When my parents ran their small outerwear business in New York City, marketing meant brick-and-mortar stores and handshake deals. Today, every business needs to be a digital marketing company first, but most entrepreneurs are stuck spending their nights and weekends struggling to be part-time marketers instead of building their actual businesses.
This gap between marketing needs and marketing reality has traditionally been filled by agencies. But here’s the counterintuitive truth: the rise of AI marketing tools isn’t threatening the agency model—it’s about to unleash the biggest expansion of marketing services since the invention of social media.
The math is simple but compelling. There are 33 million small businesses in America. Maybe 1% can afford a full-service agency relationship. Another 5-10% might work with freelancers or boutique shops. But that leaves nearly 30 million businesses trying to figure out marketing on their own, usually with poor results.
AI is changing this equation dramatically. Tools that can generate on-brand content, design assets, and growth strategies are making good marketing accessible to millions of businesses that could never afford agency services before. This isn’t replacing high-touch creative work—it’s expanding the total addressable market for marketing services.
Smart agencies are already adapting their models. Instead of seeing AI as competition, they’re using it to serve down-market clients profitably for the first time. They’re building hybrid services that combine AI’s speed and scale with human strategic oversight. They’re focusing on the parts of marketing that still need a human touch: strategy, brand voice development, and creative direction.
This shift mirrors what happened when website builders like Squarespace emerged. They didn’t kill web design agencies—they just moved the value higher up the stack to strategy and custom development. The businesses who would never have hired an agency still aren’t hiring agencies. But now they can at least have a decent web presence.
The same pattern is playing out with AI marketing tools. Yes, some businesses that might have hired junior agencies will now do basic content creation themselves. But that creates an opportunity to serve them in new ways: training, strategy, and specialized creative work that AI still can’t match.
The future of marketing isn’t either/or. It’s both/and. AI tools will handle the routine tasks of content creation and distribution. Agencies will focus on the strategic and creative work that machines can’t replicate. And millions of small businesses that were previously locked out of digital marketing will finally be able to grow.
This is good for everyone. More businesses marketing effectively means more businesses growing. Growing businesses eventually need agency services. The pie gets bigger.
At Blaze, we’re seeing this shift happen in real time. Agencies are using our AI marketing platform not to replace their creative teams, but to dramatically amplify what they can deliver. The technology handles the time-intensive tasks of content creation and distribution, freeing up agencies to focus on what they do best: high-impact strategy, creative direction, and building deeper client relationships that drive real business results.
The real question isn’t whether AI will replace agencies. It’s how quickly agencies will adapt to using AI as a tool to serve more clients better. The opportunity is massive for those willing to embrace it.