21% fewer writers on US marketing agencies' websites than before ChatGPT.
We compared who nearly 6,500 agencies list on their own websites today with who they listed in 2022.
- Nearly 68,000
- US agency websites read
- Nearly 22,000
- agencies with a website we could read in 2022 and today
- Nearly 6,500
- agencies that listed their team both years
The same agencies in 2022, the year before ChatGPT launched, and in October 2026.
Key findings
- US marketing agencies list 21% fewer writers on their websites than they did before ChatGPT. The share of agencies that list any writer fell from 25% to 21%.
- The title Copywriter fell 41%. Content writers fell 40% and editors 43%. Senior copywriters fell 13%.
- Junior roles fell 18% and interns 27%. Senior staff rose 5% and owners and heads 7%.
- Teams as a whole shrank 4%. Designers fell 8%. Developers, sales and account staff barely changed.
- In 2022, 2% of agencies sold AI work on their websites. Now 19% do, and 25% mention AI.
- People with AI in their job title went from 4 in 2022 to 178 now.
- 16% of the agencies we found online in 2022 have no working website today.
Writers fell the most.
People listed on agency websites by the kind of work in their title, the same agencies in 2022 and 2026.
- Writers and content: 3,137 in 2022, 2,465 in 2026, −21%
- PR and media relations: 2,008 in 2022, 1,778 in 2026, −11%
- Designers and creative: 8,127 in 2022, 7,455 in 2026, −8%
- Digital marketing: 8,504 in 2022, 8,131 in 2026, −4%
- Account and client staff: 10,539 in 2022, 10,183 in 2026, −3%
- Developers: 3,952 in 2022, 3,911 in 2026, −1%
- Video and photo: 1,507 in 2022, 1,516 in 2026, +1%
- Strategists: 4,324 in 2022, 4,374 in 2026, +1%
- Sales: 2,362 in 2022, 2,446 in 2026, +4%
- Owners and leaders: 12,139 in 2022, 12,598 in 2026, +4%
- Operations and admin: 5,571 in 2022, 5,846 in 2026, +5%
fulkersonadvisors.com
Copywriters most of all.
The ten most common writing titles on the same agencies' websites.
- Copywriter: 341 2022, 201 2026, −41%
- Content writer: 174 2022, 105 2026, −40%
- Senior copywriter: 119 2022, 103 2026, −13%
- Content manager: 104 2022, 80 2026, −23%
- Content specialist: 89 2022, 65 2026, −27%
- Writer: 77 2022, 65 2026, −16%
- Editor: 86 2022, 49 2026, −43%
- Content creator: 46 2022, 55 2026, +20%
- Content director: 43 2022, 31 2026, −28%
- Senior writer: 34 2022, 35 2026, +3%
fulkersonadvisors.com
Fewer juniors, more senior people.
People listed by the level of their title.
- Interns: 386 in 2022, 281 in 2026, −27%
- Junior: 4,641 in 2022, 3,819 in 2026, −18%
- Mid-level: 21,983 in 2022, 19,868 in 2026, −10%
- Senior: 24,223 in 2022, 25,361 in 2026, +5%
- Owners and heads: 10,903 in 2022, 11,687 in 2026, +7%
fulkersonadvisors.com
Ten times as many sell AI.
Agencies whose home page sells AI work or mentions AI, the same agencies in 2022 and 2026.
- Sells AI work
- 2026: 19%2022: 2%
- Mentions AI
- 2026: 25%2022: 2%
About 1 in 5 US marketing agencies sells AI work on its website today.
fulkersonadvisors.com
What became of the 2022 agencies.
Agencies we found online in 2022, and what their website is today.
- Still an agency
- 80%
- No working website
- 16%
- Another kind of business
- 2%
- Says it closed or joined another company
- 2%
No working website: the name no longer resolves, the site doesn't answer, shows an error, or the domain is for sale or suspended.
fulkersonadvisors.com
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The data.
We read agencies' websites as they were in 2022 and as they are in October 2026.
How we did it
Who: every US place that Overture Maps lists as a marketing, advertising, internet marketing, business advertising, public relations or social media agency with a website (release 2026-09-23.1). One row per website, leaving out social media and directory pages and websites shared by more than 20 places: 67,749 websites.
Now: each site's robots.txt and home page, read in October 2026 by a crawler that obeys robots.txt and never gets past a block, and the page where the agency introduces its people. Then: the Internet Archive's copy of each home page nearest June 1, 2022, kept only when it falls in the 12 months before ChatGPT's release on November 30, 2022, and the same agency's people page from that time.
Our AI model read every page: whether the site is an agency, whether it sells AI work or mentions AI, which link leads to the agency's people, and every short line of those pages, to tell a name from a job title. Code counted each person once. Each distinct job title was then sorted by the kind of work it names and its level.
Comparisons: 21,859 agencies had a website we could read both years (the AI questions), and 6,472 listed at least two people both years (the team questions): 76,713 people in 2022 and 73,925 in 2026. The 2022 agencies' fate covers 27,835 of 29,373 agencies, leaving out sites that block crawlers or show only a bot check today.
Checks: reviewers who never saw the model's answers redid samples of 180 home pages, 80 team lists and 322 titles. They agreed on 63 of 66 pages the model read as selling AI and 110 of 114 it read as not. On team lists the model counted 7 to 9% more people than the reviewers, about the same both years, so the changes hold. Without the largest 1% of teams, writers fell 18%.
Limits: a website shows who an agency chooses to list, not its payroll. Pages drawn entirely by scripts can't be read without running them and are left out. The archive saved some sites more often than others. The list of agencies is today's map data, so agencies that closed and dropped off it before 2026 aren't in it.
Cite this study
Fulkerson Advisors. (2026). Marketing agencies after ChatGPT: team pages and AI services of 67,749 US agency websites, 2022 and 2026. https://www.fulkersonadvisors.com/research/marketing-agencies-after-chatgpt
The charts and the CSV are free to use with a link to this page.
Questions
Will AI replace copywriters?
Websites can't show why, but agencies list fewer of them since ChatGPT. Across nearly 6,500 US agencies, the title Copywriter fell 41% from 2022 to 2026 and writers overall fell 21%. Senior copywriters fell 13%.
How has AI changed marketing agencies?
Many now sell it. 19% of agencies sell AI work on their websites, up from 2% in 2022. They also list 21% fewer writers and 18% fewer junior staff.
Are marketing agencies hiring fewer junior staff?
They list fewer. Junior roles on agency websites fell 18% from 2022 to 2026 and interns 27%, while senior staff rose 5%.
How many marketing agencies offer AI services?
About 1 in 5 US marketing agencies sells AI work on its website today. In 2022 it was 2%.
Where does the data come from?
From agencies' own websites in October 2026 and the Internet Archive's copies of the same sites from the year before ChatGPT. The method is under How we did it.