{"id":226657,"date":"2025-12-11T03:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/226657\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T03:03:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:03:17","slug":"ai-is-taking-over-managers-busywork-and-its-forcing-companies-to-reset-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/226657\/","title":{"rendered":"AI is taking over managers\u2019 busywork\u2014and it\u2019s forcing companies to reset expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI isn\u2019t just a new tool for the modern workplace; it\u2019s already quietly reshaping how some companies are organized. Companies including Amazon<\/a>, Moderna<\/a>, and McKinsey<\/a> are already eliminating management layers<\/a>, working to flatten organizations, and deploying AI agents to automate routine work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As AI rewrites the corporate org chart, humans can avoid some managerial drudgery, according to industry leaders at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference. Managers currently spend a lot of time bogged down by digital tools and administrative tasks, Danielle Perszyk, a cognitive scientist at Amazon\u2019s AGI SF Lab, said: \u201cWhether you are a manager or an IC [individual contributor], you are tethered to your computer screen, and all of the productivity apps that we are using are actually undermining our productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI agents functioning as \u201cuniversal teammates\u201d and doing some of these tasks could help managers escape this cycle, Perszyk said, allowing them to focus on strategy. Aashna Kircher, group general manager in the office of the CHRO at Workday, said this could free up managers\u2019 time for other kinds of work. \u201cThe role of the manager will very much be as a coach and enabler and a teamwork director, which theoretically has always been the role,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Toby Roberts, SVP of engineering and technology at Zillow<\/a>, said that the shift toward AI agents could fundamentally change management structure. Escaping day-to-day minutiae could allow managers to oversee larger teams, he said.<\/p>\n

However, as AI automates more of managers\u2019 work, companies may need to reset expectations around what management means in the AI age.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, we\u2019ve measured management by the output of their teams, not necessarily by the human qualities of being a manager,\u201d Kircher said. Organizations need to build \u201caccountability and incentive structures around rewarding the things that are going to be absolutely critical moving forward for people leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

What AI can\u2019t do<\/strong><\/p>\n

AI can also have negative downstream effects on interpersonal relationships if it is overused or misused. When managers over-rely on AI for collaborative work, organizations risk deteriorating people\u2019s ability to work together effectively, said Kate Niederhoffer, chief scientist and head of BetterUp Labs.<\/p>\n

\u201cDirect reports\u2019 perceptions of managers go down the more they perceive AI and agents to be used in moments of recognition or providing constructive feedback,\u201d Niederhoffer said. \u201cPeople perceive that humans are better at these empathetic and more essentially human tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some managers already struggle with the emotional side of leadership, with many becoming \u201caccidental managers\u201d<\/a>\u2014employees who were promoted for their professional talents rather than people skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But AI\u2019s \u201csynthetic empathy\u201d\u2014even if it\u2019s sometimes more consistent than human interactions\u2014is not the answer, said Stefano Corazza, head of AI research at Canva. \u201cThe more AI there is, the more authenticity is valued,\u201d he said. \u201cIf your manager really shows that he will spend time with you and cares, that goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI isn\u2019t just a new tool for the modern workplace; it\u2019s already quietly reshaping how some companies are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,17343,86586,18,19,17,66987,82,80,2795],"class_list":{"0":"post-226657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-brainstorm-ai","12":"tag-corporate-america","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-managers","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-work","19":"tag-workers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115698716054808685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}