Agency AI Gap: Are Firms Building Proprietary Tech or Just Layering on Big Tech?

• Most agencies are not building proprietary AI, but rather layering services on top of Big Tech models like Cloud, ChatGPT, and Gemini.
• Industry experts like Gowthaman Ragothaman and Partha Sinha highlight that agencies lack the time, computational power, and data to build foundational AI.
• Real innovation for agencies lies in redesigning marketing workflows, decision systems, and content supply chains using existing AI tools, not creating new AI.
• AI is transforming execution by enabling rapid data mining, insightful information, and the creation of numerous ad variations, leading to efficiency gains.
• The agency value is shifting from execution to strategic prioritisation, behavioural insight, and system architecture, with new revenue models emerging.