The tools an agency pays for show how that agency really works. For years, the biggest line in creative budgets was often a design suite, the software where the actual work got made. But, from what we are seeing, that has changed faster than most budgets have caught up with.
Across Wallester Business accounts in the advertising and marketing industry, generative AI tools took 94.2% of creative-technology spend in the first half of 2026. Traditional design tools took the remaining 5.8%. So the design tools are still there, but as a share of where the creative money goes, they have moved from the centre of the budget to the edge of it.
A quick word on terms, because two of them do different jobs in this piece. An agency’s spending splits into a few separate pots. There’s media buying, the money that actually buys the ad space on Google or TikTok. There’s travel and general running costs, the trips and the office overhead. And there’s the creative-technology budget, which is what we’re looking at here: everything an agency pays for to make the work itself, both the traditional design software and the newer AI tools.
Within that creative pot, the design budget is the older part, the design suites and stock libraries a team has always relied on. That older part is what has averaged just 5.8% of creative-technology spending across the half, dropping from 8.3% in January down to 3.5% by June as AI took over virtually all new budget expansion. The shift has been quick because AI tools now slot into the same jobs a designer once opened a design suite for, from first rough drafts to finished assets. The rest of this piece looks at how the money inside that smaller design slice is now split, because it says a lot about what agencies still pay a specialist tool to do.
The Design Budget Is Small Now, and Concentrated
Two names take most of what’s left. Measured against the design category on its own, Figma holds 38.9% of the spend and Adobe 26.2%. Both are still growing, Figma by 43.9% and Adobe by 32.2% over the six months.
That growth points to a clear trend: stack consolidation. Agencies are funneling their design spend into a tighter set of core platforms instead of a dozen small stock and template tools. While AI absorbs most of the new software budget, the design money that remains is concentrating in fewer hands, with Figma in particular looking like the non-negotiable standard an agency builds around and not an optional extra.
That concentration matters for anyone watching the numbers. A budget that once spread across a dozen small design and stock tools is collapsing into two large, recurring subscriptions, with everything else reduced to the occasional charge. Envato sits at 3.8%, Shutterstock at 3.1%, and Canva at 0.4%. These are the tools a team reaches for now and then, rather than ones it works in every day.
Video Is the Quiet Grower
The clearest sign of where things are heading is video. CapCut, for example, is tiny in cash terms at 1.9% of design spend, but it grew 49.1% over the half, and it gets charged far more often than its spend would suggest. That points to lots of small, frequent editing charges rather than one big licence. Off a base that small the growth number is a hint, not a headline, but it points the same way the rest of agency work is going: toward short social video, cut fast and often. It also changes the shape of the spend, from a handful of large annual licences to a stream of small charges that are easy to lose track of.
So the creative budget now runs at two speeds. The design suite is a small, tight line led by Figma and Adobe. The money and the momentum have moved to AI and are moving to video as well. For anyone managing the finances, that means the creative stack is being rebuilt in real time, and each new tool tends to show up as a charge before anyone flags it.
How Wallester Business Helps You See a Stack in Flux
When the tool list changes this fast, the hard part is simply seeing it. Someone adds a subscription the moment they want to try it, and finance finds out when the charge lands. Wallester Business closes that gap.
With Wallester Business, a company can:
- Open a business account with its own IBAN, no subscription required to get started
- Give each tool or subscription its own virtual card, so every charge is tied to a clear purpose
- Set a limit on each card, so a free trial that quietly renews gets caught the moment it charges
- Hold and pay in 10 currencies, so a tool billed in US dollars doesn’t add a conversion fee
- Attach receipts to transactions and sync everything with Xero or QuickBooks
- Track every subscription live from one dashboard, on web or mobile
The account, the cards, and the basics are free to open, with premium plans for businesses that need more. Seeing the creative stack change is the first step to controlling what it costs, and that only works if finance can see each new tool as it arrives, not a month after it renews.
Methodology & Data Disclaimer: This report is based on anonymized, aggregated card transaction data processed across active Wallester Business corporate accounts within the Advertising & Marketing industry between January 1, 2026, and June 30, 2026. All figures, growth metrics, and market shares are presented in relative percentages and indexed values to protect proprietary client financial data. Spend categorizations reflect verified merchant descriptors and standard Visa Merchant Category Codes (MCC) across active business accounts.
