According to Forbes, the creator economy is entering a definitive new phase by 2026, marked by widespread consolidation. The fragmented, experimental landscape of independent creators, managers, and agencies is giving way to a more structured market where influencer marketing is a permanent, budgeted line item for brands. This shift is driven by a demand for reliability, measurable performance, and partners who can help creators build lasting businesses, not just one-off deals. The most visible changes are in talent management, evolving from deal-making to full-scale business building, as noted by industry leaders like Ashley Villa of Rare Global. Furthermore, agencies like Sway Group, led by CEO Danielle Wiley, are now expected to drive strategy and leverage data, not just execute campaigns. Artificial intelligence is becoming the critical operating layer that ties these consolidated systems together.
From Hustle to Infrastructure
Here’s the thing: the early days were all about hustle and attention arbitrage. It was chaotic, creative, and frankly, a bit messy. But that model just doesn’t work when you’re talking about serious brand money. Brands aren’t experimenting anymore; they’re allocating. And when you’re a CMO with a multimillion-dollar budget, you need predictability and data you can actually use. You can’t have that when your campaign data is scattered across five different boutique agencies and three manager spreadsheets. So consolidation isn’t just about getting bigger—it’s about building the integrated infrastructure that a mature marketing channel requires. Basically, the creator economy is getting its act together.
Managers Become Co-Founders
This changes what it means to be a “manager.” The old-school deal broker is going extinct. Think about it. Top creators today aren’t just influencers; they’re media companies. They have product lines, investment portfolios, and IP to protect. Negotiating a sponsorship rate is maybe 10% of the job now. The rest is about providing legal, financial, and production support on a level that looks more like a startup incubator. As Ashley Villa pointed out, the creators who succeed are the ones thinking like founders, involved end-to-end. That requires a partner, not a middleman. So these consolidated talent platforms? They’re not just aggregating clients; they’re building a shared services backbone that lets creators scale like real businesses.
The AI Layer That Makes It All Work
And you can’t talk about this without talking about AI. In a fragmented world, AI is just a fancy tool for sorting spreadsheets. But in a consolidated platform with a unified dataset? That’s where it gets powerful. AI can connect the dots between a creator’s past performance, real-time audience sentiment, and a brand’s specific campaign goals. It moves from telling you what happened to suggesting what to do next. Danielle Wiley’s point about data enabling customization at scale is key. That’s impossible with manual vetting and gut feelings. AI becomes the operating system that makes this whole consolidated, enterprise-ready machine run efficiently. It’s the glue.
What This Means For Everyone
So what’s the endgame? We’re looking at a market that favors fewer, stronger platforms. It’s the classic tech maturation story—remember Ask Jeeves? Specialists get rolled up into integrated giants that offer everything under one roof: talent, brand strategy, and tech. For creators, it means access to real resources to build a career, not just a following. For brands, it means one throat to choke and clearer ROI. But let’s be a little skeptical, too. Does consolidation risk homogenizing creativity? Will it become harder for brand-new, weird, niche creators to break in if the gatekeepers are these large platforms? Probably. That’s the trade-off. The wild west is closing up shop, and a new, more professionalized empire is being built. The era of consolidation is here.
