Marketing agencies start selling AI software

Agency Owners, Your Business Model is Broken

For years, the game was simple: sell hours. The classic "billable hour" model. But AI is eating that model for lunch.

Clients are now using AI to get work done faster and cheaper. This is crushing agency margins. In the Netherlands, the average margin has already dropped to a pathetic 13%. The data also shows 54% of digital bureaus actually shrank in the last year.

That's not a speedbump. That's a fundamental break in the business.

The Two Types of Agencies

Sjoerd de Kreij, the founder of the AI platform Typetone, put it perfectly. He said the agency world is splitting in two, right now:

1. The "Hour Sellers": These are the dinosaurs. They’ll keep selling time, competing on price, and getting squeezed into a commodity business. They will lose.
2. The "Technology Owners": These are the agencies that stop just using software and start owning a piece of it.

Look, you can't win by just trying to develop your own AI. Only the absolute giants, the Monks of the world, have the cash and time to do that. And even they're in a race.

The New Playbook: From Service to Software

The future of your AI agency isn't about logging more hours. It’s about building predictable, recurring revenue. You need to be selling high-margin software solutions, not just your team's time.

This is where it gets interesting.

Typetone is launching a new partner program, but it's not the typical reseller crap.

They're inviting agencies to become AI platform partners in a real way. We're talking co-ownership. You don't just get a commission; you get lifetime fees and even shares in the company.

You get to make the leap from "service provider" to "technology partner" without having to build the tech yourself. You keep your client relationships, but now you're selling a scalable asset, not just a block of time.

The clock is ticking

De Kreij says this is the critical moment. The AI market is moving insanely fast.

The first agencies that make this move—the ones that grab co-ownership now—are going to be the ones who define the new standard.

Everyone else? They'll just be stuck in the old game, fighting for scraps and wondering where all their margin went. The billable hour is dead. The game has changed.

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