- Advertising agencies will replace 7.5% of jobs with automation by 2030 amid the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), according to a latest Forrester Research forecast. About one-third of agency jobs will be in danger of substitute by 2030.
- Clerical, secretarial and administrative roles will be probably the most threatened by generative AI, representing 28% of job losses. Sales and similar roles account for 22% of the losses expected by Forrester, while market research and related fields stand at 18% of losses.
- The report identified a negative correlation between jobs which are heavily influenced by generative AI, like editors, writers and programmers, and their potential to be automated. Instead, those positions — typically higher-paid and better-educated — could see increased productivity, leading to “smaller, yet more capable, agencies,” according to Forrester.
Generative AI has gripped the promoting industry in 2023, stoking fear and excitement while sparking an arms race to get an early lead within the sector. Forrester’s forecast, released across the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week, could quell some pessimism around how AI will usurp creative work at agencies. That said, the research makes clear that plenty of agency jobs are threatened, with about 33,000, or 7.5%, expected to be lost to automation by the beginning of the subsequent decade.
Software like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E, which may quickly produce lifelike copy and visuals based on user prompts, has made generative AI commonplace in a brief period of time. Advertisers haven’t hesitated to experiment with the tech, with about 56% of business-to-consumer marketers already applying generative AI, according to Forrester data. Another 40% are within the exploratory phase.
Coca-Cola earlier within the spring ran a campaign that permit consumers and artists leverage OpenAI’s tools to make latest ads based on its library of branded assets. Agencies, too, are flocking to generative AI. WPP and chipmaker Nvidia recently struck a deal to develop a content engine built on the software, eyeing creative asset production at scale, while rival ad-holding groups are exploring other applications.
With use cases proliferating, speculation has abounded as to what jobs will be imperiled by automation, with so much of discourse centered on creatives. Yet, Forrester’s findings suggest that creative jobs, including writers and editors, might be among the many least at-risk. While these fields will be highly influenced by generative AI, the tech could enhance their productivity, avoiding “explicit” job losses, according to Forrester.
The share of agency jobs in creative is subsequently forecast to grow, as are professions including data science, management, software, public relations and market research. At the worldwide level, Forrester foresees digital marketing and strategy specialists expanding their headcount by greater than 20% by 2028.
“Forrester finds that originality is probably the most significant factor that lowers a job’s automation potential,” the report said. “Put one other way, the more creative the role, the less likely that it could actually be replaced by automation.”
On the opposite hand, clerical, sales, finance, administrative and labor-intensive roles will command a smaller share of agency work over the subsequent several years. Forrester doesn’t imagine annual agency headcount growth between now and 2030 will exceed pre-pandemic levels.
The impact of generative AI on agency jobs over the subsequent two years will remain “modest” as ethical and legal issues surrounding the tech, including those related to mental property and bias, are hashed out, per Forrester. That said, marketers might need to start integrating AI and shoring up their know-how or otherwise fall “perilously behind.”
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