flowConf 2026: What's the future for agencies in the age of AI?

We were at flowConf on Thursday in Belgrade. The entire We-R team was there: Salomé, Jordi, Charlie, Dorian, and myself. 400 attendees, 25 speakers, two stages. And like after every event of this kind, we came back with our heads full.

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What we expected

Each team member had their own reasons for attending. Jordi was there for everything related to agentic and automation. Charlie for sales and enterprise topics. Dorian to understand how design and development are evolving in the AI era. Salomé was looking forward to talks on AEO and Webflow's vision.

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Different topics, but a common thread: how will we be working in two years?

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What was on the program

What's great about flowConf is the breadth of the program. Two parallel stages meant you couldn't see everything, and you had to choose.

There were quite a few talks led by the Webflow team themselves, which is cool: it allows us to follow their vision from the inside, understand where they're taking the platform, and align our own positioning accordingly.

Content-wise, it was really broad. Technical talks by developers and designers, sessions on AEO and the impact of AI on SEO, more business-oriented talks like concrete advice on closing a client call, or how to break free from founder dependence to sell. Strategy, market vision, pure technical content, marketing. The kind of program where you leave one talk and already regret not having been in the other room at the same time.

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Our key takeaways

The talks were good. But what will stick with us are the conversations.

Talking with other founders, other agencies, freelancers. Realizing we're all grappling with the same questions. Webflow, yes, but for whom exactly? For how much longer? Where does our value shift when a client can 'vibe code' their landing page in a day? How do we maintain MRR when clients are hyped about AI and increasingly challenging the value of an agency? Some have already experienced their first clients leaving Webflow for 'vibe coding' without an agency.

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Two things struck me in these discussions.

The first is transparency. No posturing, no competition. People sharing what worked for them, what failed, what they tested in AEO, their recruitment fears, their questions about positioning. The community is well above any sense of competition. And that's rare in any industry.

The second is alignment. Talking with other founders who are experiencing the exact same thing, we realize we're reading the market the same way. Same analyses, same fears, same interpretation of what an agency is supposed to bring to its clients today. It's not reassuring because everything is fine. It's reassuring because it confirms we're asking the right questions, making the right decisions, and aren't behind the curve. We're just in the middle of something that's being built for everyone, simultaneously.

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A word on the bubble effect

There's something we don't talk about enough when we're in this industry: the bubble effect. When we're surrounded by web peers, everything seems urgent, everything seems threatening. We feel like we're constantly in danger, that the market is going to run us over, that AI will change everything tomorrow morning.

But if we take a step back and look beyond our industry, it's fine. It's not a race. It's a market that's evolving, just like all markets evolve. The difference is that we're surrounded by people who talk about it all day long, which amplifies everything.

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This kind of event helps us recalibrate. Not because we come back with certainties, but because we realize that uncertainty is shared, and that everyone is still moving forward.

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Outside of the talks

Belgrade in May is a good idea. We enjoyed the conference afterparty, a few drinks on a terrace, a late night, and ended up at a local fast food joint called Two Guys. The Serbian equivalent of Five Guys, but with two guys instead of five and incredible smash burgers.

Traveling with the team, getting out of the office context, sharing something other than screens, that also has its value.