What Does It Take to Win With AI? Moving Beyond the Hype
AI is no longer a side project; it is the engine driving the industry's biggest players. From Publicis to WPP, the giants are committing millions to AI-enabled lifecycles. For independent agencies, the question is no longer if you should use AI, but how you will use it to remain indispensable.
Jules Love, Co-Founder of Spark AI, suggests that winning with AI requires moving through a specific maturity curve.
The Four Stages of AI Maturity
Where does your agency sit on this map?
Experimentation: Driven by individual enthusiasts with no central policy.
Adoption: AI becomes part of the daily workflow with defined policies and task forces.
Optimisation: AI reshapes the organization, evolving roles and introducing new service lines.
Transformation: The frontier. AI enables work that simply wasn't possible before, using proprietary data as a core differentiator.
The 90% Under the Water
Most conversations focus on the "tip of the iceberg"—which prompt to use or which tool is best. However, Jules argues that real advantage lives in the 90% beneath the surface: business models, data protection, upskilling, and building repeatable, AI-enabled workflows.
Automation vs. Innovation
To protect your margins, you must distinguish between three layers:
Automation (The Commodity): Tasks like research and reporting. Necessary, but hard to charge a premium for.
Augmentation (The New Baseline): Using AI as a co-pilot for strategists and creatives. Essential to remain competitive.
Innovation (The Differentiator): Solving problems in unique ways using your own IP and methodology. This makes your agency "sticky."
"Use AI to make the work better, not just cheaper. That’s where the real value is."
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