The strategy paradox: agency strategy is sidelined while client demand for strategic guidance is high new study reveals

Strategy is at a crossroads, according to 80% of strategists worldwide, and all too often is treated as expendable. Yet in a world characterised by uncertainty and volatility, client demand for clear strategic guidance is high. These are key findings included in The Future of Strategy 2025, released by WARC, the global authority of marketing effectiveness. 

The annual WARC study highlights key challenges facing agency-side strategists and outlines ways to reignite the discipline, pivotal to the marketing ecosystem. 

The research is based on a global survey with 1,127 strategists worldwide fielded in August 2025, the majority of which are agency-side, and discussions with leading strategists from around the world. 

Lena Roland, Content Director, WARC Strategy says: “Our annual Future of Strategy report acts as a temperature check for how strategists are feeling about the state of the discipline. It explores the challenges in agency strategy, and the rise of independent strategists. It looks at the impact of AI and the importance of human-led research. 

“This year’s survey makes for stark reading. It found agency-side strategists feel their discipline is at a crossroads and all too often is treated as expendable. Agency-side strategy needs to rebrand, focusing on helping clients identify where and how to grow.” 

The key challenges and opportunities for strategists outlined in the report are:  

The strategy paradox: 80% of strategists say the discipline is at crossroads, 62% say strategy is treated as expendable, yet client demand for strategy is high 

Most strategists around the world (80%) believe strategy is at crossroads and must adapt to remain relevant; 62% of survey respondents believe strategy is treated as expendable when there are budget constraints. 

Yet in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, brands need clear strategic thinking and solutions. However, with headcount in decline (only 31% of respondents expect strategy headcount to grow in the next 12 months versus 47% in 2024), agency strategy is struggling at a time when strategists are needed. 

Tom Morton, Founder of strategy consultancy Narratory Capital, says: “The economic housing of strategy is coming apart, which is strange because the demand for it is as high as ever.” 

Ellie Bamford, Chief Strategy Officer, VML North America, observes: “We’ve become risk averse, and our clients have become risk averse… We are hiding behind mountains of data and research, and we’re not coming out strongly enough with our point of view. And that’s diminishing our value.” 

More strategists across the board – junior, mid and senior – say they see their next role as client-side rather than in an agency. And 24% of the most experienced strategists think their next role will be in a consultancy. 

Strategists are split on AI’s impact 

Strategists are unclear on AI’s long-term impact on their roles. Nearly half (46%) disagree that AI will erode their value in the future, however more strategists agree (37%) than disagree (34%) that AI will learn one of the most valuable skills – the ability to take strategic leaps.  

Strategists who know how to use AI effectively, who can adapt it to enhance their thinking and strategic output are more likely to thrive.

The biggest change strategists saw in their role over the past year was the increased use of AI tools (76%). This was especially pronounced in North America (85%) vs. Asia (74%) and Europe (69%).  

Oliver Feldwick, Chief Innovation Officer, T&P, says: “The challenge for strategists is not to resist AI, nor to blindly embrace it, but to partner with it. This is not about abdicating our role. It’s about evolving it. Reclaiming strategy from the grind and rediscovering the joy of thought” 

Strategists are using AI to streamline time-consuming tasks like conducting competitor analysis (66%), speeding up brief development (51%) and gaining deeper / faster cultural insights (42%). 

Use of synthetic data in research has increased (38% this year, up from 32% in 2024) opening up more potential routes to insight. However, human-led research is the antidote to ‘average’. Strategists say the biggest limitations of AI are lack of originality (61%) and lack of cultural nuance and emotional resonance (60%). In the age of AI, strategists have a key role to play in being guardians of reality, and rooting ideas in the ‘real’. 

Strategy beyond frameworks 

Agencies need to encourage more imaginative and disruptive thinking. This might mean fewer frameworks, and more lateral leaps; breaking category norms and finding a brand’s asymmetric advantage. 

Joseph Burns, Strategy Lead, Quality Meats Creative, says: “Strategy regains relevance when it stops polishing symmetry and starts opening up advantages: gaps in understanding (insights no one has), in access (places others can’t go), and in timing (moves others can’t match).” 

Steve Walls, Planner, Moon Rabbit, added: “Planning needs to stop trying to be right and start trying to be useful. It needs to take leaps of faith and to convince others to follow it into the unknowable. Strategy should be infused with empathy, imagination, ambition and truth.” 

Rebrand agency strategy as a growth partner for clients 

Agency-side strategy needs to rebrand, according to the survey, to focus on helping clients identify where and how to grow. In a complex world, strategists add value by simplifying the chaos, and in the AI age, human skills like empathy are elevated.  

Tomas Gonsorcik, Global Chief Strategy Officer, BBH, says: “We have to rebrand strategy – not as a back-office function, not as a luxury, but as a service: clear, accountable, and indispensable,” adding, “Strategy should operate as a standalone service inside the agency. Its primary customers are creatives and CMOs, and its purpose is to deliver growth clarity, not just decks.” 

The most significant opportunities for strategists relate to helping clients navigate volatility and complexity in their categories (52%) and in the media landscape (45%).