strategic advantage.
Your clients are waiting for you to lead them through the AI transformation.
Don’t be the agency with the broken hinge.
Be the Aidvertising Agency that shows up with strategic leadership clients pay premium prices for.
Because if the client ever catches up with you, what do they need you for?
Story on, my friend.
