Staying Valuable in the Age of AI: Advice for Agencies

When Building Becomes the Easy Part 

Coming from a development background, I've seen how technology changes the economics of software delivery. Activities that once required considerable expertise and manual effort gradually become standardized, automated, or integrated directly into platforms. AI is taking this process to another level, and we’re only beginning to understand what this means. 

With Xperience by Kentico and tools such as KentiCopilot, we are moving toward a reality where certain projects that previously took weeks can be delivered in days. Much of the repetitive work involved in creating widgets, templates, standard functionality, and the technical foundations of a website can increasingly be automated. This doesn't suggest complex enterprise implementations will suddenly become trivial, but it does indicate that the amount of manual development required for many projects will decrease significantly. 

For agencies whose business models have traditionally relied on selling development hours, this creates a challenge. If a client can achieve the same technical result in a fraction of the time, it becomes difficult to justify the same implementation costs. And as these capabilities become more accessible, customers will naturally start questioning what they are paying for. 

However, I think it would be a mistake to conclude that agencies are becoming less relevant. What is becoming less valuable is the repetitive work, not necessarily the expertise behind it. We need to distinguish between the effort required to build something and the value of knowing what should be built in the first place. 

The Value Was Never Just in the Code 

Imagine a situation where building a technically functional website becomes almost free. Does that mean every company suddenly knows how to create a successful digital presence? I don't think so, because the most difficult questions in digital projects have rarely been purely technical.

Companies still need to understand their customers, define their digital strategy, develop a recognizable brand experience, and connect their digital activities to business objectives. They need to decide which capabilities are worth investing in, how to design effective customer journeys, and how to differentiate themselves in increasingly competitive markets. These decisions require business understanding, creativity, experience, and often an external perspective that internal teams simply don't have. 

There is also a practical dimension that I think deserves more attention. An experienced agency understands not only what technology can do, but also what it should do in a particular business context. It can explain why one approach is more sustainable than another, why a seemingly simple customization could become expensive to maintain, or why an existing platform capability might solve a problem more effectively than building something new. That judgment becomes even more valuable when technology makes it easier to build almost anything. 

And then there is integration, which remains one of the most underestimated aspects of enterprise digital projects. Most established organizations operate within complex environments involving CRMs, ERPs, customer databases, legacy applications, security requirements, and internal processes. Connecting a digital experience platform to that ecosystem requires a deep understanding of how the business operates beyond the ability to generate code. 

This is where I see the greatest opportunity for agencies. As the technical foundations become easier to deliver, more time and attention can go toward strategy, experience design, integration, and continuous improvement. Instead of measuring success primarily through the amount of work delivered, agencies can increasingly focus on the business results they help their clients achieve. 

A Different Model of Growth 

This evolution matters enormously to Kentico because our business has always been closely connected to our partner ecosystem. Over the past 12 months, we've brought in approximately 90 new clients, with 80% of them coming through our strategic partners worldwide. In the United States, that proportion reaches 84%, which illustrates just how important our partners are to our growth. 

Our ambition is to move beyond 100 new clients annually and potentially approach 150, working together with our partners. But achieving that growth will take more than delivering more projects using the same methods. We need to make implementation more efficient while helping agencies develop services that customers will continue to value as technology evolves. 

For agencies, I believe this translates to investing more deliberately in strategic consulting, industry expertise, customer experience, complex integrations, AI adoption, and ongoing optimization. Pricing models that depend too heavily on the number of hours spent building a solution will need to be reconsidered. If technology reduces a project from several weeks to several days, the commercial model needs to reflect the expertise and business value delivered rather than the effort that automation has eliminated. 

For Kentico, the responsibility goes both ways. We need to continue simplifying implementation and reducing unnecessary technical work, while giving our partners the capabilities, knowledge, and support to expand their role with customers. Software vendors can’t define the future of agencies on their own, and I certainly don't believe we should try. The answers will come from working closely with partners who understand their markets and customers. 

What Will Your Agency Sell Tomorrow? 

I remain convinced that digital agencies have an important future, but I am equally convinced that their role will look different from what it does today. The agencies that succeed will not necessarily be those with the largest development teams or the capacity to produce the most websites. They will be those that combine technical understanding with business expertise and help customers make better decisions in an increasingly complex digital environment. 

This transition won't happen overnight, and it will require difficult choices about skills, services, pricing, and positioning. But waiting until traditional implementation revenue starts disappearing is probably the riskiest strategy of all. That's why I want us to have this conversation now, while there is still time to shape what comes next. Kentico has grown alongside its partners for nearly three decades, and I want us to continue building that future together. 

So I'll return to the question I asked our partners in August, with a slightly different perspective: if the build becomes practically free, what will your agency sell? 

The answer lies in everything that makes a good agency valuable beyond the code, and finding that answer together should be one of our priorities for the years ahead.