Dept is rolling out Deptify, an AI system accessed through a persistent assistant called “D.” The pitch is orchestration: D pulls context from whatever workflow tools a client already uses — Adobe Workfront, Asana, or something else — and routes people to the right tool for the job, instead of asking them to learn another agency-branded operating system.
Dept says three unnamed clients are ready to use Deptify, with another agreeing after a pitch. Cannes Lions attendees are also getting a test run. The system has already been deployed across clients representing about 20% of Dept’s global revenue, with the agency aiming to pass 80% by the first quarter of 2027. All new business wins now start inside Deptify.
In a demo, Dept chief product officer Roy Armale showed D reading the team’s work management tool, identifying what needed to be delivered that day, and switching into the relevant client context based on the task — without Armale naming the client. D then cleared away context from other accounts to reduce the chance of cross-client leakage, while retaining history specific to that relationship, including a campaign called “spring sale.”
Armale compared it to the character shifts in Spider-Verse: each client gets its own version of D, learning inside that relationship, but those versions aren’t supposed to meet in the hallway and start comparing notes.
The business model is the pointy bit. Armale frames Deptify as “orchestration” — connecting tools via MCP, without absorbing them — versus an “operating system” approach that pulls partner tools into one interface. He knows the other side: before Dept, he was chief product officer on WPP Open.
Dept’s tradeoff is that it won’t charge clients for the orchestration layer. The argument is that clients won’t pay twice: once for the underlying tools, and once for the glue. Instead, Dept charges across three tiers: input, output, and outcome.
Input is time and materials, framed as paying for an “augmented human” rather than hours alone. Armale compared it to Uber Black pricing. Output is asset-based billing, but only after a third-party effectiveness check through a tool called Optimal, which he says keeps Dept from “grading its own homework.” Outcome is tied to growth numbers, but for now sits more as a bonus than the core fee.
Token costs are not passed through to clients under any tier. The tiered model without an explicit token pass through is an interesting contrast to other agency business model evolutions that favor leaning in to technology fees. Time will tell which model becomes the defacto standard.
Read more at Digiday.