Every so often I look around and ask myself: do we really need to keep doing this the way we're doing it? Even more so now that I live with, collaborate with (and sometimes compete against) an artificial intelligence that doesn't sleep, doesn't charge more than 20 USD a month, and doesn't complain when I ask for ten versions of the same thing at 3:00 a.m.
Let's be honest: the traditional creative agency model has been wobbling for a while. What used to be a team of designers, copywriters, strategists and planners can now often be solved with a couple of well-thought-out prompts and a fine-tuned generative AI.
Does that sound exaggerated? Maybe. But let's look at the full picture.
Production is automated. Design is generated. Media buying is optimized by algorithms. And now even creativity, that last human bastion, is being put to the test.
Today an AI can write an ad script, do the storyboard, generate the images, edit the video, subtitle it, score it and prepare a distribution plan. All of it work that used to involve at least five people at an agency, plus two weeks of back and forth with the client.
And it's not just speed. It's consistency, scalability, and something that used to exist only in theory: mass personalization. The dream of every client brief… without the overhead of an agency.
Today it's already possible to build a complete AI agent workflow in n8n, connecting APIs that operate with each other frictionlessly and execute tasks that used to require an entire team of people.
- 01 · Data
One agent analyzes the client's data.
- 02 · Copy
Another one writes the copy.
- 03 · Visuals
One more generates the visuals.
- 04 · Media
Another designs the media plan.
- 05 · Publishing
And a final one publishes the content with A/B tests per channel and audience.
All of it orchestrated by a human creative director who doesn't touch a single tool beyond giving it the initial context, but who does conduct a symphony of interconnected intelligences.
So what's left for agencies?
We like to think creativity is sacred. That it comes from a mystical, chaotic, human place. But the truth is that much of what we make, ideas, designs, campaigns, follows patterns, formulas, repetitions disguised as originality.
I've seen models generate concepts that made me say "damn, that's better than what I would have come up with." I've also seen hollow, cold, soulless attempts. But let's be honest… how many human-made campaigns are exactly that?
The line between the "genuinely creative" and the "technically impressive" is getting blurrier by the day.
AI has no muse. It doesn't feel. It doesn't cry at a Studio Ghibli film. But aren't most agencies operating without a soul too?
Browse the portfolio of many agencies and you'll find the same thing over and over: generic mission statements, "minimalist and premium" branding, campaigns that claim to "connect brands with people" as if that were a magic formula.
I'm not saying agencies will disappear tomorrow, or that everyone will be replaced by a robot. But I do believe we've already entered an era where the real value won't be so much in making, but in understanding what to make.
Strategy, judgment, good taste, cultural context, the ethics behind a campaign... those things don't automate so easily (for now).
Final thought
Maybe the real challenge isn't whether AI can be creative or not. Maybe the challenge is whether we, the creatives, are still willing to evolve beyond what defines us today. Because if we cling to the idea that only humans can create, we risk becoming artisans of the past. And sometimes even the most talented artisan, if he doesn't adapt, ends up irrelevant in a world that no longer needs his tool.
PS. This wasn't written by an AI. But truth be told, it did help me think it through.