What's my plan if automation advances make my automation business redundant—what should I pivot to?
I haven't thought about that in detail, so I don't have a detailed backup plan. I expect the core work of running an automation agency to remain viable for at least three to five years. Over that period the work will evolve—no‑code AI tools like pre‑draft generators will make many tasks more efficient. That doesn't mean you won't be able to run an agency; agents and other services will start to infiltrate the business model soon, but the model itself remains sound because the same shift will happen across the industry.
I don’t think every agency model will disappear, but AI is changing things rapidly. The people who will be most insulated over the next two to three years are those who are already implementing AI and automation in other businesses. If you’re actively using these tools, you’ll have a better chance of staying relevant. The next five to ten years are uncertain, but the field of AI‑driven automation will remain valuable.
Yeah, for sure. I would pivot a bit and brand yourself more as an AI consultant or strategic consultant who uses no-code tools rather than necessarily an AI automation agency. If you think about it, many people don't realize that as a beginner, most of your work as an agency owner is actually just freelancing—being a consultant, sole proprietor, independent contractor. So I would start there, providing services as an individual, and worry about building an agency that provides services later. Because actually doing the thing, getting good at the business, then building the business, hiring, managing, tracking time, payroll—those are two fundamentally different things. Get good at delivering business insights and knowledge, then building systems, and afterwards you can worry about scaling and hiring people.
Um, I don't necessarily think that the decline of automation agencies is inevitable. While SMMA's definitely experienced that fate, I don't believe the automation agency industry will decline simply because there won't be time for the same thing to happen to AI automation—by the time we reach that point, AI will be so good it will do the vast majority of the work for us. It's not just our industry that will decline; every industry on Earth will face decline. So this is still a market opportunity. Right now we're probably filling about 60% of the opportunity with the technology stack I use, but new technologies and approaches emerge daily, so there's still plenty of space. If you're not already in it, don't wait on the sidelines—jump in, take action, start a business, and begin doing stuff.
Keywords like 'AI automation' will eventually die out as the term gets overused, but new labels such as go‑to‑market (GTM) engineering emerge to describe the same core work—building lead lists, automating outreach, and handing off to sales teams. GTM engineering is essentially the same as most AI‑driven growth automation; it just sounds fresher. As people tire of the AI label, everything will have AI baked in, so the term fades while the underlying need for AI‑powered solutions remains. My agency focuses on AI automation services that grow with AI, not on things that disappear with the trend.