ycombinator Agencies have always been hard to scale. AI flips this model by letting firms use software...
In the reel, a solo speaker in a plain black shirt sits at a simple wooden table against a bold, geometric red wall. The whole frame screams: low distraction, high leverage. That is exactly the shift AI gives agencies. Instead of throwing more people at client work, you build quiet, behind-the-scenes software that does the heavy lifting and lets a small team ship like a giant firm.
Read the Frame Like a Business Model
Notice what is not in the shot: no buzzing office, no fifteen strategists huddled over laptops, no wall of Post-its. Just one person, a calm setup, and the promise that the real action is happening off-screen in software. That is your new pitch: clients see a tight, senior-facing crew while AI and automations backstage produce 80 percent of the deliverable before a human ever touches it.
Turn Your Agency Into a High-Margin Software Machine
- Productize your core offer into repeatable workflows, then codify them into internal tools or scripts instead of custom-building every project from scratch.
- Have AI draft, analyze, or generate the first version of deliverables, and reposition your team as editors, strategists, and relationship managers.
- Track time-to-delivery and gross margin per service, then aggressively double down on offers where software can replace manual work by 50 percent or more.
Agencies Quietly Going “Software-First”
DesignJoy turns a traditional design agency into a productized subscription, using tight systems and automation to deliver unlimited design with software-like margins.
Brainlabs builds proprietary PPC and analytics tools that let a lean team manage huge ad budgets, effectively acting like a software platform wrapped in agency service.
DEPT creates AI accelerators and internal platforms so their creative and marketing teams can ship campaigns faster and keep more margin per project.