Social Rocket
65 percent of surveyed marketing strategists invest time gained through AI in more demanding strategy work. At the same time, only 23 percent still conduct qualitative research with people on site at least once a month – 2025 it was 35 percent. This combination makes the new WARC report "The Future of Strategy 2026" especially interesting for agencies and marketing departments: production is getting faster, but observing real customers risks falling into the background.
The survey is based on responses from 489 strategy professionals worldwide in August 2026, mostly from agencies. It describes their assessments and ways of working, not the performance of all marketing teams.
AI saves work – the crucial question is what for
AI can structure audience material, summarize competitors and generate initial variants for positioning or campaign ideas. That makes it a useful tool for the groundwork of a strategy. The actual decision, which contradiction in audience behavior is relevant and which business problem a campaign has to solve, remains the valuable part of the work.
WARC reports: 55 percent expect AI to shift the focus more strongly toward human perspectives. The actual frequency of personal research has so far shown the opposite trend. Those who rely solely on existing data and AI summaries risk constantly rephrasing the same observations.
For German social teams this is a concrete task: the hour saved through automation can be used for customer interviews, community conversations, creator feedback or investigating real purchase barriers. Social listening shows which questions come up; direct exchange explains why they come up.
More influence with clients, greater fear for the profession
The mood among strategists is contradictory, but by no means resigned. 66 percent see good reasons for optimism. 56 percent name the possible replacement of their role by AI as the main threat, 15 percentage points more than the previous year.
At the same time, 50 percent say the strategic function has gained influence with clients; 2025 it was 41 percent. And 83 percent expect to contribute more to business strategy in the future rather than only to communication tasks.
This may shift the value of agencies: away from merely creating presentations and toward the ability to link audience understanding with revenue, brand impact and actual decisions. The debate about AI and entry-level jobs in marketing thereby gains a new dimension: newcomers must not only operate tools but learn to interpret observations.
A sensible workflow for marketing teams
A pragmatic approach combines three phases. First, AI takes over the time-consuming preparation of existing insights. Then people test the most important hypotheses through conversations or small qualitative tests. Only after that comes the development and measurement of concrete creatives.
This fits the discussion about smaller AI-supported agency models and new agency fees based on output and impact. When billable hours lose their force as a sales argument, the quality of insights and traceable business results become more important.
The best outcome of automation would therefore not simply be a cheaper strategy presentation, but more time to ask the right people the right questions.
Sources: WARC – The Future of Strategy 2026 (1 October), WARC expert discussion on AI strategy, supplementary coverage of the survey.