Agencies Are Ditching Junior Staff. What That Means for the Industry
Brad Stevens launched Never. Always., an agency model with no juniors or handoffs. But Forrester warns: skipping junior hires today means no managers in 2030.
A veteran creative director has launched what may be the most honest agency model in the market right now. The question is whether honesty about where the industry is heading makes it a good idea.
Brad Stevens, the former APAC Executive Creative Director at DEPT and a veteran of M+C Saatchi, FutureBrand, and Landor, launched Never. Always. in May 2026. The premise: no junior staff, no account management layers, no handoffs. Just senior creatives working directly with clients, using AI tools to move faster. Foundation clients LawConnect and AEYIA are already signed.
"We've taken everything I've learned in big agencies and removed what slows great work down," Stevens said. "No layers, no handoffs, no dilution, just senior people doing the work, supported by AI to move faster and explore further."
Why the Model Is More Than a Boutique Agency Story
Never. Always. would be a footnote if it were just another boutique. It isn't. It is a logical endpoint of trends that have been building for years, and Stevens has simply named them out loud.
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Forrester predicts US advertising agencies will lose approximately 32,000 jobs (7.5% of the total workforce) to automation by 2030. Meanwhile, 91% of senior agency leaders already expect AI to reduce headcounts, and 57% have slowed or paused entry-level hiring entirely. Never. Always. has taken that trajectory to its structural conclusion: skip the transition, start without juniors.
The AI Amplification Claim Has Not Been Tested at Scale
Stevens frames AI as an accelerant for senior judgment, not a replacement for it. Forrester's own research found that the more creative and original a role, the less likely AI is to automate it. Originality is the single factor that most lowers automation risk. That is the intellectual foundation the model rests on.
But it has not been tested at scale. The two foundation clients are digital-native businesses with startup-grade velocity needs. What happens when a client needs high-volume production, multi-market adaptation, or rollouts across a dozen languages? Senior judgment does not become faster just because AI speeds up the prototype stage.
StrawberryFrog, the NYC agency that rebuilt itself with a flat, AI-fluent structure and no internal silos, offers a real-world parallel. It ships significant work, including a fully playable AI-assisted retro video game built in weeks. But it is not a solo shop, and it operates in a far larger market.
The Talent Pipeline Consequences That No One Is Announcing
The bigger concern is not whether the model works for Stevens. It is what it signals for everyone else.
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More than half of APAC business leaders already use AI agents to fully automate workstreams, above the global 46% average. If agencies across the region follow the Never. Always. logic and stop hiring juniors, the productivity gains come immediately. The consequences arrive in about five years.
No juniors today means no mid-level managers in 2030 and no seniors in 2035. "If we stop hiring juniors because AI handles entry-level work, in three to five years there won't be people available to be future managers," as industry analysts widely put it.
US ad agency staff-level jobs have declined more than 10% since 2022. In Q1 2026 alone, nearly half of tech-industry layoffs were attributed directly to AI. Never. Always. did not cause this trend. It is a mirror held up to it.
Stevens has built something that makes clear-headed business sense for him, in this moment, with these clients. Whether the industry should celebrate it or treat it as a warning are not mutually exclusive.
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