---
title: An agency's growth chart is not evidence for your $3,000 a month in AI tools
author: Giacomo Balli
published: 2026-10-18
url: https://BigBalli.com/blog/an-agencys-growth-chart-is-not-evidence-for-your-3000-a-month-in-ai-tools
tags: AI, Engineering, Growth, Leadership, Disruption
---

# An agency's growth chart is not evidence for your $3,000 a month in AI tools

*By Giacomo Balli* | *Published: October 18, 2026*

Your agency proposes $3,000 a month in new AI sales and marketing tools, and the deck carries a chart: the fastest-growing companies spend nearly four times as much on them as the slowest.

The chart is probably real. A survey of software companies this year found the top quarter by growth averaging about $17,000 a month on AI sales and marketing tools, against about $4,500 for the bottom quarter.

What it cannot show is direction. Spending may have driven the growth. Growth may have paid for the spending. A well-run team may produce both. The survey did not test which, and it covered venture-backed software companies, not a business that sells what yours sells.

So the chart says nothing about your $3,000. Before signing, ask the agency which number in your business the tools should move: booked jobs, quote requests, repeat orders. Ask what that number is today, and for one example from a business your size where it moved.

The agency may well be right about the tools. The chart is just not the evidence for it.

[Discuss on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7517967806118871043)

---

**Tags:** AI, Engineering, Growth, Leadership, Disruption

---

*View the [HTML version](https://BigBalli.com/blog/an-agencys-growth-chart-is-not-evidence-for-your-3000-a-month-in-ai-tools) of this post.*