Earlier this week, I shared my current findings on how we can prepare for the Intelligence Age. We’re entering a new era, one where adaptability, insight, and trust are more valuable than ever.
This is the first in a four-part recap of that session, designed to help you and your team stay ahead. We’re starting with the foundation: the landscape itself is changing fast. Clients are evolving. Tech is accelerating. And the old ways of doing business are failing us.
Let’s dig into what’s shifting—and what that means for you.
Part 1: Rethinking the Landscape
Our industry is being reshaped in real time by three converging forces:
AI is automating everything it can.
Clients are becoming more informed, savvy, and skeptical.
Economic pressure is forcing everyone to justify their value.
That means the days of selling “what you know” are over. Clients can get answers from a prompt. What they can’t get is how you think, and that’s the real value.
Let's take a look at the five shifts defining the new terrain:
1. From Expertise to Intelligence
Clients are no longer willing to pay for what’s already known. They’re paying for your applied intelligence: synthesis, judgment, and clarity in chaos. Your value is shifting from having the answers to knowing how to ask the right questions and chart the clearest path forward.
2. The Rise of the Intelligent Client
Your prospect now shows up with ChatGPT, Figma, and a dashboard full of data. They believe they can do it themselves and increasingly they’re right. Winning their trust means showing up as a guide and collaborator, not a gatekeeper.
3. What AI Can’t Do
AI can write headlines and generate wireframes, but it can’t replicate lived experience, cultural nuance, ethical awareness, or emotional depth. That’s your domain. Own it!
4. Partnering with Machines
We have to stop treating AI like a competitor. It’s a collaborator. Dev shops are using it to ship faster. Branding teams are using it for better outcomes. The best agencies are building smarter workflows, not fighting the tide.
5. Ethics, Trust & Power in a Post-Expert World
Authority isn’t assumed anymore. It’s earned. And in a world flooded with “experts,” trust becomes your differentiator. That means transparency, empathy, and putting values front and center are now a big part of what we sell.
These five shifts aren’t theoretical, they’re already reshaping how work gets sold, scoped, and valued. If you’re feeling friction where there used to be flow, this is likely part of the reason.
But here’s the upside: once you see the new landscape clearly, you can start moving with it instead of against it. That’s what the next installments of this series are all about, rethinking how we think, how we operate, and how we lead.
I'm also starting the Built to Change: Designing The Agency of Tomorrow newsletter. It's focused exclusively on how we need to evolve to be successful agencies in the Intelligence Age. I'll be going deeper on specifics and tackling your questions there as well. I hope you join me for the deep dive!
In the next installment, we’ll talk about how agencies must evolve from output producers to pattern-seeking always learning organizations, and why systems thinking might be your most important new skill.
Until then, take a look at how your firm is showing up in this new landscape. What do you need to rethink? What used to work that isn't anymore? What new opportunities are you finding? Send me your questions so I can try and help.