What Your Agency Can't Do in 48 Hours (And What That Means)

The question pharma marketers keep asking about AI is the wrong one.

"Will AI replace our agency?" assumes a binary choice. Either you work with agencies, or you work with AI tools. One or the other.

The better question is: "What work benefits from which approach?"

Agencies excel at certain things. Strategic thinking that draws on years of category experience. Craft that comes from talented creative directors and producers. Complex productions requiring custom footage, celebrity talent, or intricate logistics. Relationship management and deep brand immersion over time.

AI-powered tools excel at different things. Speed that agencies structurally cannot match. Iteration without proportional cost increases. Rapid production of variants for testing. Real-time response to market moments.

The winning model isn't choosing one over the other. It's intentional division of labor based on what each approach does best.

Here's what's interesting: faster iteration through AI actually makes agency work more valuable, not less. When you can rapidly test creative concepts before committing significant production budget, you validate briefs before you give them to agencies. Your agency gets better inputs. Their strategic recommendations are informed by real data, not just research and intuition.

The emerging model looks something like this:

• Agencies as strategic partners focused on brand positioning, flagship creative, and complex productions
• AI-powered tools for execution at scale: variants, testing, rapid response, portfolio coverage
• Data flowing between them: performance insights from AI-produced content informing agency strategy

For agency teams reading this: this isn't a threat. It's an opportunity to focus on the work you do best, supported by clients who arrive with validated insights rather than untested hypotheses. The relationship becomes more strategic, not less.

ohohoh.ai complements agency relationships. And for teams who want agency-style service with AI-powered speed, we offer managed services too. The question isn't either/or. It's how to get the best of both.