Will AI force us to reinvent creative career paths?

If AI Erases Junior Roles, Where Will the Next Leaders Come From?

Recent data shows a split story: freelance roles for creative professionals — especially in communications — surged 25% in Q2 2025, yet job postings in AI-exposed roles dropped 31% in three years. If AI is pruning the entry-level rungs, how will tomorrow’s design leaders get the experience they need?

AI is transforming work across the board — from financial and market analysis to research, content creation, and design. In the creative world especially, much of the work once handled by junior designers can now be completed in seconds.

For example, creating 5–7 variations of a concept once took a junior designer days (graphic design) or even weeks (industrial design). Today, AI delivers them almost instantly.

The role of the junior designer may be disappearing, but the need for creative leaders remains — people who set vision, define strategy, and know what “good” looks like. Traditionally, those leaders started in the very roles AI is replacing.

If the “training ground” vanishes, where will the next generation of leaders come from?

What do you think?
Will AI force us to reinvent creative career paths?
Should companies protect junior roles as leadership pipelines?
Or will entirely new pathways emerge in the AI era?