Fortune 500s pay advertising agencies billions each year, but nobody quite knows how they do their creative strategy work. Even within ad agencies, few get direct insight into how the creative strategist—the epicenter of any great campaign—works their magic. But now, we’re in for a great democratization of creative strategy that holds the potential to enable any brand, entrepreneur, or marketing team to cut through the noise and create campaigns that previously could only have been forged on Madison Avenue.
The AI-enabled democratization of creative strategy work has arrived, and surprisingly, it’s been hiding in plain sight: the world’s biggest ad agencies and brands are using AI tools that are available to anyone—which means that any person at any company can now bypass layers of middlemen and millions of dollars in consulting fees to develop the kind of strategic thinking that drives business growth. What was once locked away in executive boardrooms is now accessible to junior employees, freelancers, and small business owners—potentially reshaping not just how strategy gets done, but who gets to do it and how much they can earn from it.
The traditional strategy model is being dismantled by a wave of AI-powered tools that are standardizing strategy workflows across agencies and brands of all sizes. Platforms like Notion AI and Beautiful.ai are streamlining knowledge capture and deck-building, while tools like Gamma and FigJam AI are helping teams map and present ideas visually.
As it becomes increasingly imperative that all team members have access to creative strategy, Waldo is one tool making this possible, regardless of your role or level within your company. It’s just been revealed that each of the top advertising agency holding companies—WPP, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom, IPG, and Dentsu—who collectively touch almost 10% of all global advertising spend, have been using Waldo the past few years to do this kind of work, along with a growing number of Fortune 500 companies.
For consumers, the impact is real. When brands cut costs and speed up strategy, it often means faster product launches, more relevant offerings, and competitive prices. And because these AI tools are accessible to freelancers and small businesses, individuals can also use them to pitch ideas, grow side hustles, or manage money with the polish once reserved for Madison Avenue.
Making Strategy a Team Sport
“Today’s brand marketers are under pressure to stay ahead of culture, competitors, and rising consumer expectations, all while doing more with leaner teams,” said Waldo’s co-founder and CEO, Justin Wohlstadter. “Waldo’s built-in workflows pull everything from trend scans to audience intel into one collaborative platform, giving teams more time to focus on the thinking that actually moves the brand forward.”
For professionals, this shift from time-consuming research tasks to higher-level strategic thinking can translate directly into more valuable contributions and the kind of cross-functional visibility that makes individuals indispensable to their teams.
The Waldo platform includes more than fifty strategy workflows, from brand audits and competitive scans to cultural insight surfacing and pitch POV development.
Waldo’s latest release, Waldo 3.0, follows a $10 million Series A from Footwork and leverages teams of AI agents that can monitor relevant trends and surface actionable insights.
“Brand strategy is often reactive, delayed by siloed teams, scattered tools, and limited resources,” said Wohlstadter. “The latest evolution of Waldo changes that by giving brand marketers a proactive, always-on system for tracking what matters: your audience, your competitors, cultural moments, and emerging trends.”
He added, “Instead of digging through decks or waiting on research requests, your team gets timely insights delivered automatically, complete with next-step recommendations.”
Strategy That Scales
Among the tools transforming strategic workflows, Waldo stands out for its direct impact on how strategy is created, shared, and scaled.
“(Waldo) lets us move faster without sacrificing depth, freeing our people to focus on what truly matters: bold creative thinking only humans can deliver,” said Tracey Faux-Pattani, CEO of BSSP. Since we started with Waldo, we’ve saved about 17,000 hours of tedious research—time better spent inspiring clients and driving their growth.”
Speaking to Waldo’s ability to help small teams work more effectively, Mani Schissler, Director of Strategy at Oberland, said: “We have a small but mighty team that really values strategy, and working with Waldo’s AI and the Waldo team allows us to uncover breakthrough insights that solve big, complex challenges like an agency ten times the size.”
This leveling of the playing field means professionals at smaller agencies can now develop expertise and compete for talent opportunities that were once exclusive to major holding companies—opening doors to career moves that previously seemed out of reach.
The Future of Strategic Work
One of the most significant upsides to mastering an AI tool is the up skilling opportunities it provides.
“By building an ‘infrastructure for thinking’ that supports the whole organization, not just the planning department, we’ve seen account managers, new business leaders, and creatives be able to push the boundaries of their roles,” said Wohlstadter.
For freelancers and lean teams, access to structured strategy tools means pitching bigger ideas without bigger teams. For junior employees at large agencies or brands, it means increased visibility into the kind of thinking that will shape the work they’ll do as they grow in their careers.
If strategy used to be a black box, it’s now a shared workspace. Whether you’re looking to level up, stand out, or get closer to the kind of work that actually moves the business, being empowered to contribute strategically may be the edge that gets you there.