Will AI replace creative agencies?
AI is already replacing production execution (video editing, image variants, template design) that used to be billable hours for creative agencies. It has not yet replaced the strategic core (brand positioning, campaign ideation, cultural insight) that the strongest agencies sell. The near-term result: creative agencies are consolidating around strategy, and the production layer is either automated or offshored.
What has happened to the supply so far
Not on the evidence in front of us. Creative Strategy is the largest discipline in The Wall at 1,185 US listings, and 105 of them were founded in 2020 or later, which covers the period generative tools went mainstream.
Pricing has not collapsed either. 352 of the 1,051 firms publishing a minimum still require $25,000 or more. Production costs falling and fees holding usually means the fee was never mostly for production.
The small firms would go first if anything were going. 886 of the 1,083 Creative Strategy listings that publish a team size run fewer than 50 people, and that band is still the largest in the discipline. A productivity shock has not thinned it out.
How to use this
Assume the execution hours get cheaper and the judgment does not. When you brief a creative firm now, pay for the decision about what to make, and treat volume of output as the part you should expect to negotiate down.
How this was computed. Every figure on this page is counted from The Wall's own directory of approved, US-headquartered, machine-verified-live listings: 3,460 of them in the snapshot captured 2026-09-14. Rates, minimum project sizes, team sizes, founding years and ratings are provider-declared figures published on public profiles. 1,738 of those listings publish a service list, and that field holds at most 4 services per firm, so service counts are counts of what firms name first rather than everything they sell. Percentages of disclosed values exclude listings that publish no figure. Nothing here is modeled or estimated. Sourcing standards: editorial policy.
Why this matters
Google puts this question in People Also Ask for the "creative agency" query, which means buyers are asking it while they shop. The Wall answers it from the directory position: we index 3,460 verified US growth-services vendors across 10 pillars, so the figures above come from those records rather than from a survey.
If you are evaluating vendors in this category, the Creative Strategy pillar page carries the full US firm list with rate, team size and headquarters filters.