If you ask most agency leaders why junior hiring has slowed, you’ll likely hear the same answer:
“AI is doing work that used to be done by graduates and junior executives.”
The data does suggest entry-level hiring is under pressure. One-third of Australian organisations have already slowed hiring for entry-level positions, while 60% expect to reduce graduate and junior recruitment within the next three years, according to IDC research commissioned by Deel.
Meanwhile, CPA Australia’s Business Technology Report 2025 found that 8% of Australian businesses have already reduced hiring of junior accounting and finance staff due to technology-driven efficiencies.
The dominant explanation for these numbers is always the same word: AI. But recent research suggests we may be blaming the wrong culprit.
A study highlighted by HRD Australia examined hiring trends across Australia, the UK, Canada and the US, looking at the impact of both artificial intelligence and remote work. Initially, both appeared linked to declining entry-level hiring. However, when researchers isolated the variables, the AI effect largely disappeared.
Instead, remote and hybrid work emerged as the stronger explanation. For PR, communications and marketing agencies, that finding should be a wake-up call.
Much of what makes a great Account Executive, PR Consultant or Marketing Coordinator isn’t learned through formal training. It’s learned through observation, collaboration and constant exposure to experienced professionals.
It’s sitting in client meetings.
Listening to media strategy discussions.
Watching senior consultants navigate stakeholder issues.
Receiving real-time feedback.
These are the experiences that build future agency leaders, right?
The challenge is that hybrid and remote environments make these moments harder to create. Developing junior talent now requires more intentional coaching, mentoring and management than ever before. Faced with increasing workloads and tighter margins, many employers are choosing to hire experienced professionals who can contribute immediately rather than invest in early-career development.
The Account Directors, Client Partners and Agency Leaders agencies will need in five or ten years’ time are the graduates and junior executives entering the workforce today.
If organisations continue reducing investment at the entry level, we’re not solving a talent problem—we’re creating a future one.
The agencies that thrive won’t be the ones asking whether AI can replace junior talent; they’ll be the ones asking how to develop junior talent more effectively in a hybrid world.
Structured mentoring, better onboarding, purposeful office collaboration and clear career pathways are no longer nice-to-haves. They’re becoming essential talent strategies.
Because while AI may be changing how work gets done, it may not be the biggest threat to the future talent pipeline –that threat could be the gradual disappearance of the environments where future leaders learn their craft.
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