Across conversations with agency leaders in the UK and US this last few weeks, one theme keeps coming up: the tools are advancing faster than the leadership guiding them.

Everyone is experimenting. Strategy teams are playing with prompts. Innovation labs are running pilots. Creatives are testing tools on their own. The early momentum is now fragmenting into isolated efforts.

Great ideas are happening, but not always connected. There is energy, but not always direction. Curiosity, but not always coherence.

As AI tools multiply, so does the risk of mistaking activity for transformation. McKinsey reports that only 23 percent of companies using generative AI have a clear vision for it. The challenge is not just technical - it is leadership.

From Islands to Bridges

The creative businesses that will thrive next are not being led by islands, but by bridges.

Exceptional leaders in this era are fluent across disciplines. Some started in brand and embraced technology. Others began in innovation and grew into creative leadership. What they share is the ability to connect: translating between worlds and linking the creative heart of a business with the power of machine intelligence.

They recognise that tools alone do not create transformation, and adoption alone is not a strategy.

We are starting to see this logic play out at the highest levels. Omnicom’s recent restructuring - consolidating agency brands, cutting 4,000 jobs and committing to an integrated operating model - signals a move towards structural de-siloing. As they put it, “We still believe in agency brands, but we’re de-siloing to break down internal barriers.” This is not just about operational efficiency. It is a reflection of the growing need for creative businesses to operate as connected systems. Faster, flatter and more collaborative. With leadership capable of bridging across complexity.

When Technology Leads, Culture Lags

Many agencies have tried to modernise by hiring technical specialists or setting up innovation units. But when transformation is approached purely through a technical lens, the aperture narrows.

The result is a series of initiatives that optimise what already exists but rarely reimagine what could be. AI becomes a bolt-on rather than something that flows through the business.

Real transformation begins with leadership capable of articulating a shared vision and bringing people with them.

The Rise of Hybrid Leaders

We are seeing the emergence of leaders fluent across three areas:

  1. Creativity: storytelling, cultural intelligence and brand instinct
  2. Commerce: business results, growth and client value
  3. Technology: how AI and innovation enhance human potential

These leaders are not defined by technical specialism. They are defined by their ability to bridge disciplines, combining systems thinking with emotional intelligence to close the gap between technological potential and creative value.

Designed for What’s Next

Some founder-led agencies are going further, designing themselves entirely around this moment.

One new agency has eliminated silos and removed departments altogether. Teams are formed around the work, built from hybrid thinkers who span disciplines. Creatives, suits, planners and producers work as one, co-leading pitches, shaping platforms and executing together from the start.

No handoffs. No boundaries. Just integrated teams solving across brand, strategy and innovation. It is a model built not on legacy structures, but on how creative businesses need to operate now.

In this system, AI is not an add-on. It is the catalyst to rethink the operating model with culture, not code, at the centre.

The Human Multiplier

AI is reshaping what we make. Hybrid leadership is reshaping how we work.

The next phase of growth will not be driven by those who simply add more tools. It will come from leaders with the imagination, emotional intelligence and clarity to connect disciplines and bring people on the journey.

Because in the end, clients do not just want more tech. They want better outcomes. Ideas that work, delivered with clarity, consistency and care. That is where integration becomes critical. When creativity, strategy, innovation and execution are truly connected, the result is work that not only breaks through but also does right by the brand and its audience.

Even Cannes Lions is reflecting this shift. The introduction of AI Craft categories in 2026 signals a recognition that breakthrough work comes from the collaboration between human craft and machine capability.

As Simon Cook, CEO of Lions, puts it: “In 2026, we’re asking a different question: what are the inputs that make breakthrough ideas possible in the first place?”

Even in the AI era, what matters most is what you put in at the top of the funnel: your ideas, your taste, your values.

The leaders who can bridge all three, creativity, commerce and technology, will not simply shape the future of work. They will shape the future of creativity itself.