AI is re-writing all the rules. And for independent agencies and those leading them, it represents a whole new set of challenges to be navigated. New Digital Age recently hosted an Indie Circle roundtable in association with MiQ, bringing together a selection of agency leaders to unpack how AI is redefining value in a market long dominated by holding groups.
Meredith O’Brien, Group Agency Director at MiQ, opened the conversation by paying tribute to the indie sector: “We created our ‘Indie Circle’ events a few years ago as we identified a need to focus on specific indie requirements that our broader sessions weren’t touching.
“More recently, we’ve seen a real shift around indies starting to win big hold co business and the use of AI is undoubtedly helping from a resourcing perspective, so we wanted to explore that today in more detail.”
One source of tension lies in how agencies approach the AI tech itself. Should they build proprietary tools or partner with existing platforms? The answer is far from straightforward.
As Bee Pearson, Founding Partner at Piqniq, put it: “Using something proprietary is a really great way to bring in new business and maybe charge clients for it, but it’s also a bigger risk because obviously the price point is so much higher.”
William Haydon, Head of Paid Media at Planit, said: “For us, AI is largely about cost-saving and improved efficiencies, but we’re trying to figure out if we build tech in-house, will it be better than what’s already out there?
I was quizzing the MiQ team on their Sigma tool as a key area that we are figuring out is whether investing the time and money into building our own proprietary synthetic audience tools is better and more cost-effective in the long-term versus working with established partners in the field.”
Tech and intelligence
Of course, tools that feel differentiated today can quickly become commoditised. Jonathan James, Digital Director at Cheeky Communications, highlighted this challenge: “Indie agencies are trying to find something that everyone else won’t have tomorrow. You can spend all that time and investment to create something and then, in a couple of months, everyone has the same tool with a different name.”
Gary King, Head of Display & Video at Incubeta, added: “Holdcos often force you to use their tech, which is limiting. We have a load of proprietary tech at a holistic macro level, but at a micro level, for things like campaign builds, third-party tools can be great at automating.”
For others, the competitive edge lies not in the tools themselves, but in the data, insights and strategic thinking that the tools enable. James Shoreland, CEO at VCCP Media, framed it succinctly: “It’s not proprietary tech that’s important anymore; it’s about proprietary intelligence now.”
And that perspective is shaping how agencies approach their internal infrastructure. Ed Cox, Partner at Beyond, described a deliberate move to re-platform data in order to make it usable by AI systems: “We don’t want to come up with an agentic media plan that is just using open web data and just giving you really bog-standard and average answers. We’re going through the way that we’ve recorded and stored all of our information so that it’s available to any AI, so that we can start to train them on our own secret sauce.”
Where’s the difference?
This highlights a broader concern: if everyone has access to the same AI tools, differentiation must come from somewhere else.
Nick Smith, CDO at JAA Media, warned that investing too heavily in proprietary systems could actually undermine what makes indies competitive: “The challenge with proprietary tech is that it kind of undermines one of the advantages that indies have, which is the fact that actually we have agility and that we move with best-in-class.”
Dan Perry, Head of Digital Planning at Goodstuff, emphasised the importance of talent in getting the most from AI: ““You can’t underestimate the power of getting the right people in. We made a hire about six months ago and the amount of work he’s got through from an AI perspective is insane.
He’s built proprietary dashboard, Launchpad, that houses planning data from Brand Index and Nielsen and filters through AI to help interpret that data and derive insights more quickly and effectively.”
However, as automation takes over repetitive tasks, agencies are required to rethink how they train and develop new talent. Matthew Sharkey, Head of Activation at Bicycle London, pointed to a potential disconnect: “AI isn’t going to replace the face-to-face client interaction. But if you’re a junior person coming in and your job is essentially doing these menial tasks and, at the same time, learning how the industry works, what do you do now?”
Scale redefined
AI is also forcing a rethink of commercial models. If automation drives efficiency, should clients expect lower fees? Interestingly, the consensus was largely the opposite. Rather than eroding value, AI is expanding it.
Cox argued that the industry must move beyond time-based billing altogether: “We’ve got to move clients towards the model which is pay for outcomes. I think that’s where we need to end up.” By focusing on outcomes rather than hours, agencies can better reflect the true value of AI-driven insights.
Smith reinforced this point, noting that clients are often unaware of the time saved through automation, and more interested in the results delivered. The opportunity is not to charge less, but to deliver more.
Beyond internal operations, AI is also reshaping the competitive landscape between indies and holdicos. Shoreland shared an anecdote that captures the shift: “Holdcos used to go to market and the advantage they had was scale. The advance in technology has completely removed that advantage.”
Jonathan James echoed this sentiment more bluntly: “Digital borders don’t exist anymore. It’s much easier for us to run campaigns across markets.”
For indies, it seems the challenge is to harness the incredible power of AI without losing their unique quality that sets them apart. Based on our discussion, indies are not just adapting to AI, they’re actively reframing the narrative around AI and how it delivers true value for their clients and themselves.
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AI-powered technology like MiQ Sigma can help to achieve just that. Powered by over 700 trillion data signals, Sigma unifies planning, activation and optimisation. With the ability to see intelligence across what audiences are watching, browsing and buying, and then activate those insights in just 30 seconds, indie agencies can now achieve scale without compromising quality.
Discover how MiQ Sigma can help deliver better AI-driven outcomes.
