Do This If You Don’t Want to Be Obsolete in Two Years

I’ve seen what’s coming. And most agencies aren’t even close.

💡 Today's Key Insight:

I spend a lot of time in custom AI development circles. Builders, engineers, and operators are already stress-testing what agency models will look like three years from now.

And after peering into that future, I can tell you this:

For the winners, it’s absolutely insane.

This is what the best agencies will look like in 2028–and what you need to start building in 2026 if you want to be one of them.

The One Rule That Has Always Decided Who Wins

In marketing, two things have always been true:

  1. The business that can spend the most wins.

  2. The business that can test the most wins.

That hasn’t changed.

What has changed is the speed and volume required to compete.

The immediate future of marketing agencies is volume at scale. Not headcount, not hustle, not heroics. Volume driven by custom AI workflows that compound learning every single day.

And this future isn’t theoretical.

It’s already here.

What Elite Operators Are Already Doing

One of the best marketers I know (someone I genuinely consider a savant) is already operating this way.

In one of his businesses, he’s split testing 300 creatives per day. Automatically.

Here’s what’s actually happening behind the scenes:

  • Everything is built on top of a custom MCP-style server that stores and owns all of the data

  • Custom AI workflows generate creatives and copy at scale (video + static)

  • AI agents automatically analyze performance

  • Winners are identified and budgets adjusted

  • Losers are cut without emotion

  • Trends are detected across accounts and time

  • New concepts are generated automatically

  • The next day? Another 300 brand-new creatives go live

Because he’s spending at a statistically significant level, the signal is clean, the learning is real,  and the results compound fast.

This isn’t experimentation. This is a machine.

This is just one example. An AI infrastructure looks different within every agency, but there isn’t a single business that wouldn’t benefit from this level of scale. 

Book a quick call with me, and I’ll map out specifically what you need based on your size, clients, and margins.

This Is the Blueprint

This is the future blueprint for agencies that survive and dominate.

Not “AI tools, duct-taped automations, or chatbots for novelty.

I’m talking about custom AI development that allows your agency to:

  • Do dramatically more testing with the same (or fewer) people

  • Increase the output and quality of your core service

  • See, analyze, and act on performance trends daily, not quarterly

  • Build proprietary IP that compounds across clients and verticals

  • Create defensibility that can’t be copied by offshore labor or templates

The agencies that win won’t just be service providers. They’ll be technology-enabled operators.

The Timeline Nobody Wants to Hear (But Needs To)

To be clear: building an agency like this isn’t a weekend project.

Even with strong operators and engineers, you’re looking at 12+ months to reach full maturity.

But here’s the part most people miss:

In the first 3-6 months, agencies that start this journey see massive gains in:

  • Capacity

  • Efficiency

  • Margin

  • Team leverage

Growth and profit become easier long before the system is complete.

That’s why the smartest agencies have already started.

There Will Be Very Few Winners

This next phase will not be evenly distributed.

Most agencies will wait, watch, and“see how things shake out.”

And by the time it’s obvious, it will be too late.

The winners of the next market cycle are already tech-enabling their services with custom AI workflows and proprietary systems.

Everyone else will be competing on price, speed, and shrinking margins.

It really is AI or die.

Final Thought

I’m not writing this to scare you.

I’m writing it because I’ve seen what’s coming. And the gap between agencies that build now and agencies that wait is going to be brutal.

If you want to be on the winning side of that divide, the work starts before it feels urgent.

Want to be in the winner’s circle? If you want help thinking through what a realistic AI roadmap looks like for your agency, book a call here

No hype. No buzzwords. Just a clear plan.

👋🏼 Whenever you are ready, we can help you:

Escape agency prison to spend more time with your family (8F Consulting) here

Know your $ numbers & never worry about making payroll (8F Finance) here

Close more leads, meet more deadlines, & build AI SDRs that book calls for you (8F OS) here

Want us to run a diagnostics on which of the following systems you need the most help with and put together an easy-to-implement action plan to improve them? So you can finally escape agency prison and build your dream agency? Book a demo here!

Stay happy, stay hungry,

Jordan Ross

CEO & Founder @ 8 Figure Agency

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