How to get hired as a creative in the AI economy

It's not pretty out there.

Photo by Ernie Journeys on Unsplash

It’s a travesty.

Visit LinkedIn or Twitter today and you’ll see countless numbers of folks who have been looking for work for months if not years. There are posts pleading for help to pay bills, make next month’s rent, and buy medicine. People are sending out resume after resume while getting nothing in return.

Are jobs not available? No. There are 7.4 million open jobs in the U.S., less in Europe, but definitely not a squeeze. Is the economy bad? No (but it soon will be). Are these jobs staying open? No, they seem to disappear as expected.

The real issue lies elsewhere: offshoring and AI. Quietly but steadily, companies are replacing human workers with automation and outsourcing. AI radio hosts, automated local news articles, and robot-operated call centers are just the beginning.

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But the most disruptive changes are on the horizon. CEOs are starting to explore AI-driven leadership roles like AI-powered Chief Marketing Officers or AI development teams. David Stepania highlights the trends:

Here's what [recruiters] are seeing in the market:

- Mass Offshoring + AI
- Microsoft's $50B Revenue Growth with Zero Headcount Increase
- The year of efficiency has turned into the White Collar Recession.

Here’s the full breakdown:

• Worst market in 18+ years
• Hiring freezes everywhere
• Salaries down 30-40%
• Quality candidates getting rejected
• 6+ month job searches normal

→ The Real Drivers:

• Return to office failed; companies embraced offshoring instead
• AI augmenting overseas teams, multiplying their impact
• Wall Street rewarding layoffs and cost-cutting

→ The New Pattern:

• Entry-level roles moving overseas
• Mid-level positions disappearing
• Senior roles facing massive pay cuts
• "Jobless growth" becoming normal
• Companies scaling without hiring

→ The Microsoft Effect:

• Revenue: +$50B
• Headcount: Flat
• Meta's playbook: 4x market cap, -20% workforce
• Pattern repeating across tech giants
• More output, fewer employees

This isn't just tech.
Banking, media, marketing, and other white-collar sectors are following the same playbook.
We witnessing the biggest restructuring of knowledge work since the internet
I'm hearing companies are making plans on doing 10-15% headcount cuts on a yearly basis in the US as they lean into AI & more offshoring

Broetry aside, bro is correct. Companies are essentially replacing many entry level roles with AI, allowing mid-level managers to do more work more quickly, especially in traditionally creative roles. I’ve personally seen marketing groups shrink down to one or two people maximum with the CEO shouting that AI is sufficient to make a cool graphic of a robot piloting a rocket ship over an AI-generated press release about a new hire in the Scranton office.

In fact, I suspect we’ll all see an announcement from some random startup - probably Israeli, given the glee with they’re taking on even measly book publishing with one startup proposing to produce 8,000 AI-written books a year - that they’ve actively replaced a team of forty devs, creatives, or the like. These claims will be false, obviously - the resulting morass of hallucinations and bug squashing will require new, mid-level hires to enter the fray - but they will be cogent and frightening.

So that’s the bottom line: you can’t get hired because the robots are out to get you. Here’s how to protect yourself.