Here is a number worth sitting with: 97 percent of creative leaders expect their profession to look fundamentally different in five years. That is not a cautious estimate from a handful of early adopters. That is nearly everyone. The figure comes from recent research by Superside among 211 creative and marketing leaders at large enterprises. And it confirms what we have been seeing at Workers for some time.
The traditional agency is cracking. Not because the work is shrinking, quite the opposite: creative teams are running on overtime. Related research found that 4 out of 5 teams operate at or beyond capacity, and 7 out of 10 leaders recognize signs of burnout in themselves or their people. Demand for creative output is rising faster than staffing can keep pace. And this is happening while AI was supposed to bring relief.
That is the first uncomfortable truth. AI does not solve the problem on its own. McKinsey calls this the gen AI paradox: companies deploy AI everywhere except where it moves the bottom line. Most AI implementations fail not because the tool underperforms, but because nobody trusts the output, nobody can connect it to the actual workflow, or nobody has time to figure it out. Bolt AI onto a broken process and you get a faster broken process. Garbage in, garbage out, just quicker.
Which is exactly why the agency structure itself is being questioned. Not the craft, the layer around it. Traditional agencies are built on hierarchy: account, strategy, concept, production, each its own layer with its own overhead. Researchers point out that this hierarchy is collapsing, and that taste, judgment and brand instinct are becoming the differentiator, not production scale. AI takes over production work. What remains is exactly the work that requires an experienced professional: someone who knows when something is good enough, and when it is not.
The numbers show how much is at stake when this is organized well. Across large scale AI supported creative projects, clients report an average 35 percent efficiency gain, with tens of thousands of hours saved annually. Some agencies have tripled their creative output. Others built a full library of AI generated illustrations in a single day, cutting design time by 90 percent. That is not marginal optimization. That is a different business model.
Notice what these examples have in common. It is not AI replacing people. It is skilled professionals using AI well. At the strongest performing teams, nearly everyone is now AI certified, trained to use AI as an amplifier without giving up their craft. The machine is only as good as the person operating it. Which is exactly the principle Workers has built on from day one.
We have long believed the classic agency structure adds overhead without adding value. At Workers, you work directly with the independent professional doing the work, no layers in between, at a flat 10 percent fee charged only to the client. No account manager standing between you and the maker. No creative director re-explaining the brief to a junior. Just expertise, directly available.
And when it comes to AI, we hold the same principle as the research shows: the prompt determines the result, we supply the people who understand that. Our professionals are not agency staff who dabble in AI on the side. They are specialists who have integrated AI into their own work for years, because their livelihood depends on getting the result right. That is a different kind of sharpness than an agency that treats AI as a cost saving measure.
The question is no longer whether the agency model is changing. It already is, and the numbers show how fast. The question is who will be ready when it does. We think we are. Early. Without overhead. With the people who make the difference.
Source: Superside, Frictionless Future: Creative Work’s Next Era, 2026, and McKinsey research on generative AI adoption in creative organizations.
Bert Rappange is brand architect and founder/CEO of Workers.