MW Middle managers are on the chopping block in the AI workplace. Here's how to save your job.
Andrew Keshner
Companies keep talking about flattening their ranks. Mid-level bosses might be 'squashed.'
AI is changing the game when it comes to rising up the ranks.
AI has taken the corporate quest for efficiency to a new level - and it's middle managers who seem to be getting left behind.
Now the art of getting ahead is changing as companies say the technology allows them to eliminate unnecessary layers of management.
"Middle managers are getting squashed," said Neil Danzger, founder of the Danzger Group. "I think AI and technology have knocked some of the rungs out of the traditional ladder," said Danzger.
The Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., career coach's clientele includes people in mid-tier roles in tech, finance and elsewhere. He's watched their nerves become increasingly frayed.
Recent layoff announcements probably haven't helped. Coinbase (COIN) this week joined a growing list of tech companies that are talking about "flattening" their internal structures - resulting in a 14% staff cut at the crypto exchange. "Layers slow things down and create coordination tax. The future is small, high-context teams that can move quickly," Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in an X post.
Less than two months earlier, Block (XYZ) CEO Jack Dorsey said AI advances enabled the company to lay off nearly half of its staff and pivot to work with "smaller and flatter teams." Meanwhile, Meta $(META)$ is planning an 8,000-person cut amid its AI investments. Cars.com $(CARS)$ last month announced a 11% staff cut, where two in 10 laid-off roles were management level.
At a time when many people are wondering if AI is going to render their job obsolete, some experts say mid-tier staff seem in particular jeopardy. Traditionally, middle managers have acted as conduits who maintained close contact with both staff and higher-ups. They would funnel information and boil down data to pithy takeaways for superiors.
But AI is stepping in on the synthesis. Meanwhile, it's become easy for top bosses to contact junior employees directly - for example, with a Slack message - instead of communicating through layers of management.
Through 2026, 20% of organizations will use AI to overhaul their chains of command, according to predictions from the consulting firm Gartner. The companies cutting out these middlemen will be eliminating over half of the current roles, the estimate said.
To be sure, not everyone sees a broad shift targeting middle managers. The job site Indeed performed an analysis of job postings for middle managers. The parameters were job titles with "manager," "supervisor" and "director," but not "senior," "principal" and "lead."
"Our data shows that middle managers aren't going anywhere," said Sneha Puri, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab. Middle-manager job posts are up slightly for fields like construction and medical information while steady in healthcare. There was a small slip for these roles in retail, she said.
But the focus on managers shines another light on AI's challenges for the job market. For college graduates and younger workers, the trick is finding jobs that are junior enough to be entry-level without becoming a task that AI could handle. But mid-level managers have to highlight the value of their human expertise. If they can't, they might be flattened out.
But if there's an end for middle managers, does that mean there's an opening for their junior staffers?
A newer worker could find it harder to climb a corporate ladder missing some rungs because it could be a difficult jump to jobs with more responsibility. Or, it could be easier because top leadership has a clearer view to the work of rank-and-file staffers.
The situation is what a person makes of it, said Michelle Gonzalez, recruitment director at Experis, the tech-sector focused arm of ManpowerGroup $(MAN)$.
If there are fewer middle managers, the big question for ambitious employees is how to make their work seen and valued by the top, she said. "That human touch, that human eye, that big-picture thinking is what's going to set someone apart in that world," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez doesn't think the middle manager is an endangered species, but the job details will evolve, she said.
So what's the solution for managers looking over their shoulder and trying to preserve their career in changing times? Hosting wall-to-wall meetings is out. Don't forget the skills that got you here - and be ready to learn new ones. Be the coach - and the player too, according to Armstrong and Dorsey.
"Managers should be like player-coaches, getting their hands dirty alongside their teams," Armstrong wrote Tuesday.
More than a month earlier, Dorsey also talked about the rise of "player-coaches" in a blog post. "They replace the traditional manager whose primary job was information-routing."
Danzger is advising his clients in the middle tiers to "future-proof" themselves by embracing AI. That also means sharpening human traits like their interpersonal skills, relationship-building skills and selling skills.
"Those who ignore this phenomenon will be left in the dust," he said.
-Andrew Keshner
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 07, 2026 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)
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