Agency Leadership Podcast · 2026-05-21 · 23 min
The SAGA Agency AI Survey results are in, and small agency owners are feeling great about AI. Maybe too great. In this episode, Chip and Gini dig into the numbers and find the gap between how owners think they're using AI and the reality of what’s happening inside their businesses. The headline figures look impressive: 89% of respondents report regular or widespread AI use, 74% use it daily, and 88% say they've seen productivity gains. But Chip isn't buying it. He questions whether the sample skews toward early adopters, or more likely, whether agency owners simply don't have a clear enough picture of what "good" AI use looks like elsewhere. When 53% say they're ahead of their peers but only 13% say they're behind, the math doesn't work. As Gini puts it, they're probably grading themselves on usage habits, not operational depth. Next, Chip and Gini look at what agencies are actually doing with AI. Most activity falls squarely into what Chip calls "generative AI 101" - drafting emails, writing social posts, generating blog content. The more interesting stuff is largely absent. AI-assisted design work barely registers.
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