Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast How AI Is changing what clients need from agencies, with Zaynab Zubair
Oct 14, 2026
49:21
Welcome to Episode 174. This episode is particularly useful if you're wondering how your clients are really adopting AI, and what that means for the future value of agencies.
I'm chatting with Zaynab Zubair, a digital change and adoption specialist with more than 12 years' experience helping large organisations turn new technology into genuine business value. Her career has taken her from communications and large-scale digital workplace transformation (including supporting the rollout of Office 365 across 14 countries and 60,000 employees) through to EY, where she worked in Digital People Experience and helped organisations rethink the future of work. More recently, her focus has moved increasingly towards AI transformation: helping senior leaders understand not just what AI can do, but how to drive adoption, change behaviours and ultimately demonstrate measurable value from it. Today, as an independent contractor, she works directly with large enterprise clients on digital change management and adoption. These are the kinds of organisations many agencies have as clients, so I wanted to find out what your clients are being told about AI transformation, and what that means for your agency.
We cover:
- why clients are increasingly doing more execution in-house
- why agencies need to move from being doers to more consultative partners
- what senior leaders are really concerned about when it comes to AI
- why stakeholder management and human judgement are becoming even more valuable
- and how agencies can use AI to strengthen their proposals and stand out.
What really stood out to me during our chat was Zaynab's advice to stress-test your own proposals with AI before you send them.
Your client may well be doing exactly the same thing at their end.
You can connect with Zaynab Zubair here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaynabzubair/
Sign up for my newsletter to stay updated on how AI is changing agency account management, client retention and growth: https://www.accountmanagementskills.com
I'm chatting with Zaynab Zubair, a digital change and adoption specialist with more than 12 years' experience helping large organisations turn new technology into genuine business value. Her career has taken her from communications and large-scale digital workplace transformation (including supporting the rollout of Office 365 across 14 countries and 60,000 employees) through to EY, where she worked in Digital People Experience and helped organisations rethink the future of work. More recently, her focus has moved increasingly towards AI transformation: helping senior leaders understand not just what AI can do, but how to drive adoption, change behaviours and ultimately demonstrate measurable value from it. Today, as an independent contractor, she works directly with large enterprise clients on digital change management and adoption. These are the kinds of organisations many agencies have as clients, so I wanted to find out what your clients are being told about AI transformation, and what that means for your agency.
We cover:
- why clients are increasingly doing more execution in-house
- why agencies need to move from being doers to more consultative partners
- what senior leaders are really concerned about when it comes to AI
- why stakeholder management and human judgement are becoming even more valuable
- and how agencies can use AI to strengthen their proposals and stand out.
What really stood out to me during our chat was Zaynab's advice to stress-test your own proposals with AI before you send them.
Your client may well be doing exactly the same thing at their end.
You can connect with Zaynab Zubair here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaynabzubair/
Sign up for my newsletter to stay updated on how AI is changing agency account management, client retention and growth: https://www.accountmanagementskills.com