The common narrative is that AI is coming for the entry-level jobs—the copywriters, the junior coders, the data entry clerks.
But I believe the biggest disruption will happen a few rungs up the ladder. AI is poised to replace the Middle Manager.
The Function of Management
What does a middle manager actually do?
- Routing: They take directives from above and break them down into tasks for below.
- Aggregation: They take status updates from below and summarize them for above.
- Coordination: They ensure Team A talks to Team B.
- QC: They review work and ensure it meets standards.
If you look closely, this is an information processing role. And Large Language Models (LLMs) are the most powerful information processing engines we’ve ever built.
The Flattened Organization
Imagine an organization where the CEO sets a strategic goal ("Increase retention by 5%").
In the old world, this cascades down through VPs, Directors, and Managers, getting diluted at every step.
In the AI-augmented world, an LLM-powered agent can:
- Analyze the current retention data.
- Identify bottlenecks.
- Assign tasks to human specialists (designers, engineers).
- Review their code/copy against style guides.
- Report progress in real-time.
The "coordination tax" drops to near zero.
The "Player-Coach" Returns
This doesn't mean humans go away. It means the role of the human shifts.
We will see a return to the Player-Coach model. Pure "manager" roles—people who only manage people but don't produce individual work—will become rare.
Leaders will need to be hands-on practitioners who use AI to scale their leverage. The manager of the future isn't someone who supervises 10 people; it's someone who supervises 10 AI agents and 2 human experts.
Preparing for the Shift
For those currently in middle management, the advice is simple: Get back to the craft.
Don't just be the person who organizes the Jira board. Be the person who understands the architecture, the customer, and the strategy. The "glue" is being automated. The substance is more valuable than ever.