AI threatens entry-level marketing jobs—and the future talent pipeline

Entry-level roles are drying up because of AI automation and budget cuts. This is particularly true for marketing, where AI’s capacity to do grunt work has organizations considering eliminating entry-level positions. However, doing that puts the future talent pipeline at risk.

According to the New York Federal Reserve, unemployment among recent college graduates (ages 22–27) is 5.8%—matching the rate for adults without a high school diploma. In Q2 2025, the average was 5.3%, with underemployment above 41%, a trend rising faster than the overall workforce.

Dig deeper: AI adoption gap found between executives and entry-level marketers

Jennifer Spire, partner and CEO of Preston Spire, said that the use of AI had executives at the Minneapolis-based advertising agency wondering if they should cut junior staff. Much of the repetitive administrative tasks they used to do are now handled by AI. Overall, the technology has enabled the firm to increase efficiency, take on more meaningful projects and maintain a lean headcount. 

“We were feeling like we didn’t need as many junior marketers at our agency, and I saw that as a plus,” she said. 

AI is great at grunt work

That feeling grew along with the agency’s use of AI. It’s gone beyond back-office tasks and now plays a role in research, creative development and production. Much of that work used to be handled by junior staff and helped teach them about the nuts and bolts of marketing.

However, some long-term organizational planning made her realize that not having junior staff now will create a crisis later.

“I was looking at 2029, 2030, and realized that our staffing plan was going to have a problem,” she said. “Where are we going to get the mid-level and higher individuals in any discipline? We were going to have a crisis.”

Spire isn’t the only one to realize this.

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman recently said that replacing entry-level staff with AI tools is “one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.”

“They’re probably the least expensive employees you have. They’re the most leaned into your AI tools,” he said. “How’s that going to work when you go like 10 years in the future and you have no one that has built up or learned anything?”

What will the junior marketers do now?

OK, but what are the entry-level staff now supposed to do?

Spire’s answer: Marketing. Specifically, handling small parts of planning and executing campaigns. 

“AI is really giving them a chance to excel in their career quicker,” she said. “They’re learning more about strategy and critical thinking and doing the actual creative and coming up with the ideas and coming up with proactive ideas.”

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Spire sees junior marketers stepping up to guide their teams on AI, teaching colleagues how to use it and driving adoption with their digital-native perspective. 

“They’re the ones that could come in and train the old folks on how to utilize AI better,” she said. “Because AI is changing every single day, they could stay on top of it and be the innovators there and the motivators for everyone to be utilizing AI. They would have a really important, valuable role.”

New ways of looking at job candidates

She said the agency is changing what it looks for when hiring junior marketers, placing greater emphasis on candidates with AI experience beyond basic prompt writing. They also look for individuals who can think strategically, solve problems independently and approach challenges with an entrepreneurial mindset. 

To that end, Spire is meeting with faculty at the University of Minnesota’s marketing and advertising programs and pushing for stronger integration of AI into the curriculum. She wants them to shift from the current focus on AI tools and teach students how to apply critical thinking to the technology to address business processes and client challenges.

She’s also talking to other agencies about the looming talent shortage and presenting at a national CEO consortium in the fall. None of those other agencies has given the issue much thought.

“I don’t think they’re thinking that far out,” Spire said. “The conversation needs to be raised, so that other people are thinking about it, because my agency can’t do it alone.”