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June 20, 2025 | Blog

Is the junior talent pipeline worth preserving at the cost of progress?

strategic outsourcing in marketing

Why marketing leaders must rethink talent development in the age of strategic outsourcing and AI

One of the more emotionally charged objections to outsourcing executional work is the concern that it will erode junior talent development. I’ve heard this many times in transformation conversations, particularly from organizations that pride themselves on being “builder cultures” where leaders rise from within and everyone gets their start learning through the grind. 

At first glance, it’s a valid worry. If you no longer hire junior marketers to do reporting, drafting, campaign QA, or social scheduling, how do you grow the next generation of marketing leaders? 

But this isn’t a new dilemma. This same fear has surfaced repeatedly every time a function has undergone transformation IT, HR, and Finance have all faced this question. And now, with strategic outsourcing accelerating and AI advancing at breakneck speed, the concern is coming up again: What happens when we eliminate the work junior people used to do? 

But here’s the more important question: Is the goal to protect the past, or to prepare for the future? 

We’ve had this conversation before

When IT teams first started outsourcing infrastructure management, the same concern came up: “How will we develop internal architects if we offshore all the foundational work?” The same fear surfaced in finance when FP&A and accounting functions were moved to shared service centers. And again in HR, when recruiting and onboarding were handed over to external partners. 

Now professional services and consulting firms are grappling with the impact of strategic outsourcing and AI on their pyramid model, where senior partners are built from years of junior analysis, slide-building, and modeling. If those inputs are handled externally or automated entirely, what happens to the pipeline? 

This fear keeps coming up, not because it’s wrong, but because we keep asking the wrong question. 

What are you optimizing for? 

At some point, every company has to choose: Are you in the business of developing junior talent, or are you in the business of delivering commercial impact? 

Talent development matters. But in most businesses, it’s not the core mission. It’s a byproduct of growth, not the engine of it. 

Yes, the “junior-to-leader” journey has produced some incredible executives. But that doesn’t mean preserving that journey in its original form should override smarter ways to operate. 

Being a great place to grow your career is an outcome of how you operate, not a reason to hold onto inefficient ways of working.

What actually happens when you eliminate low-value work?

The fear is that strategic outsourcing or AI will create a void in the org or that removing low-level work will eliminate the on-ramp for talent. 

But here’s what happens: The work shifts up. The vacuum fills. New needs emerge. Always. 

I’ve never seen an organization where work disappears after automation or outsourcing. I’ve only seen teams have space to take on higher-value work they were too busy to tackle before. 

The same people who used to pull reporting start interpreting it. The ones writing content get to lead messaging frameworks. The marketer who used to QA 50 campaigns a week starts orchestrating 5 cross-channel programs instead. 

Innovation is a rising tide. It lifts all boats, especially the motivated ones.

Talent development still matters, but it has to evolve 

Rather than eliminate junior roles, strategic outsourcing redefines them. 

  • In an outsourced model, junior talent needs to master communication, project leadership, stakeholder management, and domain-specific judgment. 
  • In an AI-forward org, your junior talent needs to learn how to build, prompt, monitor, and manage AI agents. 

The junior talent pipeline isn’t going away. It’s just flowing in a new direction. 

The question isn’t, “Will we still have one?” It’s, “What do we want it to produce and how fast can we get there?”

The strategic imperative 

It’s tempting to preserve what’s familiar. It feels safer. But marketing organizations that cling to old models in the name of protecting tradition will lose to those that embrace evolution. 

Strategic outsourcing and AI aren’t threats to talent. They’re upgrades to the operating model. They free your team to do what only humans can do: invent, lead, adapt, connect, and accelerate. 

As leaders, we have to be honest about what we’re optimizing for. 

Is it preserving an outdated pipeline? 
Or is it scaling impact with a smarter, faster, more modern organization? 

You can’t do both. Choose wisely. 

2X helps CMOs shift from legacy execution to a scalable model that creates space for higher-value work, without slowing down the business. 

Keep your talent growing. Just not through the grind. 

Lisa Cole

Author

Lisa Cole

Lisa Cole serves as the Chief Marketing Officer & Head of AI Center of Excellence at 2X, where she helps marketing leaders deliver greater impact with fewer resources. Former CMO for Huron, FARO Technologies, and Cellebrite, and author of Brand Gravity and The Revenue RAMP, Lisa has a proven track record of transforming marketing organizations into high-performing, scalable growth engines. She specializes in leveraging AI, strategic outsourcing and growth marketing strategies to scale marketing, driving operational excellence, and accelerating revenue growth.

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