15% of ad agency jobs to go in 2026 predicts Forrester
Deal for Dentsu and/or WPP also expected
Forrester has revealed its 2026 Marketing Agency Predictions and pretty grim reading they make for anyone working or investing in the sector.
Broadly it’s predicting 15% of jobs will be lost in 2026 hard on the heels of 8% this year. In 2026, Forrester says, “agencies will transform from client-focused partners into marketing purveyors — reshaped by automation, consolidation, and creator-led strategies…(they) will abandon their traditional role as client representatives and transform into diversified marketing solution providers offering execution services, managed solutions, proprietary products and strategic partnerships. This shift is driven by a decade of structural pressures including project-based work replacing retainers, marketing insourcing, procurement pressures, consolidation, and AI disruption.”
It also expects further consolidation in the ad holding company market: “A Dentsu or WPP acquisition will spawn a dozen agency reviews. Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG is the first shoe to drop. 2026 will see another blockbuster holding company deal. We predict Havas will acquire Dentsu’s international operations. A second scenario is WPP restructures to ready for sale to private equity or Accenture. Either scenario will push marketers to review assignments in three and five-year contracts.”
Principal analyst Jay Pattisall says: “In 2026, marketing agencies are no longer acting solely as agents, but as owners, resellers, consultants and as partners. As traditional agency models crumble under the weight of marketplace disruption, these firms will evolve from mere client representatives to purveyors of marketing solution, selling execution, proprietary products, and innovative partnerships. The agency of tomorrow is less an ‘agent’ and more a dynamic, technology-driven enterprise that sells products and services (like so-called principal media) to its customers.”
Nobody can see round corners of course but Forrester has a pretty good record in the field. The job losses are well underway already (soon old-style ad folk may be as rare as French polishers) while AI is rapidly killing off the old time-based payment system. One of Forrester’s conclusions is that agencies are going to need to become more entrepreneurial, devising products clients want to buy.
That, at least, is better than sitting back and waiting for the grim reaper AI to strike.
