AI is bringing out two reactions in agencies, often in the same person. There's excitement about what it can do and fear about what it means for jobs. In my experience, they come in about equal measure, and I feel both myself.
As a consultant, keeping up to date and making sure my skills stay relevant is part of the job. I'm still working out how to use AI properly, and I'm happy to say so.
Over the last two newsletters I've looked at what AI looks like inside an agency and where it can help. This week I want to look at the people affected by it, particularly those at the beginning of their careers.
The fear looks different depending on where you are in your career. For those of us with years behind us, it's whether we can keep up. For someone trying to start out, it's whether there will be a way in at all. I think AI is a threat to both experienced people and newcomers if we do nothing about it.
It isn't only a creative industry issue either. AI affects every industry. Law, accountancy, finance and marketing all have junior people who start out doing routine work, and I'd expect them to be having the same conversation.
Experienced people have to be willing to change
Let's be honest about this. The first step is a shift in mindset. Experienced people have to want to adopt change, and if they're stuck in their ways it's a losing battle. That goes for me as much as anyone. The people I'd back are the ones who stay curious and are happy to say they're still learning.
Once that willingness is there, agencies can make the biggest impact. If your experienced people feel left behind, they'll be less confident and less willing to put their hand up. Some will leave, taking years of experience and client knowledge with them.
So pay for proper training built around the work they do, with a session where people can ask questions and try things out, not just a link to a video on YouTube. And make it safe to be a beginner. If the founder says openly that they're still learning, everyone else relaxes.
There's also an opportunity to change how experienced people spend their time. Someone who previously spent hours producing initial creative work might now spend more time directing, evaluating and improving what AI produces. Their experience becomes even more important, but they need to be willing to work differently.
None of this is expensive compared with losing someone with fifteen years of knowledge of your clients.
Experience still counts
Experience still has enormous value. Everything on the list in last week's newsletter needed someone to check the result. A draft brief only helps if the person reading it knows what a good brief looks like.
But it's about more than knowing what good looks like. It's understanding clients, recognising when something doesn't feel right, knowing which questions to ask and understanding the commercial implications of a decision. It's knowing when to challenge something rather than simply accepting the first answer.
You only develop that judgement by seeing plenty of jobs go well and plenty go wrong. AI can produce an answer, but experience helps determine whether it's the right answer.
The jobs juniors used to get
Now the bit I'm less comfortable about. Think about the routine jobs that go to the most junior person in every team. Writing up meeting notes and first draft briefs. Pulling together mood boards and reference. Rounds of headline and copy options. Resizing artwork for every channel. Proofing and tidying files. In most agencies those jobs went to whoever was newest.
I've been telling agencies to use AI for exactly those jobs, and I still would. But when the jobs go, a lot of the entry-level work goes with them.
The way most of us learned was by doing the task while someone more experienced kept an eye on it. That doesn't have to stop. A newcomer can still learn on real work, with someone overseeing, by checking what AI has produced, fixing it and explaining what was missing.
If they never see the work, they don't learn. And in ten years someone still has to make the call on a tricky estimate or a creative route. Those people need to come from somewhere.
Agencies need to invest in the next generation
Getting into the industry has always been hard, and AI will make it harder. If the jobs that used to provide a way in disappear, something has to replace them, and I think that has to come from agencies.
If young people can't get a start, they won't wait around. They'll look for other careers, and the people who would have become our designers, producers, strategists and account directors will end up somewhere else. In ten years the whole industry feels that, and so does every agency trying to hire.
Investing takes time, money and patience. Someone experienced has to oversee the work and explain why something isn't right. There's a salary for someone who isn't yet fully chargeable, and training on how to use AI well. The first few months won't pay for themselves.
But the investment pays back over time. Someone who learns on your clients, in your way of working, grows into a role you'd otherwise have to hire for. Your experienced people get to pass on what they know. And a newcomer learning on real work adds something from early on, so some of their time can be charged to clients.
Colleges and universities can help newcomers add value sooner
The more useful someone is in their first few months, the easier it is for an agency to take them on. So colleges and universities have a big part to play too.
Craft and theory still matter, but students also need to leave knowing how to use AI well in their discipline. They need a feel for how an agency runs, including working from briefs, managing deadlines, responding to client feedback and understanding how creative work gets delivered.
Some courses are already doing this, but I think we need to accelerate it. AI is moving quickly, and education needs to keep pace. Agencies can help by offering live briefs, guest sessions and placements, and by working more closely with colleges and universities to explain what they need from graduates.
It works both ways. A newcomer who can use AI well from day one and understands how an agency operates can contribute sooner, which makes the decision to hire them easier.
So where do you start?
If you run an agency, pay for proper training built around the work your experienced people do. Then take on one apprentice or placement, with a named person to learn from. If you work with a college or university, ask what the course teaches about AI and offer a live brief.
AI will change a lot about how agencies work. What I don't want it to change is that there's a place in this industry for people at the start of their careers and for people with years behind them.
If we remove the jobs that teach people how to work in our industry, we need to take responsibility for creating new ways for them to learn.
