2026 Market Insight Report
Something changed in 2026. Agencies stopped waiting on developers, stopped settling for software that fits nobody perfectly, and started building exactly what they needed in an afternoon. This benchmark report shows what drove that shift — the data, the frustration, what’s finally possible, and the real-world results.
Who this is for
You run a marketing agency or consultancy
Building and managing digital experiences for clients every day, and spending more time bridging tool gaps than delivering results.
You manage software or services for SMBs
Every new business you onboard means more manual work, more disconnected platforms, and tools that were never built to talk to each other.
You know there’s a better model
You just haven’t seen it laid out clearly, with data showing exactly where the time is going and proof that something better already exists.
What’s inside
The time tax
Exactly how much time businesses are bleeding on software that doesn’t fit and why it compounds across every client, every campaign, every quarter. 41% of agencies spend 10+ hours per client asset. 31% of small businesses spend 8+ hours or outsource.
The bottlenecks
What’s standing in the way. From platforms that don’t connect to each other (35%) to software too rigid to customize (33%) to the cost of hiring someone to build what you need (49%). Named, ranked, and broken down by segment.
What business owners actually want
When respondents described their ideal software outcomes, two complementary visions emerged: agencies want bespoke tools for every client, small businesses want software that works while they sleep. Both point in the same direction.
The market has made up its mind
71% of respondents rated the likelihood of trying an AI-powered custom app builder at 4 or 5 out of 5. 40% called it a game-changer and said they’d migrate their entire workflow. The data on where demand has already landed.
Real businesses, real results
Three Vendasta AI Certified Partners — Howell Studios, Mitchell Media, and Black Feather Digital — show what becomes possible when the tool actually fits. 72 trailers sold from one landing page. $57,000 in tracked sales. A proposal generator built live on a rooftop.
The future of software is yours to build
What Vendasta Vibe makes possible: describe the tool you need in plain English, and Vibe builds it. Natively connected to your CRM, your client data, and your AI workforce. No developers. No waiting. No “good enough.”
“You can think big, you can dream big, you can drop it in there, and it just gets to work.”
— Matt Dakin, COO, Howell Studios
Get your free copy
Fill out the form and we’ll send the report straight to your inbox. No pitch, no product walkthrough, no sales call required — just the benchmark data and the framework.
What you’ll walk away with:
- A clear picture of where the time tax is hitting hardest in your business
- The exact bottlenecks agency and small business owners named, ranked by frequency
- Data on what business owners actually want from software and how far current tools fall short
- Proof that 71% of the market is already ready to make the switch
- Three real-world case studies from agencies already building things that weren’t possible before
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