In this monthly column with NGEN, the MFA’s training program for media professionals with less than five years’ experience, WPP Media’s performance coordinator Cooper McCarthy reflects on beginning his media career just as AI becomes more prevalent in agencies.
Stepping into the world of media felt like launching into orbit. One moment, I was a university student with my head in marketing textbooks and advertising theories. The next, I was immersed in the very real and very fast-paced world of a global agency, WPP Media.
To my surprise, the most prominent copilot on my journey hasn’t been a senior mentor (although I have incredible ones), but Artificial Intelligence.
My academic background certainly touched on AI, its potential and its ethical considerations, though students were told not to use it, with punishment as the consequence. It seemed like a fascinating, futuristic concept, straight out of a movie. But nothing truly prepared me for the speed at which AI has become integrated into daily life and media in the short months since I’ve been in the workforce.
Initially, it was a shock because it was so frowned upon during university, and now, at WPP Media, we have our own AI platform – WPP Open – which we are highly encouraged to use for pitch work, brief responses, creative design and more, as a way of increasing our efficiency while reducing the delivery time and costs our clients face.
It’s funny to look back on, as this was probably the most important thing universities could have guided students on to prepare us for the future, yet they didn’t.
When I joined the industry in January 2025, the headlines were screaming about AI leading to job cuts and algorithms replacing human creativity. As someone just finding their feet at the time, it was easy to feel a sense of anxiety. Was I entering an industry already destined to render my human skills obsolete? Would the years of studying and the piles of HECS debt be overshadowed by lines of code?
What I’ve quickly learned is that AI isn’t a competitor at all, it’s an accelerant. It’s not about replacing the human touch, but about refining it, empowering it, and pushing the boundaries of what we thought possible.
When you look back on the key skills that defined success in previous generations of media, it might have been the art of media buying, an instinct for schedules and deadlines, or mastery of early Excel formulas. These weren’t just tasks – they were essential skills that unlocked efficiency and insight. They were the “how-to” that made the “what-if” possible. Today, as the media world has fragmented and grown more complex, AI is rapidly becoming the “how-to” for my generation and many others entering the industry.
AI is going to impact everyone, whatever their role, expertise, or experience. But for me, it feels like there is a unique advantage to being early in your career in this moment. We don’t have decades of ingrained habits to unlearn. We’re a clean slate – an empty piece of paper waiting to be written on. This allows us to approach AI without predetermined thoughts or bias.
The future of media isn’t about us versus the scary machines, but about the potential synergy our creativity and artificial intelligence can co-create. It’s about being proactive with AI and what it can process, predict, and generate, not about being merely reactive.
The start of my career in media has been an unexpected journey, but one lesson from my senior leaders stands out: our jobs aren’t threatened by AI, but by the reluctance to embrace and master it.
That insight feels less like a challenge and more like an incredibly exciting opportunity to shape what’s next.
