The news: As entry-level roles for younger hires shrink, ad schools are retooling their programs to promote AI fluency and skills.

Miami Ad School, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter, and London’s School of Communication Arts are adding AI education curriculum focused on concepting, campaign execution, and portfolio development, per Adweek.

Zooming out: While Meta’s high-profile hires for AI-skilled workers are making headlines, that demand isn’t specific to development and engineering fields. Job postings for employees with AI experience spiked 35% YoY across sectors in 2024, per McKinsey.

Despite that demand for AI experience, roles for young creatives are declining. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 6.6% for the last 12 months ending in May, per The Wall Street Journal, above the 4% national average.

Full service: Schools are responding to the dearth of entry-level jobs by training students to operate like one-person agencies that can ideate, direct, and execute, with AI tools as their support team.

Curriculum additions include multi-week AI bootcamps, teaching students how to craft AI-powered campaigns, and lessons on how to create portfolios and pitch decks quickly with AI.

Higher-up deficits: Junior employees educated in generative AI (genAI) may be a catalyst for AI adoption considering many senior leaders lack hands-on AI education and experience.

Most execs are simply experimenting with basics like ChatGPT for emails, said Chuck Whitten, global head of digital at Bain & Company, per The New York Times. Without AI backgrounds of their own, executives may struggle to engage meaningfully with the very employees they’re expecting to lead AI initiatives.

Our take: CMOs who understand how AI is reshaping both entry-level roles and leadership expectations will be in a better position to build resilient, AI-ready teams. However, companies shouldn’t focus only on hiring junior employees with existing AI literacy—keeping resources open to train both new and current workers as AI evolves will encourage a diversity of skills and experience on staff.

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