Over at B2B Marketing, we believe that the key to proving marketing’s impact is to become the commercial marketer. One of the essential skills to becoming the commercial marketer is communication and influence. Marketers need to be able to build sustainable relationships with both internal and external stakeholders while having the ability to communicate ideas in easy-to-understand ways. And as we know, the relationship between a client and agency is essential to nurture. So what happens when new research suggests that AI has increased expectations and workloads for agencies? In this blog, Rob Sayles, Agency Consultant breaks it all down.
AI was supposed to make agency life easier. Faster delivery, lower costs, fewer headaches – at least, that’s the client’s perception. The reality on the ground is very different. According to Resource Guru’s Agency Overworking Report, one in five agency staff say AI has actually increased their workload. Instead of freeing up time, teams are bogged down in writing AI-friendly briefs, double-checking outputs and retraining.
This is what I call the AI discount trap: the belief that AI automatically means faster and cheaper, when in practice it’s piling pressure on overstretched teams. Unless we reset expectations, AI risks becoming less of a productivity tool and more of a burnout machine.
AI has hidden costs that clients don’t see
On the surface, AI looks like a shortcut. Feed in a brief, press a button, and the output is instant. But inside agencies, the reality is very different. The work hasn’t gone away, it’s just shifted to making AI outputs usable: drafting prompts, editing errors and checking compliance. Add in training on new tools and processes, and the “efficiency” story quickly unravels.
While AI might polish the work, it doesn’t reduce the hours logged. Clients don’t see this hidden layer of effort, and that’s why so many assume agencies should be delivering more for less.
I spoke with Jen Neville, Creative Client Services Director at Hybrid, who told me that, “Clients very much expect that level of human collaboration to still be at the forefront, while very much expecting us to be at the forefront of AI’s development and incorporation into our everyday working life. Coming from a digital/tech business, clients expected us to be developing and using our own technology and offering this to our clients at the same time.”
This paradox—demanding human-led relationships while assuming AI will reduce costs or timelines—is exactly what creates hidden pressures on agency teams.
What the research shows
Resource Guru’s report highlights why so many agency teams feel under pressure.
Nearly half (46%) of burnt-out agency workers cite demanding clients as the cause, and 30% blame unrealistic deadlines.
AI is now compounding these existing pressures. Instead of easing workloads, it often adds new layers of effort—from building templates and prompts, to editing errors and fact-checking outputs. In some cases, it takes longer than not using AI at all.
On top of this, they need to:
- Onboard onto new AI platforms
- Test tools
- Stay up to speed with best practices
- Implement extra AI reporting
In some cases, entire team structures are being reshaped, with new service lines layered on top of existing commitments.
In other words, AI isn’t replacing the core drivers of burnout—it’s amplifying them.
So, how can agencies avoid the AI discount trap?
If AI is exposing cracks in the agency model, the solution isn’t to double down on unrealistic expectations. It’s to reset how agencies and clients work together. Here are five ways agency leaders can help steer their agency away from actually working harder for less.
1. Account for AI’s hidden costs
AI doesn’t magically make work disappear. I spoke with Patrick Mulford, CEO of Clock, who shared with me that while his team uses AI to support day-to-day tasks, “The additional step often takes just as much time as it saves, but results in a slightly better product, with a little less pain.”
To make sure this work is not overlooked, agencies need to:
- Set realistic timelines
- Allow longer for QA
- Budget for oversight
Agencies can’t deliver sustainable results if they’re expected to absorb all of that extra effort for free.
2. Value craft and human expertise
Patrick also raised an important point about overreliance on AI. “Whenever anyone relies on AI to the point that it’s doing the majority of their work, they are actively making themselves redundant.”
He stressed the importance of craft. AI can help with repetitive tasks, but over-reliance risks “soulless” outputs and weaker creative integrity. This instantly devalues your work. Recognising and protecting craft ensures agencies don’t end up undervalued and slipping into the trap of doing more for less.
3. Position yourself as a strategic partner
AI has made transactional work look deceptively easy. If clients can generate content in seconds, they’ll question agency fees and timelines.
When I spoke to Marcel Petitpas, Founder of Parakeeto, he explained: “Agencies that are positioned more as experts and are selling solutions to problems or business outcomes are not experiencing as much pricing pressure… many of them are actually getting faster, more efficient or are able to do things they couldn’t do before and add more value.”
Start by auditing your positioning. If your proposals are framed around deliverables (“10 blogs, 5 ads”), you’re a delivery shop in the client’s eyes. Instead, frame work around the business outcome (“increase pipeline from content marketing by 20%”). This repositioning changes your value to the client; you become a strategic partner, and AI becomes a lever to add value rather than a reason to squeeze your margins.
4. Be transparent about AI
One reason clients push back on fees is mistrust. If they suspect agencies are secretly using AI to cut corners, they’ll assume the work should cost less.
Patrick told me that his agency has introduced an AI Ethical Policy. It sets a clear expectation. If AI is used for major parts of a project, the client is told, and if there are genuine efficiency gains, they’ll be passed on. This approach reassures clients while protecting the value of the agency’s work.
Consider whether you need to create your own AI policy and make it part of how you communicate with clients. You can use it to set boundaries around where AI is used, where it isn’t, and how it’s governed. That way, you control the narrative and keep trust intact.
5. Set realistic expectations and boundaries
One of the hardest parts of the AI conversation is happening at the frontline: account management. Clients increasingly ask if AI should cut costs or speed up delivery, leaving account teams managing unrealistic expectations under pressure.
This pressure can put agencies in a bind. Account managers may hesitate to push back for fear of damaging the commercial relationship, even when deadlines or budgets are unrealistic, which then traps agencies in overwork.
Agency leaders must step in and reset these boundaries. That means training account and project managers to confidently explain where AI creates hidden work, building clear messaging into proposals and setting red lines on scope or timelines.
Practical tools can make these conversations easier. Resource scheduling and time tracking give agencies real data to work with: how long tasks actually take, where capacity is stretched, and when deadlines need to shift. This transparency helps managers back up boundary-setting with evidence, rather than relying on difficult conversations alone.
Jen told me her agency has started using Resource Guru to help with this: “With the number of briefs and projects coming in per client increasing, we needed a tool that allowed us to see in real-time where our capacities were, where we needed to plan for additional resource and how our pipeline was looking. Not only does this help our internal team plan ahead, it enables us to have more transparent conversations around where project deadlines and abilities to deliver might need to shift.”
Boundaries actually help protect client–agency relationships. When expectations are realistic, agencies can deliver consistently, and clients get better results without burning out the team behind them.
Burnout, not AI, is the real threat
AI won’t kill agencies. But burnout will. If leaders keep chasing “faster and cheaper,” talent will walk, margins will collapse, and the industry will hollow out. The agencies that survive will be those that protect their people and push back on the myth of limitless efficiency.
