The Death of the Media Agency- Let The In-Housing Begin

The media agency, once the gatekeeper of brand visibility and strategic ad spend, is slowly—and predictably—dying.

It’s not just a slow bleed; it’s a structural collapse. AI automation, platform-native ad tools, and a growing appetite for in-housing have all conspired to make the traditional media agency model look like a relic of a more complicated time. What once required layers of planners, buyers, and analysts can now be executed by an algorithm and a marketer with a dashboard.

Let’s start with AI. In a matter of months, automation has gone from a back-end optimization tool to a front-end planning and buying engine. AI can now ingest thousands of data points across platforms, recommend strategy, execute buys, and even optimize creative performance—at a fraction of the cost and in real-time. The same tools agencies once sold as proprietary advantages are now embedded directly into platforms like Google, Meta, and Amazon. The middleman has become the redundancy. As Mark Zuckerberg recently said, “AI is now doing a lot of the work we used to rely on large teams to handle” (The Verge).

Then there’s in-housing. Brands, under pressure to deliver speed, efficiency, and transparency, have begun pulling media operations inside. Why pay agency fees when you can own the data, run the tools yourself, and build institutional knowledge in-house? According to a 2024 ANA study, 82% of large brands now have some form of in-house media function—up from just 78% five years ago. That trend is accelerating, not slowing.

Layer in the fact that web traffic is declining across the board, and the problem becomes existential. The open web—once the playground of agency trading desks—is fragmenting. Social platforms, retail media networks, and closed ecosystems are eating attention share. Fewer people are browsing the open web, and more are staying inside algorithmic, commerce-enabled environments where ad units are baked into the user experience. This gives rise to a new player: the native ad manager.

Think of it like Shopify for media. As attention consolidates around ecosystems—TikTok, Amazon, YouTube, Spotify, Reddit—each platform is building its own self-serve ad engine that doesn’t just offer reach, but context, commerce integration, and automated optimization. These native ad managers are user-friendly, machine-augmented, and fully integrated into the content flow. No RFPs. No spreadsheets. No phone calls.

Even holding companies are beginning to acknowledge the shift. WPP CEO Mark Read recently stated, “We have to adapt our model around the realities of AI and automation. The agencies that survive will be those that reinvent the services clients need, not just preserve the ones we used to sell.” That came amid another round of restructuring and layoffs aimed at repositioning for a more automated future (The Guardian).

So where does this leave media agencies?

Some are pivoting into strategy consultancies, data science partners, or creative-tech hybrids. But the traditional media agency model—plan, buy, optimize, report—is disappearing. It’s not because it wasn’t valuable. It’s because that value has now been digitized, democratized, and distributed.

The agencies that will survive aren’t those fighting to preserve old territory. They’re the ones bold enough to reimagine their role—not as buyers of space, but as architects of systems. Systems that drive outcomes, not impressions. Systems that blend data, culture, and creativity with technology at the core.

The death of the media agency isn’t a tragedy. It’s evolution. And the ones who see that clearly won’t mourn—they’ll rebuild.