• by Matt Powell , Op-Ed Contributor, 5 hours ago

Throughout the past several months, in discussions with other agency heads, and in conversations at industry conferences, one topic of conversation has continually surfaced: agencies, clients and search consultants are heavily leaning into AI use for new business development and agency search, and how we are using the benefits of AI in our response.  

At the beginning of 2026, we started to see threads of RFPs including AI backing on some level. Similar questions existed with the same wording throughout numerous client documents. Now it’s simply a given that every RFP will utilize AI-generated content and prompts, and that repetition of exact wording in sections or questions is a regular occurrence. It indicates a potential issue for agencies, not only in responding to these RFPs, but also in that if we lose the human-led, and human-interaction focus, we risk missing out on something integral to the process. 

AI-generated questions from the client side create a gap between the problems the client wants to solve, and what AI is spitting out based on inputs. Even if the inputs are targeted, AI is pulling from general knowledge, which means the output is going to miss the mark in almost every case. When the discussion gets to the next level, there is a big disparity between what’s on paper and what clients are really trying to address. This becomes an even more pronounced issue with pitches being more virtual now and less conversational, leading down a road where agencies are working off a premise that’s incorrect because of AI generalization. 

This is a challenge across the board for creative, media, and strategy. You are going to be evaluated on unclear or ambiguous premises. Worse yet, the client may submit an RFP, which an agency has sweated over to submit creative responses to, then send questions back that are generated through AI for follow-up responses!Clients and client conduits are simply trusting AI and not actually trying to prepare their own specific deep-dive questions to figure out what they need. This results in questions that aren’t relevant or clearly show they haven’t spent the time with it.  

With these send-over responses, are we just exchanging data from our AI platforms?  

Where is the human interaction, insight and filtering? On a deeper level, to be viable as an agency, human interaction is still paramount. It’s the passion for the business and the client asking themselves, “can I work with these people?” that drives trust and connection. AI pushes us farther apart in our agency-client relationships.  

There needs to be a Human based approach to AI in general, but it becomes even more important in new business when starting a new relationship.  

From the agency side, when using AI in RFPs, conversations with AI are based on historical information and past work. If we are talking about a client’s future needs, drawing on the past can be a misstep and adds a challenge in that we can lose the forward-facing spark of imagination of a brand solving a new challenge.  

Relying on AI in a creative-driven industry pushes everyone to the middle. Yes, it can lift agencies up that don’t know what they’re doing, but innovative brands who are true leaders can become average by default.  

Don’t Skip the Necessary Steps.  

There are many benefits to the usage of AI. It takes out some of the administrative aspects of RFP creation and there is some value in helping articulate things that a marketer hasn’t figured out yet. It can provide an abundance of ideation possibilities faster, and without limits of physical artboards and storyboarding. But there is a spectrum of agencies, from those who really know what they are doing, to those starting with a blank piece of paper. AI can help create a baseline for what an agency partner may look like for new brands in creating the RFPs. In general agencies can get smarter about brands faster and eliminate some of the “learning curve" aspects of the relationship.  

However, everything from initial Q&A to tissue/WIP sessions, to having the actual pitch in person, needs to rely on an agency’s internal human creative process. There needs to be a balance between the efficiency that AI provides and the all-important gut instinct that’s matched the right agencies and brands for decades.  

The best relationships that we have had have been with those clients who started with human interaction before it went into the data / hard quantitative aspects of the proposal. However, with the current approach on the RFP side, clients can cast a wider net than before in reaching out to agencies. There are more invites and discussions in the initial rounds, then by the time you get down to a smaller group you really haven’t had much interaction with the client. It’s nice to be able to shoot your shot as an agency, but RFPs are still a big drain of resources on an agency to produce and the odds to land a new client are reduced. 

On a positive note, if I have heard anything from the consultants recently, it’s the undeniable passion for generating business that still overrides all other considerations. Likewise, excitement from the agency is a key factor that has to break through, rather than simply “swapping data.”