Let’s start by exploring the service layer of the marketing and advertising industry via an answer from Perplexity.
from Perplexity:
1. Overall Job Reduction, but Not Across All Roles
By 2030, advertising agencies are projected to lose about 7.5% of their jobs to automation, primarily driven by generative AI and related technologies. This equates to roughly 32,000 positions in the U.S. agency workforce. However, not all roles are equally affected—about one-third of agency jobs are at risk, but the actual displacement will be concentrated in specific job categories.
2. Roles Most at Risk
The majority of job losses will come from:
- Clerical, secretarial, and administrative positions (28% of the projected losses)
- Sales and related roles (22%)
- Market research and similar fields (18%)
These positions are more susceptible because they involve repetitive, process-oriented tasks that AI can automate efficiently.
3. Creative and Strategic Roles Will Grow
Jobs requiring originality and creative problem-solving—such as editors, writers, designers, and roles guiding AI outputs—are less likely to be automated. Instead, these professionals will use AI to boost productivity and creativity, making agencies “smaller, yet more capable”. Headcount in creative, data science, management, public relations, and digital strategy is expected to increase, with digital marketing and strategy specialists forecast to grow by over 20% globally by 2028.
4. Shift in Workforce Composition
The agency workforce will shift from a model reliant on large numbers of junior or process-focused staff to one emphasizing higher-salaried, creative, and strategic roles paired with generative AI assistants. This “inversion” means fewer entry-level or routine jobs and more demand for skilled, experienced talent who can leverage AI tools effectively.
5. Modest Short-Term Impact, Accelerating Over Time
Forrester predicts that the impact on headcount will be modest in the next two years due to ongoing ethical, legal, and operational challenges with AI adoption. However, as these issues are resolved and AI becomes more integrated, job displacement will accelerate toward 2030.
6. Agencies Must Adapt or Risk Falling Behind
With 91% of U.S. agencies already using or exploring generative AI, those that do not integrate AI into workflows and upskill their teams risk losing competitiveness3.
Summary:
AI will reduce overall agency headcount, especially in process-driven roles, while boosting demand for creative, strategic, and technical talent. Agencies will become leaner but more capable, with a workforce increasingly composed of high-skilled professionals working alongside AI.
Selected sources for this prompt include:
- Forrester: 91% of US ad agencies are currently using, exploring generative AI (June 2024) – marketing dive
- Sam Altman Says AI Will Handle “95%” of Marketing Work Done by Agencies and Creatives (Mar 2024)- Marketing AI Institute
- Marketers’ Agency Partnerships Are Strained. Now Comes AI (Oct 2024) – Bain & Company
- Superagency in the workplace: Empowering people to unlock AI’s full potential (Jan 2025) – McKinsey & Co
hire of the day
Crisp CEO Are Traasdahl (former CEO of Tapad) may be gunning for an IPO with the hire of John McConnell as Chief Financial Officer. Crisp is “fuel(ing) your generative AI with clean, Crisp data” in the retail media space according to the company website. Read more about Are’s latest hire on LinkedIn.
AI after ads
D Sharma, former CEO/Founder of Ground Truth (was Xad -remember when they bought Weather Bug in 2016?) is now CEO of WellnessCoach and wants his company to be your and/or your company’s wellness guru. He writes today: “At Wellness Coach, we’re fascinated by how artificial intelligence is creating a nutrition revolution right before our eyes.” Read more.