I remember my first marketing job. I started as a Marketing Assistant, like many do. Underpaid and in at the deep end. Learning by drinking from the firehose, as it were.
It’s a win win, cheap resources for the company, and a low(er) risk rung on the ladder with “all of the experience you can drink”, while the career consequences are still relatively low.
You earn your experience and begin the climb to competence and authority within your discipline.
Employers can afford a layer of youthful, energetic and current tech-native employees, freshening company culture and advocating for dynamism and progress.
Or at least, that’s how it used to happen…
AI is uncoupling this generational mechanism and the consequences may be far reaching.
When I started, I had no idea how to write a press release, write copy, plan events, buy advertising, make a product brochure, design exhibition stands, but I learned quickly.
Now, the new tools are so good, there's little difference in asking the AI to do it, instead of the Assistant. There’s probably less explaining, and there's definitely lower National Insurance.
Those entry level jobs are thinning and quickly.
Paralegals, Marketing & PR Assistants, PR, Customer Service, Researchers, even instagram influencers and Youtubers - the list goes on.
So whilst we collectively replace our entry level humans with subscriptions to silicon based intelligence, it's not just the young who lose their opportunity - in another 5-10 years, the management layer won’t have the new generation - at least in the way we are used to.
It's a concern for parents - a challenge they can't advise their children about well because they never faced it.
It may be that we can all successfully abstract ourselves up the value hierarchy, but it's by no means guaranteed.
By Phil Blything
