The rebirth of the junior marketer
AI killed the grunt work. CMOs must rebuild the ladder.
We all started as junior marketing managers. Both of us began at Weber Shandwick, a PR firm’s local head office. But let’s be honest—there was nothing “managerial” about it. We updated press lists. We logged coverage reports. We cold-called journalists. At best, we tweaked press releases written by someone else. Boring grunt work.
We hated it. But now, looking back, we know being junior was necessary. It was the training ground. You needed to do the work before you could learn what to manage, what to lead.
Here’s the problem: AI just blew that training ground to pieces. It isn’t “augmenting” junior work. It isn’t “improving” it. No sugarcoating: AI is flat-out replacing it. Faster, cheaper, better. And not in some distant future. Right now.
Stanford confirms it: the entry-level ladder is collapsing. No apprentices. No pipeline. No future leaders.
The only way forward is to put the “manager” back into junior roles. Give them what AI alone cannot: a learning curve, career progression, and mentorship. Let them actually manage.
Manage what? The AI stack. Bot armies. Workflows. Outputs. Juniors should focus on learning orchestration, QA, and system design, while seniors should concentrate on setting strategy and vision. That’s how you turn today’s entry-level hires into tomorrow’s creative heads and CMOs.
It’s on us, as leaders, to rebuild the ladder. We have to provide opportunities for progress. We have to define purpose. We have to pave the road for generations to come.
