# The agency pyramid is being flattened. Put the savings into media. > Gartner says AI will remove marketing's bottom rungs by 2030. Why small, senior AI teams cost less, and how Australian brands can move the savings into media. Source: https://www.hiaitus.ai/posts/ai-agency-pyramid-small-teams-media-budget _Published 2026-09-30_ ## Key points - Gartner predicts AI will let most high-performing marketing teams drop their entry-level rungs by 2030. - Its 2026 CMO Spend Survey has paid media up to 31.4% of budgets, funded by cuts to agencies. - Small, senior teams using AI can deliver the same builds for less, freeing budget for media. This week [Gartner put a date](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-09-29-gartner-predicts-ai-will-allow-the-majority-of-high-performing-marketing-teams-to-eliminate-traditional-bottom-rungs-of-the-corporate-ladder-by-2030) on something most of agencies already are experiencing and grappling with. By 2030 it expects AI to let the majority of high-performing marketing teams eliminate "the traditional bottom rungs of the corporate ladder". Of the 1,303 senior leaders it surveyed, 18% have already cut roles because of automation. Those bottom rungs are where agencies have made most of their money for decades. I think it'll be a LOT sooner than 2030, more like 2028, however take that with a grain of salt as it's my opinion based off what we are seeing. ## How agency fees were built The model I grew up in was simple, we have a few senior people win and shape the work and a much bigger team underneath that does the production, and the client pays for hours. Most of those hours sit at the bottom, or more recently, sit offshore. The margin moved from juniors to offshore a decade ago, it's now moving again - back to Seniors but they're doing all the junior and offshore work via AI, keeping the experience and judgement to orchestrate outcomes. TrinityP3's Darren Woolley summed it up at [AdNews L!VE Sydney](https://www.adnews.com.au/news/sydney-l-ve-agencies-give-away-their-value-and-ai-is-exposing-the-bill) in June: "We get paid for doing stuff." He told the room about an idea he billed at one hour that went on to earn the agency more than $280,000 to implement. That worked while production needed bodies, but building the site and writing 40 email variants took weeks, so timelines were set by headcount and rate cards, and fees followed. ## What AI changed in agency work AI now does most of that first pass (the first draft of the code, the 40 variants) in minutes, or a few hours. We've turned around complex projects in days rather than weeks - in fact the last project we had we beat the competitor estimate by 1/3rd the cost and 1/4 of their time estimate. Great for brands to re-invest scarce budget and capital into things like media to help drive sales. AI still gets things wrong, and very confidently too!. Someone **has to know** which specific CMS and module settings will actually save the client's team an hour or thrree a week for the next few years.. That takes people who've done the work for a long time, senior people. Maybe the coin has flipped, and the plus 50 year old generation is no longer on the "too old to hire list", but on the "too experienced **not** to hire for anything that has AI involved" Australian businesses are wary of AI getting things wrong and costing more than the dream the big LLMs are over promising. The [National AI Centre's tracker](https://www.ai.gov.au/news-and-insights/blog/ai-adoption-insights-december-2025-february-2026) had SME AI adoption at 43% over December 2025 to February 2026. Of the businesses not using it, around **65% cited distrust in AI** decision-making or wanting to keep human control. So the team that works now looks like the pyramid turned over. Fewer people, more senior, with AI doing the volume underneath. ## The big end is moving WPP has cut about 11,000 roles since the start of 2025 ([Mumbrella, September](https://mumbrella.com.au/wpp-ramps-up-job-cuts-with-up-to-1000-more-roles-axed-935476)). Omnicom expects to end 2026 at roughly 105,000 staff, down from about 120,000, as it absorbs IPG ([Mediaweek, September](https://www.mediaweek.com.au/omnicom-to-cut-15-000-staff-by-year-end)). Most of those cuts come from merger savings and cost programs, and Omnicom's CFO says client-facing staff have largely been spared. Pricing is under pressure anyway. In March the Advertising Council Australia's [Tony Hale](https://advertisingcouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/MR_VoxComm-issues-new-guidance-on-agency-value-models.pdf) said "modernising remuneration models is essential for long-term viability" as the industry moves off time-based fees. ## Moving agency savings into media I think marketers are underplaying it all. Gartner's [2026 CMO Spend Survey](https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/cmo-spend) has budgets at **7.8% of company revenue**,_** 18% lower **_than four years ago. Paid media is up to 31.4% of budgets, and Gartner says the shift is "funded by cuts to agencies". CMOs are already moving money out of fees and into media, because media drives the leads and sales their C-suite cry out for in order to land expectations and KPI bonuses. Locally there isn't much slack. [Guideline SMI](https://mumbrella.com.au/australian-ad-spend-down-in-2025-after-slow-december-guideline-smi-913522) had agency ad spend down 2% for calendar 2025, and down 5.2% in the second half. Take a brand with $500k for the year (made-up number). If the site rebuild and CRM work cost $300k, media gets $200k. Deliver the same build for half and media gets $350k, 75% more working budget from the same total. It just makes sense, provided the seniority is there to orchestrate and make critical judgement calls to land the outcomes. Gartner does warn that pushing it all into acquisition can lift short-term results and hurt long-term growth. Fair enough. Money freed from headcount can go to brand just as easily as performance. At least now there's a choice. ## What a small AI team looks like We're a handy test case, so I'll use us (bias be damned). Hiaitus is two people, each with decades of experience, based in Sydney and working with local and international brands. We do digital strategy through to execution across marketing and tech (eg SEO and eCRM). AI speeds up every project and human judgement decides what's good enough to go out. We produce the equivalent of a team of 15 at the price of 2. From our two latest projects: _"The project is a great success, featuring quick deployment, well built CMS settings, and very positive responses."_ **Major International Automotive Brand** _"This module has been built well, and we can use it immediately without any adjustments."_ **Local Agency Dev Lead** I care most about the second one, where a lead developer at a big agency partner took our module and used it as delivered, no changes. Small AI teams will be judged on their output, more than on speed, because anyone can claim they're fast. ## The catch Gartner's Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone warns against "mistaking the automation of entry-level tasks for the elimination of the need for entry-level talent". She's right, and it's the bit I don't have a any real answer too, except to say that if we reach a suitable scale, juniors will be the ones we hire and train up on **judgement **as a key hard AND soft skills. On a macro level, the whole industry needs another way to grow its next seniors. ## Questions worth asking your agency - How much of this quote is production time AI could compress? - Who is actually doing the work, and for how many years have they done it? - If the build costs less, how much more goes to media, and how soon...? _FAQ_ ## Questions we get a lot ### What is the agency pyramid? It's the traditional agency structure. A few senior people win and shape the work, and a larger junior team does the production. Clients pay for hours, and most hours sit at the bottom. Gartner predicts AI will let most high-performing marketing teams remove those bottom rungs by 2030. ### Can a small AI-accelerated team deliver large digital projects? Yes, if the people are senior. AI does the first pass of code and content in hours, and experienced people check quality and make the calls. Hiaitus is a two-person team in Sydney. We produce the equivalent of a team of 15 at the price of 2. ### How can brands move digital project savings into media? Cut the production hours in build work (eg site and CRM builds) and put the difference into paid media or brand. Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey found paid media rose to 31.4% of marketing budgets, funded by cuts to agencies. ### What should I ask my agency about AI? Ask how much of the quote is production time AI could compress, who is doing the work and how experienced they are, and how quickly any savings can move into media. _Hiaitus_ ## Got a digital project eating your media budget? Two senior people, AI doing the heavy lifting. Tell us what you need built. - [Get in touch](https://www.hiaitus.ai/contact)