Dept is building its AI business around a deliberate tradeoff: the agency won't charge clients for the technology layer of its new system, only for the outcomes it produces. The system, called Deptify, has already been deployed across clients representing roughly 20% of the agency's global revenue, with the company expecting that figure to exceed 80% by the first quarter of 2027.
Three unnamed clients have agreed to use it, with a fourth signing on after a pitch. All new business wins are now onboarded into Deptify from day one, meaning every new client relationship starts inside the system Dept is still rolling out to its existing roster.
An orchestration layer, not an operating system
The core interface is a persistent assistant called D. Rather than forcing users into a single branded workspace, D connects to whatever workflow tools a client already runs - Adobe Workfront, Asana, or others - and routes people to the right one for the task at hand. Roy Armale, Dept's chief product officer, calls this an orchestration system, contrasting it with the operating system model that requires every partner tool to be rebuilt inside a proprietary interface.
Armale has direct experience with both approaches. Before joining Dept, he was chief product officer on WPP Open, the operating system he now describes the limits of. He recounted a disagreement with Adobe over Workfront. "You want to run Workfront from your operating system?" Adobe asked him. "Workfront is an operating system," he said he told them.
In a demo, Armale asked D what he needed to deliver that day. D checked the team's work management tool, identified the task and the required software, and cleared away context from every other client to prevent information from leaking across accounts. What remained was D's history with that specific client, including a campaign called the spring sale. Armale compared the effect to the Spider-Verse films. "This is a multiversal assistant," he said. "Every time we go to a new universe within the multiverse, it is a new assistant."
Three pricing tiers, zero token costs
Dept charges for three tiers: input, output, and outcome. Input covers time and materials, but Armale compares it to Uber's Black tier - the premium isn't for the ride itself but for a driver rated and trained to a higher standard. Dept applies the same logic to a person working with D, billing for an "augmented human" rather than time alone. Output is asset-based. An asset only qualifies for output billing once it passes an effectiveness test run through a third-party tool called Optimal, not something Dept owns. "We're not grading our own homework," Armale said.
Outcome, tied to growth numbers, sits at the top and is currently treated as a bonus rather than a primary fee. The balance between tiers shifts as a client relationship deepens. The more end-to-end control Dept has over a process, the more it's willing to be paid against outcomes rather than time or assets.
Token costs are not passed on to clients under any tier. Armale described this as a deliberate, permanent choice. "If I pass token costs on, I have removed the value of the person using the token completely," he said. Billing separately for compute, he argued, steers client conversations toward technology costs and away from growth.
Why this matters for operations
Dept's model has direct implications for operations leaders evaluating AI adoption. The orchestration approach means teams don't need to abandon existing workflow tools or learn a new interface - D works across whatever stack is already in place. For operations managers building business cases, the pricing structure also removes a common friction point: token costs stay with the agency, so internal budgets don't need to account for variable compute expenses. The shift toward outcome-based billing, while still evolving, signals a model where the vendor carries more risk tied to measurable growth rather than billable hours. Professionals exploring AI Learning Path for Operations Managers will recognize this as a practical example of how AI orchestration can reshape vendor relationships and internal workflow design.
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