Marketers are adapting to AI tools amid concerning employment trends in the advertising industry, which has seen continued job losses in recent months.

"AI is taking over the ad industry," said EMARKETER analyst Lisa Haiss on a recent episode of "Behind the Numbers." "It's so easy to just plug things into AI and ask it questions, but ad agencies are getting ahead of themselves by not keeping humans in the loop."

This trend appears to be more than temporary economic uncertainty. Thirty-seven percent of US ad industry professionals have job displacement concerns related to AI adoption, according to January data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Here's what to know about how AI's inclusion into marketing is affecting the workforce.

Entry-level positions face the greatest threat

The impact of AI adoption is disproportionately affecting younger professionals and entry-level positions, analysts say, creating a potential long-term crisis for the industry.

"This marks a large shift that's prioritizing cost-cutting and short-term efficiency over having human insights staying in the loop, which is really concerning," said our analyst Grace Harmon.

Some 77% of worldwide executives say entry-level positions will at least be moderately impacted by generative AI by this year, according to an August 2023 report from the IBM Institute for Business Value.

"There's a huge shortage of junior roles and roles for younger people at these ad agencies," says Harmon. "Down the line, it means you're going to have this shortage of workers at a certain level, you're going to have a shortage of diversity of opinions from different generations."

How marketers are currently using AI tools

Despite the rapid adoption of AI, analysts say most marketing professionals are still using the technology primarily for basic tasks rather than more sophisticated applications.

"The top use case right now is still content generation," says Haiss. "That's something that is a really easy thing to do, but at the same time, it's not necessarily the best idea. I think they're missing out on really important use cases like content analytics."

A critical issue emerging in the AI adoption landscape is the significant lack of proper training and resources for marketing professionals.

Almost half (49%) of executives admitted employees are left on their own to figure out AI tools, according to a March 2025 report from Writer.

"I don't know how well you can expect people to adopt these tools if you're not providing them with the resources to benefit from them," says Harmon.

Stigma and deception

Despite growing adoption, using AI at work still carries a stigma that affects how professionals approach the technology.

Harmon cited a Duke University study that showed while companies encourage AI use for efficiency, many employees worry colleagues will perceive them as lazy for doing so. This has led to widespread "shadow use."

"The stigma has two main sources: Fear of replacement and skepticism about quality," explained Harmon. "Employees worry that relying on AI signals a lack of skill or can make their roles redundant."

This stigma is compounded by professionals who exaggerate their AI knowledge, according to our analysts. Some 79% of professionals exaggerate their AI knowledge, as noted in Pluralsight’s 2025 AI Skills Report,

"If you can teach people how to leverage the right tools, how to get the best answers out of them quickly, I'd say that's really important," says Harmon.

Listen to the full episode.