If 2025 has felt brutal on the jobs front, you’re not imagining it. Redundancies, restructures, and prolonged hiring freezes have reshaped the advertising and marketing landscape — and as we head into 2026, the pace of change shows no sign of slowing. Mergers are bedding in, AI is becoming business-as-usual rather than a novelty, and agencies are under sustained pressure to operate more efficiently with leaner teams.

In my role at The Industry Club, my work with candidates and agencies alike has highlighted how expectations have shifted in recent years. Alongside our recruitment work, The Industry School focuses on training and upskilling talent across the industry — and together that gives us a broad, market-level view: not just of the roles agencies are hiring for today, but how those roles are evolving, and where candidates who thrive tend to think and behave differently.

I recently shared my perspective with Little Black Book as part of their feature on how talent can prepare for the 2026 job market. My core message is simple but essential: the biggest mistake candidates make is assuming their role will stay the same while everything around it changes.

What I’m seeing — and what our data at The Industry Club reinforces — is that most agencies aren’t looking for pure “AI specialists”. In fact, our recent AI leadership survey showed that 65% of leaders expect to hire for aptitude over AI skills. The real differentiator isn’t technical mastery of tools; it’s how people think. Can they learn quickly? Apply judgment? Pressure-test ideas? Simplify complexity? Spot opportunities others miss?

The candidates progressing fastest aren’t waiting for formal training programmes. They’re experimenting in real life — automating admin, prototyping ideas, building lightweight content systems, or using AI beyond work to solve everyday problems. These habits demonstrate something far more valuable than credentials: the ability to navigate uncertainty.

That adaptability is also driving the emergence of new hybrid roles across creative, operational and client teams — from creative technologists and AI-enabled producers to automation leads and customer-success-style positions that didn’t exist in quite the same way even a year ago.

In an increasingly crowded freelance market, the same principle applies. Clarity beats volume. Knowing where your strengths genuinely lie, targeting obvious fits, and clearly articulating how you add value in a changing agency environment matters far more than trying to be everything to everyone.

My full comment appears in Little Black Book alongside insights from other industry talent experts. If you’re thinking seriously about how to position yourself for 2026, it’s well worth a read.

👉 Read the LBB article here