CRO Agencies Growth & Demand-Gen Blueprint, 2026.

100% of agencies use AI. Only 9% have turned it into an edge. Get the ground reality on AI, pricing and demand from 55 CRO and experimentation agencies.

The 2026 report, Everything is Fine (?)!, by Craig Sullivan

Research by

Craig Sullivan

13+ years of experimentation, UX research and analytics work for Google, Amazon, Spotify, Lego and Red Bull. 500+ clients.

  • 2nd annual edition
  • 55 agencies surveyed
  • Leader interviews

Co-produced with

Sponsored by

Download the 2026 report

Free. The PDF opens right away and a copy lands in your inbox.

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What we found in 2026

AI became the floor. Demand is still the fight.

9%

have embedded AI in delivery deeply enough to gain an edge. Adoption is 100%.

50%

believe AI is commoditizing what they sell and that they hold a human advantage it can't replicate.

81%

raised or held their rates this year. Just 15% cut them.

39%

name winning new business as their top risk. AI commoditizing delivery sits at 24%.

Sneak peek

More AI doesn't buy pricing power.

We tested five measures of AI intensity against price changes. None tracked price. Of the 25 agencies that raised prices, 72% did it by moving to higher-value work.

2025 vs 2026

What moved in a year.

Five questions appear in both surveys.

What the 2025 report got right in its predictions

  • Clients would mature and bring work in-house
  • Execution work would be commoditized
  • Value would keep moving upstream
  • Agencies would shift to flexible, project-based work (nope, still mainly retainers)
Read the 2025 report to compare→

Net agree, 2025 vs 2026

2026 2025
More server-side / cross-platform+17 pts
35%
18%
Clients bringing testing in-house+7 pts
69%
62%
AI is now a key part of workflow-4 pts
72%
76%
Experimentation shifting to product teams-12 pts
48%
60%
Clients expecting greater ROI & velocity-14 pts
63%
77%

Percentage-point gaps, no significance testing. Source: Agency & Consultancy Research 2025 and 2026.

Download the report

Free. Opens right away, plus a copy in your inbox.

What's inside

40 pages. Zero hype.

01

AI is everywhere, and that's the problem

Everyone has adopted AI. Only 9% run it deep enough in delivery to see real gains. Where the other 91% stall on the way from adoption to advantage.

02

The Held Paradox

Why agencies feel commoditized and defensible at once, and how it plays out in price.

03

Confident, but the real worry is demand

The risks agencies actually rank, and why they sit hardest on smaller, client-dependent shops.

04

What the smart agencies are doing

Four moves separating the agencies pulling ahead in 2026.

05

What actually scales test output

The strongest relationship in the study. Hint: it isn't AI.

See how your peers are handling the pivots

Agency leaders on in-housing, pricing, AI in delivery and where they are placing their bets, in their own words.

Get the report

Free with the report

Five findings. Five stickers.

Each sticker is a finding from the report, designed as a print-ready file you can print yourself. Tick the box when you download the report and we'll send you the pack.

Get the report and your stickers

Pre-launch reviews

Why agency leaders want you to read the report.

“Brilliant report. Clarifies the joint tensions we're seeing at Launch between racing to embed AI, generate pipeline demand, also prevent client churn. … Really well written, concise, backs up every claim …”
Joe Johnston

Joe Johnston

Launch

“This report is a genuinely useful benchmark for anyone leading a CRO function. … Seeing year on year changes adds a new level of insights we couldn't get from any other report.”
Garret Cunningham

Garret Cunningham

Columbus

“Amid the flood of inflated AI claims we encounter every day, this report feels like a breath of fresh air.”
Mark de Winter

Mark de Winter

ClickValue

“This report helped me make sense of … the gap between how confidently we talk about using AI and how we're actually feeling about what it means for our careers.”
Katie Faulkner

Katie Faulkner

FORJ Digital

“A refreshing read in a world where apparently every second LinkedIn post has already replaced us with an agent.”
Fotis Antonopoulos

Fotis Antonopoulos

AI Academy

“For agency and CRO leaders, it's a compelling read that helps you question your business model and identify where you can create lasting value.”
András Kobza

András Kobza

Konvertify

About the author

Craig Sullivan

Craig has spent over 13 years blending UX research, analytics and A/B testing for companies like Google, Amazon, Spotify, Lego and Red Bull. He has helped over 500 clients unlock growth inside their products and services.

Co-produced with

Sponsored by

Questions

Who is this report for?

Founders and leaders at CRO, experimentation and full-service agencies and consultancies. If you sell experimentation to clients, it’s for you.

Is it free?

Yes. Fill in the form and the PDF opens right away. We also email you a copy.

How was the research done?

A survey of 55 CRO and experimentation agencies and consultancies, run February to May 2026, plus conversations with agency founders and leaders. It’s a self-selected sample, so findings reflect this community rather than every agency. Relationships are measured with Kendall’s τ-b and bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals. The full methodology is on page 39.

How does it compare to the 2025 report?

Five questions appear in both surveys, and the report compares them. The samples differ, so the comparison shows direction, not a trend. Read the 2025 report.

Did AI write this report?

No. Craig did. Claude helped clean the survey data, scaffold the analysis, code open-text answers and handle personal data, with human review. The analysis and the writing are Craig’s.

Who can get the sticker pack?

Anyone who downloads the report can request the five print-ready sticker designs on the next screen. These are digital files, not physical stickers.

The floor is rising for everyone. The edge belongs to whoever decides, deliberately, what to do with what AI hands back.

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