Why AI Can Never Replace Great Agencies

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes · Last updated: 19 September 2026

Andy Lopez, chief marketing officer of Behr Paint, argues that AI cannot replace great agencies because strategic judgment, retail coordination and creative work that fixes consumer hesitation require human context and partnership. Lopez draws on his agency-side experience and more than nine years at Behr to show how agencies become extensions of brand teams and why that matters at the point of purchase. Jenny Rooney interviewed Lopez for Marketing Vanguard; as first reported by Adweek, Lopez says Behr’s exclusive partnership with Home Depot and the company’s Color of the Year process both depend on human-led insights rather than AI alone. The primary keyword "AI replace agencies" appears here to anchor the topic.

Why agency partnerships still need human judgement

Agencies remain necessary because they supply contextual judgement across channels and moments where machine outputs lack commercial grounding. Andy Lopez describes successful partners as those that operate like an internal team with shared priorities, not external vendors pitching one-off ideas.

That distinction is practical: a campaign idea must translate into retail aisles, packaging, merchandising and shelf-ready creative. Lopez says aligning creative with in-store execution and Home Depot planning requires negotiation, timing and local knowledge — skills he attributes to human teams and their relationships, not to generative models alone.

Clients and agencies use insight to convert inspiration into confidence at the point of purchase. This is where judgement matters most: deciding which trend signals are actionable, which channels to scale, and how to test concepts so they don’t confuse already indecisive shoppers.

What AI can do — and where it must stop

Lopez frames AI as a tool to increase capacity, automate repetitive tasks and speed execution, not a replacement for strategic counsel. He warns against treating AI primarily as a cost lever; agencies and brands that use it only to cut fees risk hollowing out the relationship work that drives growth.

Practically, that means deploying AI for production work, variant testing, and rapid ideation while leaving strategy, retail negotiation and consumer-truth synthesis to people. Lopez points to ways teams can free up time for high-value work by outsourcing routine production to AI while preserving decision-making and creative craft in human hands.

This balance—using AI to create time for strategic work rather than to eliminate roles—frames Behr’s approach to partnerships and internal capacity planning, ensuring creativity and commercial execution remain linked.

Fixing 'color paralysis': insight, testing and retail fit

Lopez uses the phrase "color paralysis" to describe consumers who are inspired but freeze when choosing a paint shade. Behr approaches that friction with insight-driven design: smaller curated palettes, in-context imagery and merchandising that narrows choice at the shelf.

That work combines trend forecasting with on-shelf testing and retailer coordination. Lopez explains that Behr’s Color of the Year is not just a trend statement; it is an output of research and retail planning intended to map forecasted tastes onto what actually sells at Home Depot and elsewhere.

Addressing paralysis therefore demands iterative testing and joint retailer planning—processes that rely on human interpretation of qualitative feedback and commerce signals rather than only algorithmic pattern-matching.

Exclusive retail partnerships: planning, not one-off campaigns

Behr’s long-running exclusive partnership with Home Depot is central to Lopez’s point about agency value. He says exclusive retail relationships work when brands and retailers plan assortments, timing and creative together so marketing drives conversion at the shelf.

That coordination requires shared calendars, trade plans and bespoke activations that can’t be produced by a model given only a brief. Lopez links these practical steps—aligning innovation rollouts, merchandising windows and advertising—to the work agencies do as integrators across functions.

When agencies contribute to commercialization and go-to-market design, marketing stops being an isolated activity and becomes a commercial engine. Lopez’s experience on both sides of the table informs his insistence that these operational details are an essential reason AI cannot wholly replace agencies.

How the argument plays out

The bottom line

Andy Lopez’s thesis is straightforward: AI is a powerful tool for production and scaling, but it does not substitute for the human judgement, retailer relationships and integrative work that make marketing commercially effective. Agencies that emphasize partnership, commercialization and in-market testing can use AI to extend capacity while protecting the functions that drive conversion. For brands, the practical choice is not between AI and agencies but how to combine them so creative ideas become purchases in the real world.

What to watch

• Watch for Advertising HQ in Midtown, Oct. 5–8, 2026, where marketers and agency leaders will meet in person.
• Watch for Brandweek’s move to Texas in 2027 and the programming there that will test agency–brand models for the coming year.
• Watch for Behr’s next Color of the Year announcement; no date has been set for the release.