The era of AI requires strategists who are knowledge-based and context-driven

As AI automates mundane and complex analytical tasks, a deep overhaul of human skills is not possible – it’s inevitable. In this new field, once soft skills are beginning to differentiate. The ability to ask sharp questions, connect different perspectives and channel powerful expertise into a clear business vision is essential.

This change requires a fundamental change in the way we cultivate talent. We have traditionally prioritized I-shaped talent – ​​deep but narrow expertise in one field – suited to functional organizations such as account management, strategy, marketing and analytics. The future, however, belongs to the T-shaped artist.

From siled experts to integrated intelligence

The vertical “T” bar still stands for deep performance technology – which is always important in all categories. But the horizontal bar is now a broader understanding of the situation that allows talent to connect the dots across more business functions. T-shaped specialists are translators, problem solvers and synthesizers who can see the whole board, not just their individual or adjacent areas of expertise.

This change is important because AI puts powerful tools directly in the hands of our teams and customers, enabling them to accelerate the journey from data to insight. The era of siled expertise and endless handoffs is coming to an end. The future belongs to integrated partners, such as T intelligence that use these tools to accelerate the transformation of data into real business value.

Within the agency ecosystem, this change positions the account management team as the new strategist and natural hub for change. Developing this team to a T is critical to the agency’s success.

This T-shaped account team is tasked with testing and perfecting an integrated way of working – orchestrating AI and data to deliver greater results and meaningful business value to clients. Their success will set a new standard, elevating media, creative and other customer service disciplines into a unified, intelligent force.

While account teams have always been the core of customer relations, they often rely on a chain of experts to get answers. Now, powerful AI tools are removing those hops, equipping them with the ability to provide strategic guidance with unprecedented speed and unprecedented satisfaction.

Dig deeper: When everyone has AI, thinking becomes a differentiator

From slide decks to strategic briefings

A new way to guide information strategies. But to call it rapid engineering misses the point. This is not just a technical skill. Good information includes creative brevity, a keen awareness of context and a clear understanding of the desired outcome.

Information technology is the new frontier of strategic technology. Here, AI works not as a tool but as a thought partner. Business will always be personal, and keeping the person in the know is essential to ensuring, enriching and challenging the machine’s product – from a very advanced starting point.

Contrast the legacy workflow of spending weeks on decks and models with the new iterative process of refining AI-generated output. This approach replaces the time-consuming task of submitting tickets to data scientists with instant natural language prompts that return a response in seconds.

The value of the T-shaped account group is now in its ability to guide, critique, integrate and provide feedback directly to you. This change requires a renewed skill set based on intellectual curiosity and the ability to pose problems in new ways. Key to this is the discipline of skillful inquiry – the art of following a thought and pulling the strings on a question to produce insight not over hours, but in the moment.

But this pursuit of rigorous understanding is not a solitary task. These tools are designed for powerful team sessions that bring teams and clients together to collaborate on strategies in real time.

Dig deep: 4 steps to build real AI capabilities without waiting for leadership

A new agency-client partnership in the world of AI

As clients use their own AI tools, their needs are fundamentally changing. They no longer only pay for outgoings they can’t do for themselves. They pay for the judgment of the strategy to cut through the noise generated by AI. This increases the value of the agency, rediscovering its important role as a strategic partner through a new collaborative model. The client’s mandate goes from “What happened?” “What should we do?”

This dynamic is dismantling the black box agency model and ushering in a new era of collaborative intelligence. When built right — and that’s not a given — an AI-enabled workplace can provide unprecedented transparency, allowing clients to co-create and iterate strategies in real-time with agency partners.

This transforms the relationship into a true strategic partnership built on shared intelligence. To do this, the underlying platform must be AI native and very open. It must integrate workflow and data while remaining flexible enough to integrate with a growing ecosystem of specialized AI tools.

In this dynamic industry, account teams are always the human intelligence layer of the client, knowing not only which tool to use but which data to fuel it with. Their T-shaped skills provide judgment in deciding not only what data to use but also how to investigate it. This means creating accurate information to predict market shifts from customer sales data or framing a question about social trends to inspire a new creative campaign. Their strength lies not in choosing the tools, but in conjuring up the subtle answers their questions open up. They make sure that clients get strategic advice – not just the right feedback but the negative feedback from the most appropriate tool.

Dig deeper: AI can measure your intelligence – or your inferiority. Here’s how to stay smart.

Your next agency MVP is T-shaped

Investing in people is not against the age of AI. It makes sense and is necessary. In this case, powerful AI is the table stakes. The organizations that will win will be those with sharp minds who can use that power to the fullest by asking questions that no one else can ask.

Strategic thinking is now the agency’s key competitive advantage – led by T-shaped account leaders. By orchestrating AI to turn campaign metrics into strategic growth assets, the agency becomes a valuable intelligence partner – driving growth by not just answering marketing questions but key business challenges.