Tech & Talent Redistribution

You can download the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/eDdWvecm

AI is changing where marketing work gets done, who employs the people doing it and where influence sits between brands, agencies and technology companies. The question for leaders is no longer whether to reorganise, but around what.

To find out, Grace Blue and Flock surveyed senior marketing leaders across advertisers and agencies on the capabilities that will matter most by 2032. We also asked where AI will hit hardest, how ready organisations feel, and what they expect to keep in-house. The answers point to one conclusion above all others: technology is becoming easier to buy, and leadership is becoming harder to find.

Below, we set out what the findings mean for in-house marketing leaders and for agency leaders, as each makes decisions about team structure and capability.

The headline: leadership first, and the gaps around it.

Enterprise Leadership ranks as the most important capability for 2032, the one leaders most want to keep in-house, and the one they think AI will touch least. Yet it sits seventh of nine for readiness. That gap is the story of this research.

Three other patterns stand out:

• Transformation has become a capability in its own right. Marketing Systems & Transformation ranks fourth for importance overall, and first among agencies.

• Growth is important but under-served. Growth & Value Creation ranks second for importance, seventh for AI impact and eighth for readiness. AI investment is not yet pointed at the thing that matters most.

• Creativity is ranked low, and we think that is a mistake. Creative Ideas & Experience Design ranks seventh for importance and ninth for readiness, despite strong evidence linking creativity to commercial performance.

For in-house marketing leaders

Brands are buying technology faster than they are changing how they are organised. The leaders who pull ahead will be those who build the team around the technology, not the other way round.

1. Before investing in tech, question is your leadership team ready for 2032? Looking at the future leadership skills of your team is essential before committing to any technology or replacement hires. At Grace Blue we have built a leadership assessment that reveals where a leader's natural orientation sits across five capabilities that are essential for the future– watch this space for more on this.

2. Give transformation an owner. Advertisers expect AI to change Marketing Systems & Transformation more than any other capability. The strongest brands are setting up dedicated Marketing Operations or transformation teams, accountable for change and operational excellence. Transformation talent is now in short supply.

3. Fix the plumbing. Respondents named integration as the biggest barrier: joining up processes, technology, data and agencies. Many organisations run hundreds of small, disconnected AI pilots with no overall design. Shared data, clear taxonomies and "brand brains" that make insight available to teams and partners are becoming a real advantage.

4. No silos, no solos. The smartest brands have not created an AI squad, an influencer unit or a GEO team. They build emerging skills across the whole marketing function, at enterprise level.

5. Make in-housing earn its place. In-house agency headcount grew for 52% of IHALC members last year, and 66% expect a wider remit within three years. Brands want to own leadership, orchestration, strategy, growth and transformation, while insight, creative, content and channels stay largely with agencies. The test respondents offered:

• Keep it in-house if it needs close work with cross-functional teams.

• Outsource it if the cost of building it outweighs the advantage it creates.

• Either way, build a business case and pilot before committing.

6. Point AI at growth. Growth is the second most important capability but among the least affected by AI and least prepared. There is a clear opportunity to align AI investment with growth priorities such as pricing, range and new business, where some companies are already seeing strong results.

7. Build commercial career paths. Marketing expects to work much more closely with data and technology, then sales and commercial, then customer service. Coca-Cola has combined marketing, customer and commercial leadership in one role, and Virgin Atlantic has merged marketing with customer experience. Marketers without sales experience will find these roles harder to reach, so career paths need to include commercial exposure early.

For agency leaders

Agencies ranked Marketing Systems & Transformation as their most important capability for 2032, above leadership itself. That tells you how much pressure the agency model is under. The agencies that are rising are changing what they sell and who they hire to sell it.

1. Double down on AI, double up on leadership. Many agencies are using AI to augment junior teams while recognising that winning and keeping the biggest clients requires exceptional senior talent. Expect a thinner base and a stronger top. Leaders who can guide a client through transformation are at a premium.

2. Transform yourself first. Some agencies now run dedicated project teams for their own internal transformation. Clients will find it hard to trust an agency to lead change it has not been through itself.

3. Know which revenue is exposed. Respondents expect agencies to keep most insight, creative, content and channel work. But Content & Production is also the capability AI will change most: Unilever reports producing product imagery twice as fast at 50% lower cost. Gartner found 39% of CMOs planned agency budget cuts and 22% reported less reliance on creative and strategy agencies.

4. Sell outcomes, not hours. In a WFA study, 58% of advertisers expected outcome-based fees to grow and 56% expected output-based fees to grow. The smartest agencies are moving from selling time and skill to selling technology and results. That needs commercial leaders who can price and stand behind outcomes.

5. Lean into in-housing. Rather than fighting it, leading agencies are helping clients set up in-house teams, supplying technology, placing teams on-site alongside client data and legal teams, or running fully insourced models. Hybrid models need leaders who can operate inside a client's organisation.

6. Rethink creative leadership. It is no longer enough for creative, design and UX directors to generate and curate ideas. They need to lead teams that think and produce differently. The industry is in a race for more, cheaper creative. As that becomes normal, the race for quality begins, and the smartest agencies have already started.

7. Build the channel capabilities clients are planning for. Brands are writing three to five year plans for media and commerce, and exploring combining PR, social and influencer. Agencies that build those integrated capabilities ahead of demand will be best placed.

Where we think the market has it wrong

Surveys tell you what leaders believe. Two of the beliefs in this one deserve challenge.

Leadership is more exposed to AI than leaders think. Respondents rank Enterprise Leadership as the capability least affected by AI. In our experience working with AI transformation experts, Mindstone, AI transformation succeeds or fails on behaviour, and behaviour is set by leaders. A leadership team that treats AI as someone else's project is the single biggest risk to the investment. Tellingly, respondents in regional and global roles already see AI affecting leadership more than their local market colleagues do.

Creativity is being undervalued. McKinsey found that companies in the top quartile for creative recognition outperform: 70% posted above-average total shareholder return and 67% above-average organic revenue growth. As execution becomes easier to automate, distinctive ideas become more valuable, not less. As State Farm CMO Kristyn Cook says, "Creativity remains the ultimate differentiator for brands." The winners we see are still investing in creative talent, but in leaders who can change how their teams work, not just curate ideas.

Where do I start?

Write one integrated plan for talent and technology together, built around customer needs and growth priorities. Brands and agencies alike should design it three years forward and work back, rather than patching legacy structures.

That plan starts with an honest question: does your leadership team have the skills to lead this change? If the answer is not a confident yes, that is where to begin. Technology can be bought, rented or built. The leaders who make it work cannot be outsourced.

If you would like to discuss what this means for your leadership team, contact us at helloeurope@graceblue.co.uk.

About the research

Grace Blue and Flock Associates surveyed senior marketing leaders worldwide between September and 2 October 2026. 66 leaders responded: 46% from advertisers and 54% from agencies, 80% based in EMEA and 20% in the Americas. Read the full report, Talent and Tech Redistribution, for regional and sector detail.

References

1. McKinsey & Company (2025). Creativity's Bottom Line: How Winning Companies Turn Creativity into Business Value and Growth.

2. Fast Company (2025). Top CMOs Dish on 2025: How They're Preparing for 2026.

3. World Federation of Advertisers & MediaSense (2025). Future of Media Agency Remuneration.

4. Gartner (2025). 2025 CMO Spend Survey.

5. Unilever (2025). Unilever Reinvents Product Shoots with Digital Twins and AI.

6. In-House Agency Leaders Club (2025). IHALC Survey 2025 Report.

7. The Coca-Cola Company (2026). Changes in Operational Leadership and Creation of New Enterprise Role to Accelerate Digital Transformation.

8. Flock Associates & Grace Blue (2026). Talent and Tech Redistribution.