There are leaders who talk about the future of the industry, and there are leaders who are building it. At next+, we sat down to talk with one of them to understand how to scale a creative agency in the era of artificial intelligence, what it means to maintain independence as a competitive advantage, and why young talent is the conversation that the industry can no longer postpone.
Sergio Ruggiero is the Global CEO of SUPER, an independent agency present in 9 countries with over 380 collaborators. An Argentine based in Mexico, he has led the exponential growth of the company, going from 40 to nearly 400 people in just a few years, consolidating operations in the Latin American and European markets. Passionate about the intersection of creativity, data, technology, and artificial intelligence, Sergio combines a strategic business vision with a strong commitment to talent development. His career reflects a constant: to build, scale, and evolve models that connect ideas with business impact.
We start at the beginning: growth. Because going from 40 to almost 400 people without losing the independent essence is not something that happens by inertia. We asked Sergio what is behind that expansion and how he defines the role of an agency today in an ever-changing ecosystem.
The growth that wasn't in the plan
In a conversation with next+, Sergio Ruggiero shared the insight behind SUPER's growth. The answer was: the decision not to impose limits on themselves.
In an industry accustomed to impostor syndrome, where mid-sized agencies avoid large pitches and independents negotiate downwards before starting, SUPER chose to treat every contact, every coffee, and every pitch as a unique opportunity. That sustained attitude creates its own inertia.
"If we believe it can really happen, that we have the capabilities to do it, things happen. And once one thing happens, it leads to the next one."
The growth model of SUPER does not depend on the accumulation of decisions made with conviction instead of caution. It’s a simple principle, but its sustained execution across nine markets is what makes it a competitive advantage.
When agility is worth more than the network
The debate about independent agencies versus large communication groups has always been more ideological than financial. Sergio precisely redefines it: the advantage lies not in positioning or culture but in controlling overhead.
In a sector where billing is still tied to hours and FTEs, the difference between an independent agency and a holding company subsidiary is not the talent or the quality of the work. It’s how much that human resource costs once you add the corporate structure that supports it. Independents have lower fixed costs, which allows them to transfer AI efficiencies to their value proposition without sacrificing margins.
"Independent agencies have greater control over overhead, which allows us to better reflect the efficiency achieved with AI. Flexibility is our greatest strength."
This thesis has direct consequences for the market: as AI reduces the operational cost of producing quality work, whoever best captures that savings in their cost structure has a growing advantage. And in that game, independents start with less structural friction than large groups.
Showing the data another way
The promise of integrating creativity and data has been the dominant discourse in the industry for over a decade. Practice shows that most organizations continue to operate in silos that communicate very little. Sergio offers a perspective that dismantles the dichotomy from within: at SUPER, data does not compete with creativity; it nourishes it.
The distinction he draws is in the conceptual framework. When data is used to uncover insights, creativity gains precision without losing intuition. The point of friction is operational: data needs to be presented in a way that a creative profile can directly exploit.
"It's not just about optimizing creativity with data. It's about making the data more actionable. Perhaps it's a matter of how we present it so that a creative can use it as a starting point."
It's a distinction that seems minor but transforms the workflow. Changing the question from "how do we validate the idea with data?" to "how does data become a creative trigger?" modifies roles, hierarchies, and dynamics within teams.
Operational AI and Generative AI: two speeds, one ecosystem
When Sergio Ruggiero talks about artificial intelligence at SUPER, he distinguishes two dimensions that are usually confused in industry discourse. The first is operational: automation of micro-processes that consumed time without generating differential value, with an already visible impact on accounts, design, audiovisual production, data, and media. The second is generative: the ability to materialize ideas that previously perished in the budget.
This second dimension is the most underestimated. The impact of generative AI is not only in production efficiency but in expanding the realm of the possible. Ideas that required inaccessible budgets for medium-sized clients can now be executed. That not only changes what an agency can deliver; it changes what it can propose.
"From generative AI, we have managed to produce ideas that previously were shelved due to budget issues. It didn't change what we thought; it changed what we can bring to reality."
There is, however, a territory where technology has yet to displace the team: top-level strategic creativity. Not because AI is not functional, but because the influence of human judgment remains greater. Adoption is also not imposed: teams incorporate AI naturally when the transition is not drastic or forced, and when the organization's vision is clear from the top.
The danger behind automation: the talent no one is training
There is a consequence of the rise of AI that few conversations in the industry address honestly: the impact on the hiring of junior profiles. Sergio names it with a concern that transcends the corporate level.
AI accelerates the work of senior and mid-senior profiles, who have the judgment to direct it. But it discourages the hiring of young talent, who historically learned by performing tasks of lower hierarchy that today are done by a tool. That learning model, the one where the assistant observes, executes, and gradually gains autonomy, is at risk.
"AI is an accelerator for senior profiles. But it slows down the incorporation of new and young talent. As leaders, we have to work on that track for the sake of the future of the market."
The consequence is not only for the talent in training. It's systemic: without a new generation of professionals trained in practice, the industry operates on human capital that is not renewed. Their commitment to initiatives like Brother and NIDO is not accidental in this context; it responds to the conviction that training can no longer be left to the free market when the free market has incentives in the opposite direction.
Results on resources: the model that is coming
If there is one tension that Sergio identifies as determining for the next three to five years, it is the valuation of work. The current model, billing by hours and by assigned people, is a remnant that makes less and less sense in a sector where productivity per person is growing exponentially due to technology.
The question is when and who will drive the model first. Sergio anticipates a move towards billing by results or by closed deliverables, which has deep implications for the structure of agencies: it requires measuring impact, assuming shared risk with the client, and building a value proposition that does not depend on the volume of hours billed.
"I doubt we will continue under the FTE model. We will have to approach results or closed products more. That is the most structural change coming for agencies."
For independent agencies with agile structures and greater cost control, this transition can represent a definitive differentiation opportunity. For those still operating under inherited models, it can be the most real threat of the next decade.
The case of SUPER is an organization that consciously chose what to preserve while scaling: structural flexibility, the closeness of leadership to daily work, and the conviction that ideas remain at the center of the business, even if the tools to produce them change radically.
For sector leaders, the challenge posed by Sergio Ruggiero is strategic: before deciding how to integrate AI into processes, it is necessary to decide what kind of organization you want to be. Technology amplifies what already exists. If what exists is a rigid structure and a billing model disconnected from the value delivered, AI will make it more evident, not less.
The future of agencies does not lie in being bigger or more automated. It lies in being more deliberate.