When 'Good Enough' is Free, how do you stay Valuable?
A few years ago, if you ran a digital agency, your biggest competition was other agencies.
Today, it’s a browser tab and a chatbot.
Clients can spin up an SEO plan, a marketing strategy, or even a new website just by typing a prompt into ChatGPT. It might not be amazing - but it’s often “good enough,” especially when budgets are tight.
This is the new reality.
If you’re still positioning your agency around deliverables - the surface-level stuff anyone can prompt for - you’re asking for trouble.
AI didn’t kill your value. It just exposed where it was never clear in the first place.
The “My Nephew Can Build a Website” Era… Again
If you’ve been around, you’ve seen this before.
“My nephew just learned HTML, he can build our site.”
“My cousin’s good with Facebook, she can run our marketing.”
It was frustrating because you knew what they didn’t: the real value isn’t in pushing buttons. It’s in knowing which buttons to push - and why.
AI is just the new nephew.
Clients see the output, not the expertise behind it.
If you don’t make that expertise visible, you’re going to lose to “good enough.”
What AI Can (and Can’t) Replace
AI is brilliant at producing surface-level stuff:
- Blog outlines
- Basic SEO strategies
- Landing page copy
- Wireframes
- Code snippets
It’s fast. It’s cheap. Sometimes, it’s even decent.
What it can’t do:
- Make smart judgment calls
- Spot risks before they become disasters
- Navigate messy client politics
- Coach real ownership into a team
- Drive momentum through chaos
Building momentum, steering through uncertainty, landing real outcomes - that’s where you win.
That’s the difference between “service provider” and “strategic partner.”
How Smart Agencies Are Adapting
The smartest agencies I know aren’t fighting AI. They’re using it - and making their real value unmistakable.
1. Moving up the value chain.
Not “we build websites.” It’s “we create digital experiences that drive revenue.”
Not “we write blogs.” It’s “we grow your brand into an authority.”
2. Making invisible work visible.
They’re not just delivering. They’re showing the thinking and judgment behind the work.
3. Integrating AI, not hiding it.
“We use the best tools to move faster, not cheaper.”
No secrecy. No weirdness.
4. Staying calm in tough conversations.
When a client says, “Can’t we just use ChatGPT?”, they don’t get defensive.
They say:
“Of course, you can. But execution without a solid strategy often costs you more in the long run. We’re here to make sure you’re moving in the right direction - not just moving.”
No panicing. No egos. Just grounded confidence.
The Bottom Line
The landscape has changed.
Large language models are as disruptive as anything we’ve seen, and that’s on top of all the usual economic pressures.
But disruption doesn’t kill expertise.
It just forces it to show up and speak clearly.
Today, your job isn’t just to “do the work.”
It’s to make sure everyone knows why what you do still matters - maybe more than ever.
Good enough is free now.
Real expertise is still priceless.
I’d love to hear how you’re approaching this - what’s shifting for you, and where are you focusing on?
