Many millions of column inches have been filled about AI’s effects on the job market. Now it appears the rubber has met the road, with fewer graduate marketing roles on the market, a weaker demand for basic content creation skills and commercial smarts being more important than ever to firms.
While AI is changing workflows, recruiters say the broader marketing labour market in Australia has already been shifting over the past year.
Dene Gambotto, founder of industry recruitment firm iknowwho, told B&T that hiring has become more cautious compared to the post-COVID surge, with companies focusing on roles that directly drive growth and customer engagement.
“The marketing job market in Australia is cautious, as hiring is more deliberate than it was during the post-COVID surge,” she said.
“Companies are still investing in marketing talent, but they’re prioritising roles that clearly contribute to growth and customer engagement.”
James Handley, founder of recruitment agency FLOW Recruitment also spoke with B&T, highlighting that overall job volumes have softened, even as targeted hiring continues for specialists.
“Organisations are still making targeted hires where candidates bring clear sector expertise, specialist capability or both,” he said.
Agencies, he added, are increasingly expected to operate as strategic partners to clients rather than purely executional service providers.
“The agencies that will succeed are those that remain true partners to their clients, operating as extensions of in-house marketing teams and adding value around brand strategy, positioning and development.”
Entry-level roles continue to shrink
One of the most immediate structural changes appears to be at the junior end of the workforce.
Several recent studies indicate that entry-level hiring in Australia has fallen significantly, with junior job postings dropping 29 percentage points since early 2024.
AI tools are now capable of supporting tasks traditionally handled by early-career staff, including initial research synthesis, basic analysis, reporting and first-draft insights.
And according to Handley, this is already influencing hiring patterns.
“At the junior level, graduate hiring has softened and there is a stronger expectation for commercial awareness from the outset,” he said.
Gambotto similarly noted that AI is reshaping the structure of marketing teams, particularly for more execution-focused roles.
“Tasks like basic content creation, reporting and campaign optimisation can now be supported by AI tools,” she said.
“As a result, demand is shifting toward marketers who can use these technologies strategically — especially in areas like growth marketing, marketing operations and data-driven roles.”
Anthropic’s bombshell report
Industry chins were wagging furiously last week after Anthropic released its Labor Market Impacts of AI research paper that analysed how AI tools interact with real-world job tasks across hundreds of occupations.
According to the report, the tasks most susceptible to automation include preparing reports of findings, illustrating data graphically, and translating complex results into written insights.
It found that market research analysts and marketing specialists ranked fifth out of 800 occupations for exposure to AI, with an observed exposure level of 64.8 per cent.
Despite the high level of exposure, the report found limited evidence that AI has yet had a measurable impact on employment levels, though researchers expect to revisit the analysis over time as adoption increases.
So which part of the role is AI automating?
Many of the tasks identified in the report align closely with day-to-day work already being augmented by AI tools.
According to Gambotto, the technology is particularly effective at producing outputs such as reports and visualisations, but falls short when it comes to strategic interpretation.
“AI is very good at producing the reports and graphs,” Gambotto said. “But marketers still need to decide what the insight actually means for the business.”
“That actually increases the value of marketers who can interpret the insights and translate them into strategy,” she added.
Handley told B&T that although AI is accelerating the data-processing side of marketing and research roles, human judgement is still critical.
“Technology can process the data, but human interpretation remains essential,” he said.
“AI will accelerate data processing and delivery, but human judgement will remain critical to interpret the findings, apply cultural context and ensure recommendations are relevant.”
What does the long-term look like?
While automation may reduce some routine work, many industry leaders argue the long-term effect will be to elevate the strategic importance of marketing roles.
Handley believes the greatest value will increasingly lie in consultancy skills — particularly framing problems and asking the right questions at the start of a project.
“The role of the marketing and research consultant is evolving,” he said. “AI is becoming a tool that augments the role rather than replacing it.”
That view is shared by Sherilyn Shackell, who believes AI will fundamentally change the performance bar for marketers.
“AI won’t replace great marketers, but it will annihilate mediocre ones,” she said.
“The marketers who will thrive will be the ones who double down on the things machines can’t replicate – human-led leadership, vision, imagination, empathy, ethics, and the courage, combined with real knowledge, to make bold commercial decisions.”
