For decades, ad school graduates have entered agencies armed with classic creative skills like copywriting, art direction, and design. The next wave will bring something new to the table: fluency in artificial intelligence.
When a new term begins this fall, ad schools including Miami Ad School, Brandcenter at Virginia Commonwealth University, and London’s School of Communication Arts (SCA) are rolling out curricula that incorporate AI education.
They’re doing so to prepare students for a workforce being reshaped by AI. The tech is already affecting the general job market for entry-level workers, The Wall Street Journal reported. While the national unemployment rate is about 4%, for new college graduates it was 6.6% over the past 12 months ending in May.
The ad industry specifically appears to be shedding younger workers as AI use becomes routine at agencies, as ADWEEK reported last week.
Even before AI’s rise, the traditional ad school model was under pressure from economic factors and digital disruption. Since 2023, Miami Ad School has closed campuses in San Francisco, Toronto, and most recently Atlanta. The Chicago Portfolio School, Atlanta’s Creative Circus, and the U.K.’s Watford Course have also shut down in recent years.
Many ad schools are now racing to keep up with the pace of change and convince both prospective students and industry employers that their education is fit for the future.
As Vann Graves, executive director of Brandcenter, put it: “The industry is moving at a pace so much faster than it has ever moved. Education needs to move even faster than that.”
