Gartner: AI Will Eliminate Entry-Level Roles in Marketing by 2030

"CMOs should expose junior marketers to higher-value work earlier, cultivating the judgment, strategic thinking, and AI orchestration skills they will need to become the marketing leaders of the future," said Kristina LaRocca-Cerrone, Vice President Analyst in Gartner's marketing practice.

As routine tasks become automated, Gartner recommends assigning newcomers to evaluate AI outputs, generate insights, and tie recommendations to specific business outcomes. Candidate selection criteria should also change: what should be assessed is how applicants work with AI tools, including critical thinking and personal judgment. Onboarding, in the analysts' view, should give junior employees access to higher-value tasks earlier, while coaching and mentorship should accelerate development.

The risks have been calculated not only for rank-and-file employees. According to a separate BCG study, more than 60% of C-suite executives believe that excessive reliance on AI tools is leading to a "dumbing down" of the workforce, and that the erosion of human skills will become a serious threat within the next three to five years.

The context for the labor market is unfavorable. The combination of economic pressure and the spread of AI has worsened employment prospects for recent university graduates, The Guardian notes. Marketing departments are typically the first to be hit by layoffs during a downturn. Gartner previously noted that CMO budgets have remained essentially flat amid growing pressure related to the need for AI transformation.