Agencies & Marketing — Agencies Defer Budget Growth to 2027 as AI Anxiety and Agentic Commerce Reshape the Strategic Landscape

Agencies & Marketing · 2026-04-20

TODAY'S SIGNAL — The agency world is caught between caution and transformation. Digiday+ Research confirms that agencies have pushed meaningful budget growth expectations into 2027, with client spending and AI disruption ranking as top concerns among 62 surveyed professionals. Yet the market isn't in freefall — Q1 holdco results show marketers have internalized the lesson that cutting spend…