"A trend is emerging: when tech CEOs announce that AI is making it possible to do more with fewer workers, they promise to flatten their structures by cutting away what they call unnecessary management layers and bureaucracy."
"As AI tools make it possible to shift more work from managers to their reports instead, these company's structural changes could become more permanent, she said. These shifts are fundamentally reshaping the roles of middle management, often requiring managers to be both supervisors and producers and vastly expanding their responsibilities."
"While the moves are expected to accelerate decision-making processes, they also could complicate jobs for everyone up and down the management chain, create new bottlenecks, reduce the benefits that stem from human interaction at work, and degrade a company's products and services."
"The middle manager role is about to be under a lot more pressure, said Emily Rose McRae, an analyst at business and technology insights company Gartner who studies AI's impact on the future of work. What that means for employees is that your job gets harder, too."
Tech companies investing heavily in AI and reducing headcount are targeting middle management for structural thinning. When CEOs claim AI enables more output with fewer workers, they flatten organizations by removing management layers and bureaucracy. Coinbase’s workforce reduction and similar actions at Amazon, Block, and Meta reflect a broader trend focused on eliminating layers. Research indicates AI tools can shift work from managers to their reports, making structural changes more durable. Middle managers increasingly act as both supervisors and producers with expanded responsibilities. Centralizing technology may speed decisions but can also create bottlenecks, reduce benefits from human interaction, and harm product and service quality, making jobs harder across management levels.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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