Ad Agencies at a Crossroads: Why Some Are Shedding Jobs While Others Are Scaling Up
While legacy holding groups cut costs and consolidate, a new generation of independent and tech-forward agencies is expanding reshaping the future of advertising talent.
The advertising industry is in the midst of a structural upheaval. While overall ad spend continues to grow, agency employment is moving in the opposite direction. Holding companies are shedding staff, driven by cost pressures, automation, and AI-driven efficiencies. At the same time, a new wave of independent and private equity-backed agencies is scaling rapidly, hiring aggressively, and redefining the agency model.
This divergence is reshaping how talent enters and moves within the industry.
The Numbers Behind the Shake-Up
As of early 2025, U.S. agency employment has slipped to 219,500, down nearly 4% year-on-year and more than 10% below levels seen at the start of 2022. The peak in April 2023, when agencies employed 228,000 people, now looks like a high-water mark before the tide turned.
This isn’t a cyclical blip. It reflects a deeper structural shift. Entry-level positions traditionally the foundation of agency apprenticeship models are disappearing. Staff-level jobs that once provided a training ground for future strategists and creatives are increasingly being automated or outsourced.
Adweek first reported that holding groups such as WPP, Omnicom, and Interpublic Group are cutting deeply into these junior layers, streamlining operations, and embracing AI-based tools to handle previously manual tasks. The looming Omnicom–IPG merger, if approved, will accelerate this consolidation.
But this is not a story of decline across the board. It’s a story of bifurcation.
Independent Agencies Buck the Trend
While large networks restructure, independent agencies and private equity-backed players are expanding their headcount. They’re adding mid- and senior-level roles to meet growing demand for integrated campaigns, influencer-driven content, and data-led commerce solutions.
Known is hiring roughly 30 new positions around 7% of its workforce on the back of 20–30% annual growth.
DEPT®, backed by the Carlyle Group, has opened more than 130 roles in the Americas, spanning strategy, data, and creative functions.
Croud, supported by ECI Partners, is filling 11–15 U.S. positions across analytics, media buying, and social planning.
Creative boutiques like CAPE Agency and nice&frank are adding fractional and senior hires in design, strategy, and production.
These firms share common DNA: they’re smaller, more agile, and technology-forward. Many are also PE-funded, giving them the capital flexibility to make senior hires quickly.
What Other Sources Are Saying
This shift isn’t confined to a single publication’s narrative. Other industry voices reinforce the same trend.
Business Insider highlights that even as junior roles vanish, there’s rising demand for talent with AI, analytics, and social commerce expertise.
Creative Salon notes that while ad spend surpassed $1 trillion in 2024 and will grow another 7.7% in 2025, holding companies are prioritising margin improvement over headcount growth.
Mediapost argues that independents have an advantage: they’re closer to clients, less beholden to quarterly earnings, and faster at adopting transformative tech such as AI and Connected TV (CTV).
Mountain Research shows independents gaining traction through CTV-led performance marketing and influencer-driven content, a sector where 91% of brands are reducing their reliance on traditional agency models.
The implication is clear: where large networks are optimising, independents are innovating.
AI as Catalyst and Divider
AI is the central fault line in this transformation.
For holding groups, AI is primarily a cost-saving tool. Automation is replacing routine copywriting, design production, and reporting tasks roles traditionally handled by junior staff. Adweek’s data shows a significant decline in “assistant” and “coordinator” job postings, with AI skills now embedded as requirements for many mid-level roles.
Independents, meanwhile, see AI less as a cost-cutting measure and more as a growth enabler. For example:
Boutique agencies are using AI for rapid creative iteration, but keeping human-led strategic thinking.
Data-centric firms are building AI-driven personalisation engines for clients, expanding their value proposition.
CTV-focused shops are leveraging AI targeting to offer scalable, performance-driven campaigns without the overhead of traditional media buying teams.
The agencies growing today are those viewing AI as additive rather than purely substitutive.
Talent at a Turning Point
For agency talent, the takeaway is stark. The era of “learn the ropes in a junior role” is fading. New entrants are expected to arrive with more advanced skills data literacy, AI fluency, and cross-disciplinary adaptability.
Conversely, mid-to-senior talent who can integrate strategy, tech, and creative execution are in high demand.
Here’s what the landscape looks like:
Talent Trends in 2025
Why Independents Are Outpacing Holdcos
Why are independents better positioned in this environment?
Client Proximity: Founders and senior leaders are more directly engaged with brand CMOs, allowing for tailored strategies rather than templated global models.
No Shareholder Pressure: Freed from quarterly earnings targets, they can invest in client results over immediate margin.
Flexible Capability Stacks: From influencer marketing to commerce, independents can plug in new offerings faster.
Fast Tech Adoption: History shows independents adopt new tech waves—desktop publishing, streaming, and now AI—more quickly than the big networks.
CTV Leverage: Connected TV, with its performance and targeting advantages, is a growth engine for smaller agencies.
“AI will ultimately be the great equaliser—but independents will adopt it faster.”
Mediapost
Looking Ahead
The advertising labour market is fragmenting. On one side are the holding companies, reducing their cost base, consolidating operations, and automating entry-level work. On the other are independents and PE-backed agencies, which are adding talent and capabilities to capture new client needs.
For professionals, the path forward requires continuous upskilling, hybrid expertise, and a mindset that blends strategy with tech fluency. For brands, it signals a growing opportunity to work with more specialised, nimble agencies that can outpace the slower-moving networks.
The industry isn’t shrinking it’s reshaping. And the agencies willing to embrace change are the ones writing the next chapter.
