Why is your agency running at two speeds with AI?
Summary: Our research found that the divide between the most and least active AI users inside a single team is now wider than the gap between one agency and another. We explain how this occurs, what this costs, and how to close the gap.
Date: 05.08.2026
Author: Asta Vallis
Read length: 2 minutes
Spark AI is the AI performance partner that builds organisation-wide AI capability for creative agencies and brand teams. We take ambitious teams from fragmented experimentation to AI embedded across your people, processes and systems ā so it delivers real commercial impact.
What is the two-speed agency?
Our research found that the divide between the most and least active AI users inside a single agency is now wider than the gap between one agency and another.
45% use AI daily as a core part of how they work.
40% dip in and out without consistency.
The remaining 15% barely engage at all.
A workforce moving at two speeds is difficult to manage, impossible to standardise around, and a risk to consistent client delivery.
What does it cost if leadership leaves it alone?
Without leadership guidance, the gap widens. Each group reads the silence from the top as confirmation to stay exactly where they are.
The daily users out in front grow frustrated the organisation isn't keeping pace with them. With no shared standard to build toward, they build for themselves. If they leave, that capability walks out with them.
40% are in the middle. This group will read the silence as confirmation not to bother. The 15% barely engaging feel further behind as the gap grows, which risks making them less motivated to ever start.
Fragmentation persists because leadership lacks the picture to act on it, and when over half of all AI use is informal and ungoverned, there's no organisational view of who is using what, or how.
How do you overcome this?
Our Foundations programme is designed to address this. We create a shared training baseline and common language across the team, helping everyone move forward together and turning uneven AI activity into organisational capability.
Frequently asked questions
Isn't some unevenness normal early on?
Early experimentation is healthy, and people need room to find what works. It turns costly when the speeds keep drifting apart and nothing pulls them back together.
Which group should we focus on first?
The middle. 40% using AI inconsistently are the group that determines whether your agency advances, so that's where the leverage sits. They need practical, role-specific guidance tied to the work they already do, not a general push to use more AI.
Where is this data from?
Every 6 months, we benchmark where agencies are with AI adoption. This data came from our Spring 2026 report. Keep your eyes out on our socials for how you can participate in the next report.
Spark AI ā AI training, consultancy and agent building for agencies and brands. Your AI performance partner. https://www.wearespark.ai/
