By Kimeko McCoy • August 12, 2026 •
Mod Op says it dodged a $3 million AI bill. Sort of.
The independent marketing agency estimates it avoided roughly $3 million in potential licensing costs by building its own AI infrastructure rather than licensing off-the-shelf tools. At least that’s what Tessa Burg, chief technology officer at Mod Op, estimates the agency could have racked up by giving its 500-plus employees access to Microsoft Copilot or Figma Weave.
Orion is the indie agency’s ecosystem of AI products. It’s pitched as a proprietary tool to help employees automate workflows, and give clients a shared AI workspace where they can find performance data, AI search visibility and audience ad testing.
For Mod Op, it’s as much about cost savings as it is about orchestration. “We needed to own our data, and we needed to own the experience that we enable for our clients,” Burg said.
