Agency strategy losing ground despite surging demand, WARC warns

Agency strategy is losing ground within the marketing industry even as client demand for strategic guidance reaches record levels, according to The Future of Strategy 2025, a global survey-led report from WARC.

The study, based on responses from 1,127 strategists worldwide, finds that 80 percent believe their discipline is at a crossroads, with 62 percent saying strategy is often treated as expendable when budgets tighten.

Despite this decline in perceived value, the report highlights that in an era of uncertainty and rapid change, brands increasingly rely on clear strategic thinking to navigate complexity and sustain growth.

Lena Roland, Content Director, WARC Strategy: "Our annual Future of Strategy report acts as a temperature check for how strategists are feeling about the state of the discipline. This year’s survey found that agency-side strategists feel their discipline is at a crossroads and all too often is treated as expendable. Agency-side strategy needs to rebrand, focusing on helping clients identify where and how to grow."

According to WARC, the “strategy paradox” reflects a widening gap between client expectations and agency realities. While strategic counsel is in high demand, internal resources are under pressure — only 31 percent of strategists expect team growth in the next year, down from 47 percent in 2024.

Tom Morton, Founder, Narratory Capital: "The economic housing of strategy is coming apart, which is strange because the demand for it is as high as ever."

Ellie Bamford, Chief Strategy Officer, VML North America: "We’ve become risk averse, and our clients have become risk averse. We are hiding behind mountains of data and research, and we’re not coming out strongly enough with our point of view. And that’s diminishing our value."

Many strategists, particularly at senior levels, are considering moves outside agencies — with 24 percent of experienced strategists planning a shift to consultancies.

The role of artificial intelligence in strategy continues to divide opinion. Nearly half of respondents (46 percent) disagree that AI will diminish the value of strategists, though 37 percent believe AI will eventually learn one of strategy’s most valuable traits — the ability to take creative leaps.

Most strategists (76 percent) report an increase in AI use over the past year, particularly in North America (85 percent). AI is being deployed to streamline tasks such as competitor analysis (66 percent), brief development (51 percent), and cultural insight generation (42 percent).

Oliver Feldwick, Chief Innovation Officer, T&P: "The challenge for strategists is not to resist AI, nor to blindly embrace it, but to partner with it. This is not about abdicating our role. It’s about evolving it — reclaiming strategy from the grind and rediscovering the joy of thought."

Despite AI’s growing presence, strategists cite its limitations in originality (61 percent) and cultural nuance (60 percent), reinforcing the continued importance of human insight and empathy.

The report calls for a renewed focus on creative and imaginative strategy that prioritizes disruption over convention.

Joseph Burns, Strategy Lead, Quality Meats Creative: "Strategy regains relevance when it stops polishing symmetry and starts opening up advantages — gaps in understanding, access, and timing."

Steve Walls, Planner, Moon Rabbit: "Planning needs to stop trying to be right and start trying to be useful. It needs to take leaps of faith and to convince others to follow it into the unknowable."

Tomas Gonsorcik, Global Chief Strategy Officer, BBH: "We have to rebrand strategy — not as a back-office function, not as a luxury, but as a service: clear, accountable, and indispensable. Strategy should operate as a standalone service inside the agency. Its purpose is to deliver growth clarity, not just decks."

Strategists see their greatest opportunities in helping clients navigate category volatility (52 percent) and media complexity (45 percent). In this environment, human-led strategic thinking remains essential for brands seeking clarity, creativity, and long-term growth.

The Future of Strategy 2025 report, which includes data analysis, commentary, and recommendations from leading strategists, is available to WARC subscribers.