Become an AI Agency: AI Tools to Supercharge Your Digital Agency
We all know that it’s high time to forget the stale tactics… Clients today desire hyper-personalized journeys, razor-sharp insights, and results delivered at warp speed. And, the answer to meet all these needs seems like becoming an AI agency.
Studies from McKinsey show that AI-powered marketing boosts ROI by up to 150%, while Gartner predicts 85% of customer interactions will be managed by AI by 2025. Ignoring this wave is like leaving money on the table – and worse, losing clients to competitors who’ve embraced the future.
So, here is a bold question: How do you build an AI agency business model? With the help of AI tools?
Becoming an AI Agency (with the Help of Tools)
Another home truth is that the future of digital agencies is AI-powered.
It’s the reality – customers demand exponential growth & personalized experiences. The good news? It is possible to meet the needs with the help of powerful AI tools that can transform your agency into a “futuristic machine.”
However, to be an AI marketing agency is not merely about adding a few fancy artificial intelligence tools and calling it a day. It’s about understanding the transformative potential of AI and shifting your & your team members’ mindset to embrace its possibilities.
While doing so identifying your AI needs is a starting point. What are your agency’s biggest pain points? Is it content creation, data analysis, or personalized marketing? After that, exploring the AI tool landscape is a good call. Let’s do it together; keep reading for suggestions.
Building Your AI Agency’s Tech Stack: Must-Have AI Tools
Before starting, we need to state that there are several reports about the best AI marketing tools for digital agencies – and the most used & most favorite AI tools are common in many of these reports.
For instance, Duda’s 2024 AI Outlook for Digital Agency Leaders report shows the most valuable AI tools as follows:
In this blog, we will focus on other than the most famous AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini (Bard), Dall-E, or Midjourney.
Let’s jump into the AI tool recommendations for AI-powered agencies.
AI Tools for Design and Video
RunwayML
Why would you like it?
⚡️It integrates seamlessly with various popular design/development tools.
⚡️Drag-and-drop features make it easy to experiment with different AI techniques.
⚡️It offers a free plan with limited resources – and that makes it an accessible option for agencies of all sizes to experiment with AI.
Budget: While the free plan offers basic functionality, scaling up might require paid subscriptions.
RunwayML is a “really” powerful tool for agencies seeking to build custom AI solutions, experiment with new creative possibilities, and automate repetitive tasks.
Even though it requires technical skills, data expertise, and a willingness to invest time and resources, RunwayML is great for businesses transforming their structure to AI. In case you have these elements in place and want to push the boundaries of AI in your agency, RunwayML can be a game-changer.
What’s more, unlike many pre-built AI tools, RunwayML allows you to create and train AI models tailored to your agency’s unique needs & each client’s projects. This flexibility empowers your agency to tackle niche challenges and offer fitting solutions that competitors can’t match.
The best part is that the tool/platform has its own annual film festival – Runway AI Film Festival 2024.
“Established in 2022, AIFF is a celebration of the art and artists embracing new and emerging AI techniques for filmmaking. Works showcased offer a glimpse at a new creative era. One made possible when today’s brightest creative minds are empowered with the tools of tomorrow.”
Sora
Why would you like it?
⚡️It’s available for all sizes of marketing teams, visual artists, designers, and filmmakers.
⚡️All within the agency workflow, it creates introduction videos, demos, social media videos, ads, and more.
⚡️It offers real-time & high-quality video generation quickly, and efficiently.
Budget: No detailed information about the specific budget or pricing details for Sora.
Sora, the text-to-video generation model from OpenAI, offers exciting possibilities for digital agencies.
Sora can create videos of up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions.
Since it’s very new tech, the decision of whether Sora is the best fit for your AI agency depends on your specific needs, budget, technical expertise, and comfort level with new technologies. While making up your mind, taking consideration of its potential and limitations, and closely monitoring its development and access options is a good call.
Descript
Why would you like it?
⚡️It streamlines both audio and video editing tasks with features like transcription, waveforms, adding intros/outros, and noise removal.
⚡️The AI tool allows collaboration on projects with clients – team members in real time.
⚡️Quickly recorded screencasts are ideal for informative videos, tutorials, and internal communication.
Budget: A free plan offers basic features, allowing agencies to test the platform before committing. Moreover, paid plans offer additional features like unlimited exports, integrations, and more editing tools.
For basic needs of audio and video editing, collaboration tools, and transcription features, Descript is a good tool option for digital agencies desiring to become an AI-powered business. However, it may not be suitable for agencies needing advanced video editing features, text-to-video generation, or handling large-scale projects with numerous users.
AI Tools for Digital Advertising & Marketing Automation
AdEspresso
Why would you like it?
⚡️With its user-friendly interface, it allows users to automate many tasks simultaneously.
⚡️It provides detailed reports that help users understand the audience plus campaign performance.
⚡️From ad creation, targeting, budgeting, and reporting; the AI tool allows users to manage all aspects of campaigns, in one place.
Budget: It offers a free plan with limited features; as for paid plans start at $49 per month.
For all sizes of digital marketing agencies, AdEspresso is an effective advertising management platform.
It helps users to create and optimize their advertising campaigns on different channels, including social media platforms. Regardless of your experience in marketing automation, AdEspresso offers a wide range of features and functionalities designed to simplify the advertising process and maximize campaign performance.
Brandwatch
Why would you like it?
⚡️It can analyze vast amounts of social media data which fuels its AI and machine learning models.
⚡️By aligning with current AI practices, the tool supports human-AI collaboration (a great opportunity for AI agencies)
⚡️It integrates several AI techs; including sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and influencer identification.
Budget: It offers various pricing plans based on features and data volume; it might be a good investment for “smaller agencies.”
Brandwatch is a suite of AI-driven tools built to help brands and agencies, let them keep tabs on, dig into, and get the gist of what users are saying online about their business, rivals, and the whole industry scene. Moreover, the popular AI tool, Brandwatch can handle large volumes of data and complex analyses. That feature makes it suitable for agencies to manage multiple clients and track various brands across different platforms. AI scalability allows the platform to adapt to growing data demands and client needs.
AI Tools for Content Creation & SEO
Jasper
Why would you like it?
⚡️Jasper accelerates on-brand content while allowing collaboration with team members.
⚡️The tool translates customer briefs into multichannel campaigns in a short period.
⚡️It helps users to create supporting images with basic prompts.
Budget: There is a 7-day free trial; the paid plans start at $59 per month/seat.
Jasper is a great AI tool for digital agencies seeking to increase content creation efficiency & quality and explore diverse content formats. In other words, the tool handles large-scale content creation needs for multiple clients.
In addition to helping users provide content/topic suggestions, the tool overcomes writer’s block and optimizes content for various marketing purposes.
The best part of the tool? Jasper supports users to customize the output with brand voice guidelines, tone adjustments, and specific keywords. So, it ensures content aligns with client needs and brand identity.
Surfer SEO
Why would you like it?
⚡️Thanks to Surfer’s Content Score, it provides a detailed list of relevant keywords for on-page optimization.
⚡️It helps users generate briefs with a detailed outline in seconds.
⚡️The tool offers unique potential headings and questions in addition to keywords.
Budget: Surfer offers various subscription plans with different features and limitations – starting from $89 to $399.
Surfer SEO holds strong potential for agencies aspiring to become AI-powered. With its user-friendly interface, the AI tool offers extensive documentation & resources to facilitate easy adoption and usage.
What’s more, Surfer seamlessly integrates with content management systems & SEO tools, streamlining the workflow while centralizing optimization efforts.
AI Tools for Project Management
Loom
Why would you like it?
⚡️It integrates with popular project management tools like Asana, Trello, and Jira.
⚡️Loom allows agencies to easily record & share AI-powered video messages.
⚡️It provides a platform for supercharding productivity among team members and customers.
Budget: In addition to a free plan for starters, there is custom pricing for large teams with advanced security and priority support.
Even though it is hard to say that Loom is a full-fledged project management tool on its own for agencies transitioning toward being AI-powered, it allows for quick and concise communication, streamlining information sharing and feedback within teams.
Via real-time recording, Loom serves as a valuable knowledge repository, capturing project discussions, tutorials, and client briefings. All of these can be easily accessed and referenced by team members. And yes, this feature can be especially useful in AI agencies where knowledge sharing and collective intelligence are crucial.
ClickUp
Why would you like it?
⚡️ClickUp offers robust security features to protect sensitive data.
⚡️It provides role-based AI templates for various tasks – writing emails, drafting documents, or planning ad campaigns.
⚡️The scaling ability accommodates large teams and complex projects.
Budget: $5/user/month for unlimited users, projects, and advanced features. Plus custom pricing for large teams with additional security, integrations, and priority support.
Looking for strong automation capabilities, workflow customization, and integration with various AI tools? ClickUp can be the answer.
ClickUp, which offers a high degree of customization, allows users to tailor the platform to their specific processes. By boasting numerous AI features, it covers workload automation, resource allocation suggestions, and automatic task scheduling based on deadlines and dependencies.
Last but not least; ClickUp can scale to accommodate small and large teams, making it suitable for growing AI agencies.
AI Tools for Analytics & Reporting
Einstein Analytics
Why would you like it?
⚡️The AI tool, powered by Salesforce Marketing Cloud, connects data from various marketing channels into a single platform
⚡️Pre-built dashboards cater to common marketing KPIs and workflows, saving time and effort.
⚡️Receive automatic alerts on key metrics or anomalies, allowing for proactive campaign adjustments.
Budget: The free plan offers basic features with limited data storage and reporting capabilities. Paid plans can be expensive for smaller agencies.
Salesforce’s AI-powered analytics platform, Einstein Analytics, is great for agencies seeking deeper insights, data-driven decision-making processes, and AI-powered marketing automation.
The popular AI tool also offers seamless integration with other marketing cloud tools like Advertising Studio, and Social Studio, enabling data-driven campaign execution. Maybe the best feature, Einstein Analytics generates forecasts about future customer behavior. And yes, it allows users to make data-driven decisions about resource allocation.
Amplitude
Why would you like it?
⚡️It analyzes different stages of the marketing funnel to identify drop-off points and optimize conversion rates.
⚡️The tool simply identifies what’s working and what’s not.
⚡️It offers to test different marketing hypotheses and iterate based on data-driven insights.
Budget: Pricing can be expensive for smaller companies or those with limited data volume.
Within the marketing ecosystem, Amplitude shines as a robust platform for understanding user behavior across digital products & marketing channels.
In addition to sharing valuable insights with team members across different departments, Amplitude also tracks visitor behavior across websites, mobile apps, and other digital platforms. The AI tool, designed to provide a unified view of user journeys across your ecosystem, analyzes specific interactions.
Bonus: Does an AI Agency Refer to the “No-Human” Process?
The term “AI agency” might conjure images of robots churning out campaigns at lightning speed, devoid of human touch. But the reality is far more nuanced. While AI tools play a central role in streamlining processes, yes, human expertise remains irreplaceable.
At this point, it is best to remember that AI should be used as an assistant, not a replacement, for creativity and human expertise. In other words, when we talk about AI-generated campaigns, it refers to a powerful collaboration between human expertise and AI capabilities.
Undoubtedly humans retain emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and a nuanced understanding of client objectives that AI cannot replicate. AI, in turn, empowers humans to work faster & more effectively, delivering results that exceed expectations.
And all of these lead us to carefully consider the potential limitations, such as creativity limitations and bias, and ensure responsible usage and oversight.
