Why agencies shouldn’t fire their developers when implementing AI

As an expert in Drupal development and artificial intelligence consulting, I want to share my opinion on how agencies can leverage AI to grow without putting their teams at risk. The wave of change brought by artificial intelligence should not be seen as a threat to jobs, but as an opportunity to boost productivity and gain market share.

Introduction: AI, Productivity, and Employment

In the debate over adopting AI in Drupal and other web environments, two opposing visions emerge:

• Agency A: Implements AI, doubles its productivity, and lays off half its staff to cut costs. Revenues stay the same, but growth capacity shrinks.
• Agency B: Applies the same technology, doubles output with the full team intact. Not overwhelmed, it takes on more projects, bills more, and positions itself for growth.

In this article I reflect on why, in the long run, Agency B’s strategy wins in a market where artificial intelligence lowers development costs and clients seek competitive pricing.

Risks of Cutting Talent When Adopting AI

Stagnation vs. Growth

Agency A achieves immediate “break-even”: lower salary expenses and unchanged revenue. However:

• Capacity limits: With fewer developers, each resource is maxed out just like before, leaving no room for new projects.
• Talent drain: Laid-off professionals start or join competitors, taking Drupal know-how and internal processes with them.

In contrast, Agency B keeps its human capital intact and gains:

1. Flexibility to absorb workload spikes.
2. Availability to innovate, test new Drupal solutions, and attract competitors’ clients.

Productivity Leverage

AI allows both agencies to double production with the same total person-hours. But while A “squeezes” more out of fewer people, B:

• Scales projects without overloading the team.
• Improves quality: Experienced Drupal developers continue adding unique value, while AI speeds up repetitive tasks (refactoring, snippet generation, bottleneck analysis).
• Boosts morale: With job security, developers embrace AI enthusiastically, fostering a culture of innovation.

AI and Cost Reduction: The Client Wins

Introducing artificial intelligence to web development cuts costs in:

• Environment setup
• Generation of repetitive code
• Data validation and cleanup

In the web-agency market, end clients prioritize:

1. Technical quality
2. Competitive pricing
3. Speed of delivery

Agency B can lower its rates without sacrificing margin, capturing price-sensitive clients. Agency A, with fewer fixed costs, keeps old rates—but ends up losing projects to B.

My Call to Drupal Agencies

Trust Your Team and Grow With Them

If you have a team of developers you trust, don’t fire them just because “AI does more with less.” Instead:

1. Involve your team in AI adoption: let them choose tools and drive innovation.
2. Incentivize continuous improvement: reward extra productivity, don’t just cut salaries.
3. Use AI to scale your web development services—not to shrink your workforce.

Adapt to Win

The real threat isn’t AI itself, but those who don’t use it. Whoever masters artificial intelligence and integrates it into their workflow will outcompete those who refuse to change.

• Be the proactive agency: lead internal pilot projects and experiments.
• Optimize your current processes.
• Communicate this advantage on your website: “We use AI to work smarter, faster, and more affordably than the competition.”

Conclusion

Adopting AI in Drupal should be seen as a talent accelerator, not an employee replacement. Firing developers may yield short-term savings, but it hampers growth and opens the door to more innovative competitors. If you trust your team, equip them with artificial intelligence tools so they can multiply their impact: together with AI, they will truly lead the market.

“AI won’t take your job; the person who doesn’t use AI will.”

Adapt, learn, and optimize your workflows: the battle for market share will be won by those who combine human talent with intelligent tools.