Articles & Opinion

Can this end up feel like needing to be brilliant agency-side and know your client's world as well as they do? You don't need to be both. And you shouldn't try. So what does this actually look like in practice? That question often belies something else: a perceived competence gap that morphs into imposter syndrome. “Clients know their world far better than I ever could – who am I to advise?” My considered answer is that we don't need to be native speakers in the client'

For agency seniors whose professional identity is built on this, what clients now expect is genuinely hard to embrace. When I talk to agency leaders about making their account management teams future-fit, the sticking point is rarely the people early in their careers. More often, it's senior account handlers who've long been flawless delivery partners, and are subtly resistant to the idea that their job has changed. It didn't really matter before if account management was "st

The standard advice for account management teams trying to stay relevant against AI is to apply their "unique expertise." But what does this actually look like when one of your account managers is on a Tuesday afternoon status call? How does a client FEEL the difference between a recommendation from your team and one they could have AI-prompted themselves? AI simulates intelligence but can't take a position based on experience. It has no skin in the game. Your team does, and