Credit: Melanie Rosillo Galvan via Unsplash
Entry-level roles now represent just 1% of vacancies across Australia's digital advertising and ad tech sector, according to IAB figures, and it's barely surprising for those working inside agencies.
Half of all advertised positions now demand upwards of six years' experience, according to the annual review of 54 organisations conducted in May.
Meanwhile, the sector's vacancy rate has dropped to a record low of 2.4%, with fewer than half of companies, just 40%, currently hiring.
Pauly Grant, chief talent officer ANZ & APAC at Publicis Groupe, pushed back on the headline figure, pointing to significant growth at the group and coordinator hiring that has tripled year-on-year.
"However, these roles are starting to look different. With the growth of AI, routine tasks are being augmented but entry-level roles still exist,” she told AdNews.
“Our people are central to our business and a key reason clients choose us, so we see it as both a responsibility and an opportunity to evolve early career roles in line with a changing landscape.”
"The economics of the industry have changed," Luke Povee, general manager at Yango,” told AdNews.
"Clients are demanding greater efficiency, margins remain under pressure and AI has reduced the amount of time required for many administrative and process-driven tasks that historically sat with junior employees.
"At the same time, I feel agencies are looking for people who can contribute quickly. When organisations are cautious about hiring, they tend to prioritise experienced talent who can immediately manage clients, strategy and commercial outcomes.”
The shift is a structural one with tasks that once defined entry-level work, such as campaign trafficking, reporting, presentation building and workflow administration have been largely automated or offshored.
Jonette Brooking, head of client service at Bonfire, noted AI has created genuine capacity within existing teams.
"The question shouldn't be 'is AI replacing junior roles?' but 'what does that freed-up capacity enable?,” she told AdNews.
"The harder question for the industry is whether those efficiency gains get reinvested in people, or simply taken as margin.”
Sally Lawrence, executive director of media at Enigma, was candid with her reaction to the IAB Australia findings.
"I couldn't help feeling a little sad when I read the IAB report if I am honest. Every senior leader started as a graduate, coordinator, or assistant,” she told AdNews.
Most industry stakeholders drew a distinction between the volume of junior hiring and the changing nature of junior roles.
"The junior role isn't disappearing as much as it's shifting from execution support to analysis, collaboration and strategic thinking," Povee said.
Povee said that means looking for juniors who can interpret information rather than simply gather it.
“Critical thinking, problem-solving, curiosity and communication skills have become more valuable because the technology can produce outputs, but people still need to evaluate them, challenge them and turn them into recommendations for clients,” she said.
Grant sees the shift as a positive one for entry-level talent.
"Historically, these early career roles were allocated many baseline, repetitive tasks. AI is helping to make their roles more effective and productive," she said.
“As the technology rapidly evolves, it is freeing up capacity to create higher value, strategic work and allowing more time for creative and critical thinking.”
Lawrence describes a similar evolution at Enigma, where entry-level staff are now trained to work alongside AI from day one, rather than learning the industry through manual processes alone.
"AI is changing how junior roles operate more than changing whether they exist," she said.
"The best people in media aren't just operators of platforms. They are people who can understand a client's business challenge, interpret information, ask better questions and bring others on the journey.”
David Halter, chief practice officer at dentsu Creative ANZ, frames it plainly. The challenge isn't a reduced need for talent, but the rapid change in the nature of entry-level work.
“The challenge isn't a reduced need for talent, it's the rapid change in the nature of entry-level work,” Halter told AdNews.
Halter said agencies are under pressure to deliver more efficiently, while technology has streamlined many of the tasks that traditionally formed the foundation of junior roles.
“AI is reshaping the skills all employers seek, with greater emphasis on strategic thinking, adaptability and, in our industry, cross-disciplinary collaboration,” he said.
“Technology and automation can take care of repetitive production, research and administrative tasks now, so we must ensure emerging talent still has opportunities to learn craft, collaboration and problem-solving.”
Jamie Ware, talent acquisition lead at dentsu ANZ, points to a specific gap emerging in the market, the ability to connect creativity, data and commercial thinking simultaneously.
"We need people who can work across disciplines, understand broader business challenges and adapt to change," Ware told AdNews.
“We are investing deeply in strengthening our data and technology capabilities and we see young talent as the superusers of that AI-enabled future.”
Meanwhile, Grant points to communication as a specific capability gap at graduate level.
"Communicating with confidence is often an under-developed skill at the graduate level. We find junior level talent can be uncomfortable having difficult conversations in person or on a call, and prefer to communicate in the written form,” she said.
On AI fluency specifically, Povee is direct. Graduates entering the industry should understand how to use AI tools productively and responsibly, but the bigger shift is that uniquely human skills are becoming more valuable as a result.
"The graduates who succeed won't be the people competing with AI. They'll be the people who know how to work alongside it and use it to amplify their capabilities,” he said.
Grant echoes the importance of tech confidence among younger entrants.
"Most of the younger people in these roles are digital and tech natives, already utilising AI in their day-to-day lives. It is important junior talent have confidence using technology and are comfortable with the agility and adaptability key in any role," she said.
Lawrence adds an important qualifier, graduates need to know when not to rely on AI.
"AI can generate an answer in seconds, but the real value comes from understanding whether it's the right answer and what to do with it," she said.
Where there is genuine anxiety, it centres on the long-term consequences of reduced graduate intake. Agency leaders drew a direct line between juniors hired today and senior talent available in five to ten years.
"Every strategist, planner and client leader started somewhere. If we dramatically reduce opportunities for people entering the industry, we eventually run out of experienced people to promote,” Povee said.
Ware echoes the concern.
"Every strategist, creative leader and client partner started somewhere, and without entry pathways we risk creating a significant talent gap in the years ahead," Ware said.
At dentsu, young talent is seen as the superusers of an AI-enabled future, not a liability to be managed out and Lawrence puts it as an industry-level responsibility.
"If we stop investing in entry level talent today, we'll create a capability gap in five to ten years' time. AI should help accelerate development, not eliminate the next generation of talent,” he said.
Several agencies have moved to formalise graduate pathways even as broader industry hiring slows.
Enigma runs its Enigma Media Academy, where entry-level staff are exposed earlier to strategic thinking, client interaction and problem-solving, freed from low-value tasks by automation rather than replaced by it.
Dentsu Creative ANZ launched its DC3 internship program and was overwhelmed by applications, ultimately hiring two candidates into full-time roles on top of three interns who completed the program.
Halter said it demonstrates the strength of talent actively seeking pathways into the industry.
Grant points to Publicis Moves as another example of formalised pathways.
"By using internal mobility and upskilling our current workforce, we see the ability to create varied pathways for our people, no matter their job background," she said.
Lawrence frames these investments as commercial necessity.
"Entry level recruitments are investments, not costs. They bring fresh perspectives, challenge established thinking and ensure we're developing the future leaders our industry will depend on," she said.
Povee agreed with Lawrence’s sentiment.
"Sustainable businesses need future leaders, future product champions and future client partners," he said.
Ware put it in a similar way, noting agencies have a responsibility to invest in the future health of the industry by creating opportunities for the new guard to learn from the old, and vice versa.
Grant was also candid in her response.
"New talent is important for delivering relevant thinking and diverse ideas to our industry,” she said.
“We have a vibrant industry, and the opportunities posed by new technologies will help us to attract top talent and utilise their thinking quicker on our clients' work.”
On whether entry-level hiring will recover, responses land somewhere between guarded hope and acceptance that the shape of the industry has permanently changed.
"My glass is half full on this topic. Yes, the industry has changed forever, and many routine tasks will never require the same number of people again,” Povee said.
“But agencies will realise they still need to build future capability, they'll just hire for different skill sets and structure roles differently."
His expectation is that the entry-level employee of 2030 will be more analytical, more commercially aware and more AI-enabled than their counterpart a decade earlier, exposed to higher-value work much earlier in their careers.
Agencies may also need to recruit more broadly from adjacent disciplines including data, technology, commerce and behavioural sciences to build the pipeline they need.
Lawrence sees a similar fork in the road ahead.
“The industry has changed permanently, but not in the way people think,” she said.
"The best agencies won't use AI to shrink the talent pipeline, they will use it to accelerate it.”
The danger, in her view, is agencies mistaking the reduction in administrative and execution work for a reason to hire fewer graduates altogether.
Brooking put the central question plainly.
"The harder question for the industry is around whether those efficiency gains get reinvested in people, or simply taken as margin. If it's the latter, the pipeline problem will compound,” she said.
The 1% figure may reflect a moment of transition rather than a permanent destination. Whether the industry invests its way through it, or optimises past it, remains an open question.
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