High Standards, AI, And�Strategists’ Fight For Survival
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Annual�Report
2025
Table of contents
Introduction
03.
Sweathead Highlights 2025
04.
Layoffs In 2025
14.
The Feelings Check-In Survey
18.
High Standards Survey
41.
A.I. Survey
55.
Connect With Us
68.
Conclusion
69.
2025 has been a year of tension, change, and survival for strategists.
Layoffs hit hard, AI moved faster than teams could keep up with, expectations rose, and resources shrank. Still, strategists pushed for clarity, originality, and meaning.
This annual report explores how strategists are really feeling, the pressures they face, how standards inside organizations are shifting, and where AI is helping—or not. It also highlights Sweathead’s global work bringing strategists together to learn, grow, and reignite their passion.
Together, these findings show where strategists stand today, what they’re navigating, what they hope for, and what it takes to survive in an industry that never slows down.�
Let’s have a look at what we have found out from our main surveys this year…
Introduction
Sweathead Highlights 2025
The Sweathead
Get-Ahead
March, 2025
We organized many events for our community members this year
The Sweathead
Strategy Accelerator
June, 2025
Meet-a-Strategist Community Event
Monthly
A.I. Show & Tell
August, 2025
What Marketers Can Learn From Sydney’s Sweeney's “Great Jeans” Campaign?
September, 2025
Storytelling & Creativity
September, 2025
Aisha Hakim Masterclass - Building A Portfolio That Tells The Story Of You
October, 2025
The Do-Together
November, 2025
For the first time ever, The Sweathead Do-Together happened in person and online �in November 2025 in Chicago and New York.
We had 1 special host for each city and �more than 15 speakers, teaching �30-minutes sessions with hands on exercises.
The energy, curiosity, and bold conversations in those rooms �reminded us why we do this work.��Grateful to everyone who showed �up and shaped the day.
Sweathead Highlights 2025
With Mark Pollard
Strategy�Is Your�Words
Sweathead Highlights 2025
In 2025, Sweathead Founder, Strategy CEO and Author of Strategy Is Your Words, Mark Pollard, has visited 27 countries and 34 cities to teach strategy masterclasses to more than 1988 people.
Strategy Is Your Words�With Mark Pollard
Sweathead Highlights 2025
Get your ticket here
Learn and practice the most fun parts of advertising strategy in these countries in January & February 2026:
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Instagram Top Posts
Views
2.5 M
Sweathead Highlights 2025
Impressions
664K
LinkedIn Top Posts
Sweathead Highlights 2025
New YouTube Channel
Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle dropped one of the most talked-about ads of the year. In this video, we break down why the campaign is controversial what it says about celebrity marketing, and what strategists, creatives, and brands can learn from it.
In this episode of Cuts on Craft, three strategists break down how they use music, memes, and story to move people. From emotional hooks to cultural drops, we explore how strategy and creativity share the same beat.
We recently launched on Youtube Channel
Weekly tips and trips into the
workings of the strategist.��In 2025 our newsletter had an �open rate of 43.8%
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Sweathead Newsletter
Make the most of your mind with our online strategy classes, conferences, and accelerators.
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Let’s look at some trends that reflect the broader pressures strategists faced in 2025—uncertainty, industry shifts, and the need to survive while maintaining high standards.
Layoffs In 2025
What This Means
Layoffs In 2025
Layoffs and AI anxiety are redefining adland jobs�Digiday, 2025
Layoffs In 2025
Major Companies Laying Off Staff�Business Insider, 2025
Layoffs In 2025
Big Layoffs Are Hitting These Sectors the Hardest�Forbes, May 2025
The
Feelings�Check-In�Survey 2025
We kicked off this year with the Feelings Check-In Survey, gathering responses from over 1,500 strategists.
It revealed a fight between their passion for their craft and the intense pressures of the industry.
They’re driven by a love for the strategic game, exhilarated by the challenge of transforming insight into impactful action but often feel weighed down by constant expectations to perform, innovate, and prove their worth in environments that may not fully recognize them.
Let’s have a closer look at our survey findings…
The Feelings Check-In Survey�by Sweathead
Methodology
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
More than half of the respondents manage a team
Who Responded
Do you manage a team?
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
86% countries were represented:
Who Responded
20.7% USA�11% UK�6.4% India�5.4% Australia�4.5% Indonesia�4.3% Canada�3.2% Germany�2.9% Brazil�2.9% Philippines
And more…
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
Hold a group session to discuss these findings
Ask how you’d interpret the data here
Host a workshop to address the issues raised
Establish your own internal check-in surveys
Speak to your team in one-on-ones about the issues
How Your Team Might Use This Information
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
So, how do 1,500 strategists feel about their jobs and their careers in 2025?
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
The Industry
Section 1:
Let’s start with mood:
The mood is down but motivation isn’t.
After seeing the mood rise in 2021 and 2022 as people felt they were emerging from the pandemic and had power in the workforce (remember the Great Resignation), 2023-2024 saw rounds of layoffs and reorgs, the rise of artificial intelligence, the merging of agencies, war and more war, and elections with vitriol.
Now, even though respondents feel more competent than before, many are still dragging themselves out of the pandemic or through their own country’s turbulence into a future which feels volatile and uncertain.
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
What is your mood compared to the previous year?
Better
The mood of the respondents has decreased considerably compared to the previous years.
The Industry
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
I have more responsibilities than my title acknowledges.
With all the layoffs and reorgs, teams have inherited more responsibilities than their titles and remuneration acknowledge.
For what I do, my salary is fair.
The Industry
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
When Coworkers Got Laid Off — But You Didn’t…
“The colossal wave of downsizing in the last few years is dividing the workplace in two, between the leavers and the survivors. Business has traditionally emphasized the consequences of downsizing on the leavers, sometimes putting in place severance pay, outplacement programs, and extended health benefits to ease their transition. However, the negative impacts of change are frequently felt just as strongly by those who remain following major layoffs…”
by Alyson Meister, professor of leadership and organizational behavior at IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Victoria Kemanian, senior advisor at IMD Business School and a lecturer at the University of Lausanne.
The Industry
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
Most days, I feel motivated in my work.
Despite all of this stress, respondents are motivated and confident and are finding their work meaningful.
I find my work meaningful.
The Industry
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
I enjoy working in advertising.
The clear majority of respondents even enjoy working in advertising
while feeling conflicted
about working in the industry.
I feel conflicted about working in advertising.
The Industry
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
The outside pressures of the world are making life worse, but their internal motivation is burning bright.
The Industry
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
Career and Company
Section 2:
People want more from their companies because their companies are wanting more from them.
I’ve bounced around different companies more than I should have
Yet, we suspect, the state of the job market - ghost jobs, layoffs, etc - has made people less confident about seeking a new job.
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
Competence
Section 3:
People are confident and hungry right now (despite research showing that managers are frustrated with the lack of fundamental skills in the workforce).
Compared to other people in similar roles, I really know what I’m doing.
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
When a new project comes in, I know what to do.
I have enough skills for a promotion.
Here’s how confident they are feeling right now…
Competence
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
You
Section 4:
This year, people feel better about themselves and they’re taking care of themselves more.
I feel good about most of my career decisions.
I am a well-adjusted person–I usually feel good about
myself and my life.
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
I need to achieve in my career to feel good about myself.
Despite being obsessed with achievement and their own thoughts.
I think too much.
You
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
Relationships
Section 5:
People’s work relationships seem to be okay.
I have someone I can talk to when things aren’t going well in life.
At work, I have somebody I can bounce ideas off.
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
It’s harder than I expected to have good relationships with creative teams.
But…
Nearly half of the respondents find it hard to have a good relationship with creative teams
Relationships
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
I spend more time alone than I’d like
I feel like my work is important but few people that I work with make it feel important.
And…
if you’re managing a team, make sure your team doesn’t feel sidelined or unvalued.
I often feel sidelined in my work.
Relationships
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
My boss coaches me more than they order me around.
My boss checks in on me in a way I like.
More than half of the respondents say their bosses do a good job at managing their work. However, there is a lot of space for improvement.
Relationships
The Feelings Check-In Survey by Sweathead
By
High Standards Survey
High Standards Survey�by Sweathead
In September 2025, we surveyed over 80 strategists to understand what high standards truly mean for them, how culture shapes them, and what gets in their way.
We learned that raising standards isn’t about perfection—it’s about choosing clarity, discipline, and courage in a world that often asks for less.
With the right culture, strong practices, and protection of your own energy, distinctive and meaningful strategy work is possible.
Let’s have a closer look at our survey findings…
What we found out is that raising standards in strategy is not about chasing perfection.
It is about choosing clarity, discipline, and courage in a world that often pushes for less.
With the right culture, the right practices, and a commitment to protecting your energy, it is possible to do work that feels distinctive, meaningful, and lasting.
High Standards Survey�by Sweathead
Survey: High Standards
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
What Having High Standards Actually Means for Strategists
For strategists, high standards are less about perfection and more about craft, growth, and originality. They show up in polished work, excellence in writing, thinking, doing presentations and coming up with original ideas and insights that can stand the test of time. High standards also mean pushing beyond comfort zones, holding yourself accountable, and creating work that feels distinctive and worth remembering. At their core, they represent creativity, clarity and discipline, the foundation for work that truly makes an impact.
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
When you think of “high standards,”�what does that mean to you in your work?
“Excellence in writing, thinking, design and presentation. Real insights. No cut corners in research. Coming to meetings with pre-work done. Never missing deadlines. Having things polished even for internal reviews. Being unflappable in client presentations.”
“An insight that really turns the problem upside down, a great communication problem, great storytelling, clients asking for advice”
Director, Brand Strategy
Strategy Director
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
The Biggest Barriers to Maintaining�High Standards
Strategists are facing recurring challenges that make it hard to uphold high standards.
Limited time and resources are the most common obstacles, but organizational pressures, misalignment between teams, and burnout also play a major role.
These barriers force trade-offs, leaving strategists to constantly balance their ambition with the realities of deadlines, budgets, and competing demands.
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
Most strategists say �they know what high standards are....
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
How aligned do you feel your standards are with your organization’s standards?
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
How often are these high standards communicated?
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
But they aren’t given enough time and support to meet those high standards...
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
How often do you feel pressured to compromise your standards to get work out the door?
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
What’s the biggest barrier to maintaining high standards in your work?
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
The Impact of Organizational Culture
Culture often determines whether high standards can be sustained. In supportive environments, expectations are clear, accountability is shared, and excellence is nurtured throughout the process. In less supportive cultures, speed, uneven expectations, or lack of process make it difficult to maintain quality. Culture amplifies ambition when it is strong but erodes it when it is weak.
High Standards Survey by Sweathead
By
AI Survey
AI appears in nearly every trend report, inspiring both hope and doubt.
But what does it mean for strategists’ day-to-day work?
To find out, we ran a survey over the past year covering three areas: AI readiness, beliefs, and perceived impact.
The results show cautious optimism. AI can save time, but its current output are often seen as unreliable or unhelpful, sometimes wasting the very time it’s meant to save.
For now, it’s a big shrug. Yet there’s a clear expectation this will improve.
Let’s have a closer look at our survey findings…
AI Survey by Sweathead
AI Survey
We surveyed 210 people from our community in January 2024.
You can see the questions we asked.
It was a simple, rough-and-ready survey but we hope you find this a valuable contribution to the advertising community.
01 - What country are you from?
02 - Which best describes your current situation?
03 - How often do you use AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Bard or Copilot?
04 - To what degree has your company formally adopted AI?
05 - Which of the below are formally in place at your company?
06 - What access to AI tools do you have?
07 - How do you feel towards AI? (Choose as many as you like)
08 - Which aspects of AI are you concerned about?
09 - Why do you use AI?
10 - What do you use AI for?
11 - What frustrates you about using AI?
12 - “AI is currently making artists/creatives less relevant.”
13 - “AI will eventually make my job redundant.”
14 - “I am able to distinguish between an AI and human response/product.”
15 - “AI will improve the workplace.”
31%
United States
2%
Canada
6%
Australia
13%
United Kingdom
2%
Singapore
Where people are from
4%
Germany
2%
India
1%
Brazil
And from another 39 countries, including Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Ukraine, Austria, Colombia, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Ireland, and more.
The advertising industry is mostly tinkering with artificial intelligence as individuals and in small groups.
To what degree has your company formally adopted AI?
1. AI is still in its infancy in the advertising industry
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
2. People are mostly playing with public AI tools
78% of respondents are using open-source tools like ChatGPT.
What access to AI tools do you have?
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
3. People are Somewhat excited and a little scared
49% of respondents are excited about AI but there are a lot of mixed emotions.
How do you feel towards AI? (Choose as many as you like)
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
4. People are scared of the unknown and bias
Surprisingly perhaps, fear of job loss isn’t as palpable with only 8% of respondents selecting this.
Which aspects of AI are you concerned about?
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
5. The hope is AI can save time but it doesn’t always
AI is not seen as something that takes your thinking to the next level. �It’s seen as a quick power-up, like the mushroom in �Super Mario.
Why do you use AI?
What frustrates you about using AI?
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
6. Strategists are clustering around GPTs in similar ways for conceptual work but yearn for AI to remove non-conceptual, time-consuming tasks
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
7. Most respondents use AI at least every week
Although our sample might be biased by attracting people interested in AI, 69% of respondents use AI at least once a week.
How often do you use AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Bard or Copilot?
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
AI Strategy Use Cases
This is how our respondents are using AI for strategy tasks.
1. Templates - focus group discussions, contracts
2. Operations
Summarizing calls (call reports), note-taking in meetings
Transcripts
3. Communication
Responding to emails
4. Personas
Creating personas from big datasets
Training a GPT to act like a persona
5. Translation
6. Encyclopedia
Definitions of concepts
7. Research
Distill insights and ideas from various digital sources
Category and industry understanding
What are the category cliches?
What are the category table stakes?
What are the stereotypes?
SWOT analysis
Survey results analysis (eg analyzing open field responses)
As an alternative to Google
8. Writing
Subediting
Synonyms
Structuring decks, emails
Coming up with puns
Content creation for blogs and social media posts
Drafting emails
Copywriting
“A thesaurus with tone” - “write me X in this way” - “spit out some words for me”
9. Strategy activities
Workshop planning
Workshop summaries
Positioning play
A sounding board - training it to be a partner
10. Visuals
Images for decks
Images for social media content and blogs
11. Ideas, conceptualization
Speed up ideation - mash ideas together
Scamps
12. New business development
To show how fast and modern and unlike other agencies you are
To generate quick ideas and visuals
A.I. Survey by Sweathead
We know you so we know the reaction of many of you to this information is this: “Oh, thank goodness. I thought everybody was much farther ahead.”
Our plea to you is to keep your creative spirit alive and your strategy skills developing. If you can easily outsource a lot of your job to a machine then everyone can so why would you keep a job?
Humans tend to go to the edge of things then keep going. So enjoy your edging time with AI. We know you’ll be able to go farther.
And, yes, we know what edging is.
AI Survey by Sweathead
Conclusion
This year’s uncertainty, from layoffs to rapid change to the rise of AI, shows a profession in transition: hopeful, tired, ambitious, frustrated, curious, and still committed.
High standards are not disappearing. They are becoming a battleground. AI is not replacing strategists. It is reshaping the work. And across countries and thousands of people, the appetite for better thinking and better practice is growing.
If 2025 was about surviving, 2026 will be about choosing: where to put your energy, who to work with, which standards to protect, and how to work �with AI instead of being pushed aside by it.
At Sweathead, we will keep pushing for better strategy, clearer words, a stronger community, and a future that respects the people doing this work.
Thank you for keeping your standards high and your curiosity alive.�The work needs you. The community needs you.�Together we’ll shape what comes next.
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