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Amazon Unwrapped featuring Andy Bryn

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In the realm of e-commerce, one of the most compelling developments is seeing how agencies adapt to the rise of AI. Agencies handle two main responsibilities:

1. They help fill a gap in skills/knowledge (or intelligence 👀) that a brand doesn’t have

2. They help fill a gap in bandwidth that the brand doesn’t have 

AI is perfectly suited to take significant roles in both cases for using an agency. Open AI’s 4o image creation update should have been a huge wake up call for agencies who are offering design and creative services. 4o images are arguably on par with creative that comes from agencies given proper prompting and I could even concede that agencies and humans still have the upper hand…for now. In 6 months that won’t be the case for 2 reasons:

1. The image gen tools will improve

2. Individuals will get better at using the tools

In the case of an ecommerce design agency, what does this mean for them? While there is no doubt an element of elbow rubbing in the world of brands and agencies, brands will ultimately be loyal to the bottom line.

Agencies need to have an honest talk with themselves and accept that what they offer and how they convey that offering to brands needs to change. If you are an agency owner, just know that the brands you manage are all talking about AI (with or without you) and be asking the question “Could AI do what our agency is doing?”

My 100% unsolicited advice for agencies is to get ahead of the ball. AI for ecommerce is out there and can’t be ignored at this point- become part of the conversation. Position yourself as a growth partner and be proactive. Make the brand-agency honeymoon period the standard way of working. The takehome message is that agencies will still exist but only if they adopt AI faster than their clients and ultimatley provide themselves as a growth partner instead of a service prorvider.

Some of the areas that will be more difficult for AI to eat into in the agency/consulting world for Amazon specifically

Agencies and consultants with Amazon 1p experience

 It’s not easy to get experience on 1p. It’s an invite only program unlike 3p where anyone can become an FBA guru in a weekend. And to be very clear, if someone is giving you 1p advice (no matter how big their agency is or how many followers they have) and they haven’t been a 1p Vendor or worked at Amazon on the 1p side, just don’t listen to them.

Full Service agencies

 While I’ve never used a full service agency, I think they will stick around longer for 2 reasons

1. It’s a large jump for a brand to make to go from full service agency to using AI automations. 

2. The other moat these agencies have is that is just painful to switch out of this mode. 

Software

 Big surprise. I see tools like helium10 and smartscount very well positioned for the following

1. Can continue to scale without having to add humans

2. Applicable to markets across the globe

3. Sellers will increasingly turn to software to fill the knowledge and bandwidth gaps I mentioned above

4. And finally it’s just way less expensive than an agency 

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