DIY in the Age of AI
A framework for deciding what to keep in-house — and when outside expertise still matters
Every day brings a new contradiction.
Look at this incredible new tool!
Wait — the AI hallucinated again.
Agencies are dead.
Creative has never mattered more!
The truth, of course, lives somewhere in the middle.
There’s no question this is an exciting moment. Creative and marketing teams have access to more tools, more data, and more production capabilities than ever before. Timelines that once stretched for months can now happen in days, or even hours. Ideas move from spark to execution at remarkable speed.
At the same time, the pressure has intensified. Expectations are higher. Content volumes are exploding. “AI slop” is everywhere. And because so much mediocre work can now be generated instantly, the value of truly differentiated creative has actually increased.
It’s reminiscent of the early promises of email. Remember when email was supposed to make work dramatically more efficient and save everyone time? Now think about how many conversations you’ve had this week about overflowing inboxes and communication overload. Entire generations still reminisce about when coming back to the office with five voicemails felt stressful.
Technology rarely removes work entirely. More often, it changes how the work happens — and raises expectations in the process.
That’s especially true for marketers today.
AI-powered tools are now embedded across nearly every platform: Adobe, Canva, Sprout, Shopify, Google Workspace, social scheduling tools, presentation software, research platforms, and countless startups racing to automate creative execution. Tasks that once automatically required an agency partner can now often be handled internally.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
In many ways, this shift empowers internal teams. It allows marketers to move faster, test more ideas, and execute routine creative work without waiting on outside support. But it’s also happening in an environment where expectations continue to rise while budgets often do not. Marketing leaders are still being asked to do more — much more — with less.
So the question becomes less about whether to use AI and more about how to use it strategically.
Where does AI genuinely create efficiency?
Where does outside expertise still matter?
And perhaps most importantly: where does DIY actually create more risk than value?
We spoke with marketing leaders across hospitality, retail, food & beverage, and consumer brands to better understand how they’re navigating this new landscape. Here’s what we learned.
