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This article discusses the shifting landscape for middle managers in the age of AI, highlighting how companies are restructuring their management roles to enhance efficiency. As organizations flatten hierarchies, traditional managerial roles are being redefined, with some companies eliminating pure management positions altogether. The piece emphasizes the paradox of managers being tasked with promoting AI adoption while facing job insecurity themselves.
For small business owners, this evolving dynamic is crucial to understand. As AI tools become more integrated into daily operations, the role of managers may shift from traditional oversight to more of a coaching and facilitative position. This could mean that small businesses need to rethink their management structures and invest in training for managers to effectively lead teams in an AI-enhanced environment. However, there's a risk that flattening hierarchies could lead to confusion and reduced accountability, which is something to watch closely.
“What, exactly, is the optimal role of a manager now?” — Business Insider
Takeaway: Reevaluate your management structure to adapt to AI's impact on roles and responsibilities.
From the original item — Business Insider:
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There’s a certain irony to being a middle manager right now.
We’ve been chronicling how vulnerable managers have become in the AI era. Companies are flattening org charts to boost efficiency. Coinbase is eliminating “pure managers” as part of its AI-driven job cuts. Block has rebranded them as “player-coaches.” Meta and Snap have made similar proclamations.
And yet, many of these same managers are tasked with pushing their colleagues to embrace the very technology that poses such a threat to them. As my colleague Emily Stewart writes, people are becoming inadvertent job executioners.
Disney, JPMorgan, and KPMG are among the companies tracking and incentivizing employees’ use of AI tools, according to Business Insider’s reporting. Managers have become the front lines of AI adoption — monitoring usage, building dashboards, flagging laggards, and nudging employees who aren’t engaging enough. (Tell us where you stand on AI leaderboards and whether they are a healthy form of office camaraderie).
The dynamic raises a bigger question: What, exactly, is the optimal role of a manager now?
Business-school case studies have long framed managers as the bridge between executives who devise strategy and employees who execute it. These are the people responsible for motivating teams and getting the best out of their workers.
But AI is reshaping that equation. Some managerial functions are being automated. Many are overseeing AI agents in addition to their growing number of direct reports.
The real issue is whether this flattening of managers (and increased responsibilities for those who remain) will ultimately make organizations better, or if the proverbial transformation pendulum has swung too far.
What should the role of a middle manager be in the AI era? Send me your thoughts at srussolillo@businessinsider.com.