Aug 20, 2026 · 14 min · 7 segments
How can small agencies stay competitive in the age of AI? Megan Shroy, Founder and President of Approach Marketing, shares how her agency has built more than 80…
Megan ShroyGuestDoug SimonHostMegan, let's start off with how small agencies can stay competitive and if AI plays a role, how can they be using it to stay competitive?
You know, one of the things that we've found, you know, over the last decade is small agencies' ability to be nimble.
And it's also just a function of not having, you know, many layers of management.
And, you know, oftentimes, you know, other factors that weigh into big agency that play a role in how quick we can move.
And so I do think that at Approach, at least, we've been able to adopt AI much more quickly than some of our big agency counterparts have.
Uh, as a result of that, I also think, you know, it has been, you know, an effort to jump in and experiment early.
As we're talking to our clients, you don't have that ability, right? They wanted to get, you know, everything buttoned up first and, uh, you know, a company wide position, uh, established an enterprise platform established early on before people could start experimenting.
But I found, you know, our approach a couple of years ago was like, let's just try experiment.
And so I do think that that's one of the reasons that small agencies have been able to level the playing field a little bit.
And really, we just have made an effort to say we're going to make the investment because we know this is the direction that the industry is moving and we don't want to be left behind.
Megan, let's start off with how small agencies can stay competitive and if AI plays a role, how can they be using it to stay competitive?
You know, one of the things that we've found, you know, over the last decade is small agencies' ability to be nimble.
And it's also just a function of not having, you know, many layers of management.
And, you know, oftentimes, you know, other factors that weigh into big agency that play a role in how quick we can move.
And so I do think that at Approach, at least, we've been able to adopt AI much more quickly than some of our big agency counterparts have.
Uh, as a result of that, I also think, you know, it has been, you know, an effort to jump in and experiment early.
As we're talking to our clients, you don't have that ability, right? They wanted to get, you know, everything buttoned up first and, uh, you know, a company wide position, uh, established an enterprise platform established early on before people could start experimenting.
But I found, you know, our approach a couple of years ago was like, let's just try experiment.
And so I do think that that's one of the reasons that small agencies have been able to level the playing field a little bit.
And really, we just have made an effort to say we're going to make the investment because we know this is the direction that the industry is moving and we don't want to be left behind.
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