The industry’s automation revolution may come at a steep cost: its future thinkers.
In a rapidly transforming industry, two of Australia’s top strategists – Iona Macgregor, Chief Strategy Officer at AKQA, and Zac Martin, Strategy Director at TBWA Melbourne – are raising red flags about the unintended consequences of AI in advertising.
Their concern? A quiet erosion of junior strategy roles. As AI takes over foundational tasks, the entry points for young talent are vanishing, potentially impacting the industry’s future.
“The real risk,” Macgregor cautions, “is that we just close off the prospect of ever having anyone below senior level. If we automate the bottom, we risk starving the top.”
Martin agrees, flagging that while AI is productive, it can’t replace what makes strategists valuable. “Gold often comes from what’s not said: the contradictions, the fringes rather than the average, the nuanced perspectives. Those are hard to uncover with AI alone.”
What’s at stake is not just internships or grad roles, but the whole talent development ecosystem. Without hands-on experience, mentorship, exposure, and room for failure, future CSOs won’t emerge.
The pair’s solutions are practical: structured buddy systems, regular strategy clinics, and formal rotations that give junior strategists real exposure to high-level work. Not coffee runs or admin, but meaningful, developmental opportunities.
They also argue that if juniors are using AI at work, its use must be regulated; otherwise, critical thinking skills risk being derailed.
“AI is a superpower for the experienced, but detrimental for anyone who hasn’t had the joy of discovering firsthand how to cultivate their own taste, or their eye for a good thought or connection,” says Macgregor.
Martin adds: “In strategy, you’re curating what’s interesting, compelling, or weird. You need to be able to separate this from the expected and boring. A generation that has used AI from day one won’t have built that muscle. There isn’t a lot of value for clients in conventional thinking.”
Both say that developing junior strategists is more than just an HR concern; it’s a business imperative. “Great strategy doesn’t scale by accident. It’s cultivated through exposure, conversation and mentorship. None of which AI can simulate,” says Macgregor.
Layered onto this is a growing perception that strategy has become too intellectual, too inward-looking, and detached from what clients value. Martin puts it bluntly: “Clients don’t pay for insights. They pay for ideas that drive growth.”
Macgregor, however, offers an antidote: return to the roots of why the industry attracts talent in the first place. “Commercial creativity is the most interesting job in the world,” she says. And that job, they both argue, must remain open to unconventional, restless minds, including those who are still learning.
The bigger picture is clear. Agencies embracing AI for efficiency gains must also embrace a parallel responsibility: building robust, future-facing talent ecosystems. If not, the next generation of strategic minds may never get their shot, and the industry’s future, although brilliant, will be brittle.
-ENDS-
Iona Macgregor and Zac Martin are just two of the industry heavyweights behind AdSchool’s strategy courses. Ready to sharpen your strategy game? Start with Core Strategic Planning — an eight-week, part-time course designed to build a solid strategic skillset. Kicks off early October in Sydney, Melbourne and online.