Investing in students is investing in the industry
The next generation of advertising talent isn't coming - they're already here. In this edition of The Bolt, our CEO Jeremy Heilpern sits down with publicist Lauren Miller to talk about the future of the industry, the launch of the Ammunition Agency Innovation Lab with The University of Georgia, and what it actually takes to prepare students for a field being reshaped by AI. Why craft still comes first, how entry-level roles are evolving, and why the students walking into agencies today might just be the ones who teach the rest of us.
Takeaways
Investing in students is investing in the industry. The Ammunition Agency Innovation Lab at The University of Georgia is a real bet on where advertising is headed and who will take it there.
The craft still has to come first. AI is only as good as the person behind it, and without a deep understanding of the work, there's no catching it when it goes off track. And it will go off track.
Entry-level jobs aren't going away - they're changing shape. Scheduling and note-taking are increasingly automated, but judgment, curiosity, and people skills are still very much human. There's no skipping to senior without starting somewhere, and the agencies figuring that out now are the ones worth watching.
So, what now?
The next generation of advertising talent will be defined by those who master their craft and know how to make AI work for them, not the other way around.
Striking Stats
- Up from 64% last year, 89% graduates now fear AI could replace entry-level roles (Monster)
- 91% of senior agency leaders expect AI to reduce headcounts, and 57% have already slowed or paused entry-level hiring (eMarketer)
- 70% of workplace skills are predicted to change by 2030, and 88% of C-suite execs believe accelerating AI adoption within their organizations is a priority (Digiday)
Lightning Round
- Ammunition announced the Ammunition Agency Innovation Lab at the University of Georgia, developed in partnership with the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, featured in Ad Age’s How agencies are reshaping junior-level roles and training in the AI era
- CEO Jeremy Heilpern was featured in Ad Age's How to Land a Junior Ad Agency Job — What Leaders Say Works as Roles Change Due to AI
- CSO Kelly Heilpern taught an advertising class at Georgia State University in partnership with the ANA Educational Foundation on April 9, and Strategy Director Chris Shadrick spoke at the University of Bath on April 16, covering how attention works, why one metric defines a company's future, and what happens when AI optimizes for attachment instead
- Ammunition made the Financial Times Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies list for the second year running
- Ammunition's new mandate and visual identity refresh earned a feature in MediaPost
- CEO Jeremy Heilpern was featured on The Ad Podcast, discussing his path into advertising and where Ammunition is headed
- Get to know Global COO + MD, Europe in 5 Minutes with Renaye Edwards
- Strategy Director Chris Shadrick bylined in WARC: “Behavioural science didn't fail marketing. Marketing failed behavioural science”
- John Robertson celebrated his 3-year Ammoversary
