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Carl Smith is the leader of The Bureau, a community of over 8,000 agency owners and leaders. But more than that, Carl has this unique ability to see around corners in our industry. He's been watching digital agencies evolve for decades, and he has a knack for calling out the shifts before the rest of us even realize they're happening.
Our recent webinar with Carl was a conversation about transformation that every firm leader needs to hear. His central thesis was both simple and profound: the creative industry is running on muscle memory, and that's more dangerous than any external threat.
The Big Shifts Carl Identified
Context is the new knowledge. Clients want partners who can synthesize across disciplines and apply judgment to complex problems. As Carl put it, intelligence is now driven by adaptability, clarity and judgement.Trust is now a commodity. Carl emphasized the idea that long-term insights are what truly builds partnership and recognizing needs is more critical than ever. Agencies that change will need to focus on outcomes that are driven by strategy and foresight over execution.
The rise of the savvy client. Today's clients are coming to the table with their own tools and plenty of data. With things changing so quickly, skepticism can be high and agencies must earn trust through unprecedented transparency. According to Carl, collaboration is the new normal.
Humans are the voice of reason. AI has arrived, but it still falls short with nuance and empathy. Agencies need to double down on the human edge and understand that those contextual decisions that make them valuable simply can’t be automated.
AI is your teammate, not a threat. Thriving agencies will treat AI as a collaborator to automate the routine and elevate what is meaningful. Leaning into what only humans can do—contextual decisions, ethical judgment, and creative originality—will still set you apart.
Hyper-specialization wins. The full-service agency model is collapsing and agency niches are getting smaller and more specific. Carls sees the most profitable firms being the ones that are the most focused and nimble.
The Action Plan
Carl didn't just diagnose problems—he offered real-world solutions. Future-ready agencies need to:
- Build learning organizations where retrospectives feed future work and knowledge sharing is rewarded.
- Shift from outputs to outcomes with accountability-based pricing that aligns incentives.
- Package wisdom by turning know-how into frameworks and repeatable IP.
- Scale without losing soul by defining non-negotiables and automating values, not just processes.
The agencies that will dominate the next decade aren't necessarily the biggest or most established. They're the ones built to change, designed for adaptability, and focused on delivering clarity in an uncertain world.
