From fetching coffee to building pitch decks, interns once carried the weight of day-to-day grunt work. But today, a quiet revolution is reshaping agency workflows. AI in junior roles is no longer science fiction—it’s an operational reality.
Agencies across the U.S. are increasingly treating generative AI like a digital junior teammate—an intern who doesn’t sleep, works at lightning speed, and never rolls its eyes. But is this efficient or exploitative? Strategic or shortsighted? Let’s dig into how creative agencies are redefining roles, skillsets, and expectations.
Also Read : From Internship to Insights: Building a Personal Brand with GenAI
1. The Rise of the AI Assistant in Creative Workflows
AI tools like ChatGPT, Copy.ai, and Jasper are now standard issue in brainstorming meetings. Instead of assigning junior copywriters to draft ten headline variations, agencies are tasking AI to do the heavy lifting. The human team then edits and finesses.
Example:
At Ogilvy, junior creatives use ChatGPT to draft social ad variations before selecting and fine-tuning the best. It saves time and pushes them to focus on strategy and nuance, not grunt work.
Tools to try:
- ChatGPT (OpenAI) – Best for creative writing, ideation, and short-form content.
- Copy.ai – Useful for product descriptions, ad copy, and social content.
- GrammarlyGO – Provides real-time tone and readability edits.
“The real power isn’t in replacing juniors but amplifying their potential,” says Maria Dawson, Creative Director at a mid-sized agency in Chicago.
2. Reimagining Research Roles
Research is often a day-long task for interns, but now agencies turn to AI for lightning-fast trend analysis, data scraping, and sentiment mapping.
Example:
Wieden+Kennedy leveraged AI-powered tools like Crimson Hexagon (now part of Brandwatch) to quickly extract audience insights for a retail campaign. What once took days now takes hours.
Continue reading…(Explore how account and strategy teams are evolving in the next section—and how human empathy remains irreplaceable.)
