76. Ad Industry Jobs Drops for 7th Consecutive Month

And how agencies are pricing AI

Jul 08, 2025

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Headlines

WPP Races to Harness AI Before the Technology Kills Its Business
Internal “WPP Open” agents to counter this disruption; though questions linger on payoff as their stock has halved during CEO Mark Read’s tenure. Read is stepping down this year.

ft.com - (paywall-apologies)

ChatGPT's Upcoming Ad Play: A Direct Threat to Google's Search Goldmine
Artificial intelligence powerhouse OpenAI will likely add advertising to ChatGPT, a move that would further pressure the core business of Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL), say Wall Street analysts. For Google stock, the key question is how soon an ad-supported version of ChatGPT will emerge.

July 7, 2025 - Investor’s Business Daily

Microsoft Lays Off 9,000—Efficiency Masked as Progress
The AI Content Revolution: From Cost-Cutters to Growth Accelerators

July 2, 2025 - Reuters

Microsoft quietly cut roughly 4% of its workforce (9,000 jobs), largely in advertising, marketing, and cloud services—survival tasks now handled by AI. They’re selling it as optimization, but stripping workforce to streamline AI integration isn’t progress. It’s pruning people for profit, and the cut is wide.

Do your own cost cutting with some of these most popular content tools.

July 2, 2025 - AInvest

July 5, 2025 - Veo3 Work from Secret Level for eToro Investing. It actually works.

From the archives: April 16, 2024 - The Marketing AI Institute - Google and WPP Announce Partnership to Reinvent Advertising with AI.

Deep Dive

1. Economy Adds Jobs While Ad Industry Drops for 7th Consecutive Month

Ad Age July 03, 2025 10:56 AM

Here’s the rub.

🎯 “Ad Industry Job Market Enters Its Vanishing Act Era—Now You See Us, Now You Don't”

Another month, another job report, and—surprise!—the ad industry has pulled off its boldest creative stunt yet: disappearing employment. For the seventh month in a row, the advertising and media sector has shed jobs like a creative director sheds accountability.

While the broader U.S. economy added 147,000 jobs in June, the ad world continues its breathtaking plunge into the employment void. Apparently, we’ve mistaken “lean and agile” for “skeletal and gasping.”

📉 The Only Creative Growth Is in Euphemisms

The golden parachute-clad People in Charge are spinning this freefall with another helping of buzzword salad.

“We’re right-sizing to optimize digital transformation through AI synergies.”

Translation: We fired everyone and bought ChatGPT Pro. Agencies are so busy “pivoting” they’ve spiral-pivoted themselves through the Earth’s crust into the magma of unemployment benefits.

Ironically, on the horizon, to receive unemployment “entitlements,” you’ll need to be (wait for it) … working.
The old “chicken, egg, Trump” conundrum.

Let’s be real—if this trend continues, by Q4 the only employees left at your agency will be the founder’s three kids and a Roomba with Freepik credits. Mega em dash warning: Oh—and— the—catfights. Chat and Claude get along like Siri and Alexa.

💻 AI: The Sadomasochist Who Always Wants More

Yes, strong title. And you prefer the tired “AI: the overachieving intern who never sleeps and works for free.” But I digress.
Copywriting? Automated.
Media planning? Predictive.
Concepting? Meh, who needs ideas when Midjourney can vomit eight mood boards before lunch?

The industry hasn’t just embraced automation—it’s ghosted its own workforce. And yet leadership still pretends this is a “people-first business.” Sure, right after those people train their replacement GPT’s.

🧾 LinkedIn is Still Lying for Us

Of course, if you check LinkedIn, the vibe is totally different. “Thrilled to announce my next chapter!” they post, five minutes after getting axed. “Can’t wait for what’s next!” Spoiler: that next chapter involves buying a foosball table while coping with paying for coffee.

Meanwhile, recruiters are still ghosting everyone who doesn’t have “AI Whisperer” in their headline and three fake projects built entirely with Claude, Runway, and Photoshop’s Generative Fill (which is f*cking awesome in restoring photos).

🪦 Middle Management: Extinct Like Blockbuster

Let’s pour one out for the forgotten class: the senior creatives and account managers who once thrived by “owning decks” and “leading brainstorms.” Now, they’re “exploring opportunities” after “mutually parting ways” with agencies that decided they could just give their job to a Slack bot and an intern with a Canva Pro login.

🚨 The Future? There Is No Future

What’s next? Agencies of the future will be run by a single founder/AI enthusiast hybrid yelling prompts into a microphone while a room full of LED-lit monitors generate campaign assets. Clients will review work with a shrug and ask to “make the ROI bigger,” unaware that there isn’t a single human left on the team who understands what a brand is.

🎬 Final Scene

So here we are: an industry built on storytelling, now stuck telling itself bedtime stories about “new efficiencies” and “AI partnership” while the humans who gave this field its soul quietly exit stage left.

The show’s still running, but nobody’s getting paid.

Cube Cronicles - Overheard at Work

“Department Head”

“Have you ever overheard something so painfully stupid you felt like you needed to lie down? Two members of our sales team were standing by my office, arguing with a manager that the Earth was flat. Their main argument for this was that you can see the horizon expand the higher up you go. The CEO walked by and just said these guys aren’t allowed to talk about this crap to clients. I know we can’t fire people for religious beliefs, but being a flat earther can’t be a protected status … right?”

“Supervisor”

“I heard someone at work say, "Life is too short to dread half the week" and that really hit hard! I dread most of my week and even Sundays because I have to go back to work on Monday. Would you say this is how most people feel? Because if not, I don't think I'm realizing how bad this job is for me.”

“Director”

“There's a pic going around of someone's laptop screen showing a list of names of everyone that's about to be laid off. This is why you don't hire children to be managers.”

“Assistant Project Manager 1”

"Nobody cares about your daughter's cello lessons but you, Mark! Please keep it down to 1 story a day about it. Thanks!"

2. Price It Like Picasso, Deliver It Like Siri: The AI Agency Pricing Playbook

Ad Agencies Discover AI Is Best Priced in Units of Panic

source: Sora - “Price It Like Picasso, Deliver It Like Siri.”

July 7, 2025 - Ad Age, “How agencies are pricing AI—and what it means for industry compensation” by: Lindsay Rittenhouse.

In a feat of corporate improvisation, advertising agencies have officially reached the “make it up as you go” stage of AI pricing. According to Ad Age, agencies are now charging clients for AI like it’s a side of guacamole: nobody knows exactly how much it costs, but it definitely feels premium.

The article bravely explores the chaotic philosophical question haunting the agency world: “What do we charge for this AI sh*t?” The answer, unsurprisingly, ranges from “it depends” to “whatever we can get away with before procurement shows up.”

AI: The New Billable Unicorn

Historically, ad agencies have charged by the hour, by the project, or (if they’re feeling bold) they simply Make Sh*t Up (MSU).

But now, with AI powering everything from copywriting to creative concepting to fake virtual influencers with six-pack abs and zero health insurance and fear, we’re in completely uncharted territory. Do you charge for the time it takes to prompt the AI? For the time saved not using humans? For the sheer existential dread induced by the word “automation”? Yes, yes, and absolutely yes.

source: Sora - agencies are “retraining staff” and “testing tools” which is code for “we’re spending money we hope someone will eventually pay us back.

One brave soul quoted in the article explains that agencies are “retraining staff” and “testing tools” which is code for “we’re spending money we hope someone will eventually pay us back for, please God let it be the client.” Others suggest charging a flat fee, like $50,000 to integrate AI into a workflow. That sounds oddly like what a management consultant says when they just reskinned ChatGPT and slapped their logo on it.

The Great Transparency Smokescreen

Don’t worry, agencies are (as always) committed to transparency. That’s why they’re using words like “value-based pricing” and “performance uplift fees,” which are perfectly clear, provided you study “Corporate Vague” on Duolingo. Apparently, clients are “receptive” to these new models, which either means they’re really excited, or too confused to protest.

Some shops are offering “AI credits” like it’s a mobile data plan. Others are bundling AI into existing retainers like it’s the garnish on a steak. It looks pretty, costs extra, and no one’s sure if it’s edible.

Staff Resent It, Clients Don’t Get It, CFOs Love It

source: Sora - AI: The New Billable Unicorn

Here’s the kicker: agencies are charging for AI while simultaneously using it to reduce staff costs. Junior copywriters are vanishing faster than unpaid invoices, and senior creatives are now “AI overseers,” which is sort of like being the zookeeper at a robot zoo. The irony? Clients still want human-quality work, just faster, cheaper, and preferably generated by a machine that not in search of a more human work/life balance.

Meanwhile, agency CFOs are reportedly thrilled. AI reduces headcount while increasing billables. It’s the Mad Men dream, minus the martinis and ethical considerations.

Final Thoughts: Monetize the Hype

Ultimately, the Ad Age piece boils down to this: no one knows what they’re doing, but everyone is doing it anyway, because the client saw something cool on LinkedIn. And that, my friends, is the new business model.

So how should agencies price AI?

Easy. Pick a number, say it confidently, and surround it with enough jargon that the client assumes it’s strategic. Bonus points if you toss in a phrase like “proprietary prompt engineering framework” or “emotionally resonant machine-led storytelling.”

Boom. That’ll be $150,000. Plus 532 AI credits.

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