In B2B, the use of AI is extending beyond efficiencies and productivity to influence how brands spend on agencies, what they expect from their partners and how those relationships operate.

Marketing Week’s exclusive 2025 State of B2B Marketing research reveals 15.2% of the 450 B2B marketers surveyed have reduced agency spend due to their use of AI in the last 12 months, compared to just 1.9% who have increased it.

This move is particularly pronounced among larger organisations (250 employees or more), where 17% have reduced spend on agencies, versus 13.7% of SMEs. In comparison, 2.3% of large organisations have increased agency spend versus 1.6% of SMEs.

While some businesses are experimenting cautiously, others are moving quickly, rethinking their relationships with agencies as AI becomes increasingly embedded across their operations.

Sage partner services business Datel sits at the more advanced end of the AI maturity spectrum. Marketing director Emma Pownall says every role in the business now has a “digital twin”, an AI-powered agent tailored to the individual’s responsibilities.

“We have a very human-first AI-enabled strategy as a business,” she says. “Everyone will have a digital twin at some point.”

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s really tempting to look at AI as a silver bullet that’s going to solve everything.

Angela Brown, NCC Group

Each digital twin can also tap into others when needed. For example, Datel has developed an agent that specialises in YouTube descriptions and can be called on when content needs to be written.

As an SME, Pownall says Datel’s smaller size allows it to move quickly, experiment and “embrace failure”, while remaining “cautious but creative”.

“We’ve taken the approach that everyone within the marketing function will need to have a skillset around AI to continue in their careers,” she adds.

That mindset has already changed how Datel works with agencies. Earlier this year, the business identified a content gap and brought in an agency to handle copywriting. During onboarding the team built its own AI model and within six months Datel’s AI system had produced more content than the agency.

“Onboarding an agency is really difficult because they need to understand you as a client, the strategy and where they fit in,” she says. “We’ve been really open with this particular agency [about where they fit in] and started to talk about if the AI is doing the writing, what is their role?”

A cautious approach

At the other end of the spectrum is cybersecurity firm NCC Group which operates in an industry where, as CMO Angela Brown puts it, “companies are quite cautious” in their approach to AI.

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint. It’s really tempting to look at AI as a silver bullet that’s going to solve everything and I maintain it isn’t,” she adds.

So far, NCC Group hasn’t changed the way it works with agencies. Instead, it’s exploring how to use AI collaboratively across its existing partnerships, such as with its PR agency.

“I’m excited about the possibility of it [AI], in terms of being able to unleash the creativity of my team,” Brown says.

However, she notes AI is no different to an agency in the way that when a brand complains about an agency, it is often because they weren’t briefed properly.

“AI is only ever as good as the brief and it’s only ever as good as the way that you then use the output,” she adds.

Email signature software company Exclaimer is taking a measured approach to AI adoption. According to senior vice-president of global marketing Jenny Herbison, the brand uses AI to improve efficiency, support market research and generate content.

While AI hasn’t yet changed how Exclaimer allocates agency budgets, it has shifted expectations.

“We’re moving from an operational level to a more strategic level with agencies,” she says. “We know AI is generic – everyone gets the same ideas and outputs. So we’re relying more on our agencies, from PR to advertising, to be truly strategic and find the angles AI can’t.”

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Herbison expects AI will eventually play a bigger role in content and creative production, potentially reducing the need for agencies in those areas. For now, she foresees a move towards working with freelancers who can use AI tools efficiently and transparently.

“The way that we can templatise it and be more efficient means that we can reduce it down to working with just some really good freelancers,” she says.

According to research from the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) last year, 80% of brands are concerned about how their creative and media agency partners are using generative AI. Wider AI adoption is being held back by legal concerns (66%), ethical (51%) and reputational worries (49%), and brands are concerned about whether their agency partners are being transparent about their use of AI.

Exclaimer already partners with freelancers and specialists on specific projects. For Herbison, those which use AI openly and ethically stand out.

While success with AI takes “curiosity and a growth mindset”, she warns it needs to be coupled with “a healthy dose of scepticism”.

Rethinking the agency’s role

Like brands, agencies vary widely in their approach to AI and some are more transparent about its use than others. For Pownall, openness is essential.

“I’d rather be part of that conversation,” she says. “Agencies are also navigating this, so it’s important to collaborate and be honest about how AI is used.”

One challenge, admits Pownall, is that agencies with a consumer focus can struggle to adapt to the more complex buying cycles typical in B2B marketing.

“Often, if you work with a B2C agency, they’re used to very short buying cycles and want results much quicker, and struggle to fit a model where you’re not seeing that instant revenue,” she adds.

For that reason, Pownall argues, using AI effectively across the business becomes even more important. Across all interviews, one consistent theme emerged around the importance for agencies to focus more on strategy, creativity and critical thinking, alongside using AI efficiently.

“With our own AI agents, the team is now overloaded with content. It’s hard to step back and say: ‘What’s actually going to work?’ An agency’s outside perspective could help us test and cut through – that needs strategic, creative and execution skills,” adds Pownall.

Crucially, Datel’s use of AI is not about cost-cutting, she adds, but about boosting productivity and opening up new types of collaboration.

“How can we better work with an agency in different ways? For me, it’s an opportunity to broaden what agencies can help us with, because the baseline stuff is getting done by the agents,” she explains.

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Brown echoes this sentiment. She wants to collaborate with agencies on AI, not replace them. She sees an opportunity for agencies to use AI to help the business achieve its vision, but not as a way to cut costs.

“I have heard stories of people expecting agencies to drop prices because they’re using AI and it’s really not good for the overall industry,” she says. “If we replace everything with AI, where is our talent pipeline in the future coming from?”

Herbison agrees that transparency and collaboration are key, but wants agencies to demonstrate that they’re staying ahead of the curve in their use of AI and be open about how it impacts pricing and value.

“What’s really key for agencies to show is that they are keeping up with it and that they are ahead of the game with their utilisation of AI, so you know that you’re getting as much for your money as you can,” she says.

While AI is driving huge shifts in marketing operations, there’s growing recognition that the technology’s rise makes human creativity and judgement more valuable, not less. Brown believes the use of AI will come “full circle”.

“I honestly believe, the more we use technology, the more the human element becomes more and more important,” she states.

Pownall agrees, emphasising Datel’s progress with AI is a “daily iteration” and not about replacing people.

“We’re a very people-focused brand and our customers value that human-to-human interaction, so it’d be wrong to replace people with AI. We also aim to be cautious, but creative at the same time,” she adds.

Marketing Week will continue reporting from the State of B2B series over the coming weeks.