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CMOs are shifting to a more outcome-driven relationship with their agencies, according to analysis by consultancy Forrester.
The report, The State Of B2B Brand And Communications Agency Investments, 2026, reveals that B2B marketers are becoming more selective with agency spend as they operationalise AI and bring more execution in-house.
The report finds that while agencies remain deeply embedded, investment growth is cooling as marketing leaders reassess which work truly requires external expertise and which activities can now be executed more efficiently by internal teams.
The research finds that 93% of companies still use agencies in some capacity.
However, nearly half (46%) of marketing leaders surveyed expect overall agency budgets to remain unchanged over the next 12 months.
Only 28% of B2B marketing leaders expect overall agency relationship budgets to increase over the next 12 months, down from 41% in Forrester’s 2025 survey.
Almost one in five (19% expect budgets to decrease.
“B2B marketers are not walking away from agencies, but they are becoming far more disciplined about where agencies add value,” said Karen Tran, principal analyst, Forrester.
“AI has changed how marketing work is executed and leaders are reassessing which activities require external expertise and which can be delivered more effectively in-house.
“The biggest declines in expected agency investment are occurring in areas such as digital marketing, content creation, social media, and brand strategy.
“These are functions where AI is helping internal teams execute more work themselves. Marketing leaders increasingly view AI capabilities as important when selecting agencies, but satisfaction with agency performance in those areas remains low. Agencies have an opportunity to close the gap, but many have not yet demonstrated the expertise marketers are looking for.
“As AI enables more work to move in-house, agencies must prove where they provide expertise, scale, or outcomes that marketing teams can't easily replicate themselves.”
Digital marketing and content creation are seeing the sharpest pullback in expected investment growth:.
Expected agency investment increases fell most sharply in digital marketing, down 20 points year over year, and content creation and development, down 15 points.
Forrester says these declines point to a major reassessment of agency value in execution-heavy categories, where AI tools and internal operating models are enabling marketing teams to produce, optimize, and scale more work themselves.
Social media and brand strategy spend are also under pressure as marketers rethink outsourcing.
Expected investment increases declined 17 points for both social media management and operations and brand strategy, development, and management.
Forrester says this suggests that even historically agency-led areas are being re-evaluated as marketing leaders weigh the benefits of external support against the speed, control, and efficiency of in-house execution.
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