Editorial
From concerns about AI eliminating 61% of white-collar jobs to promises of endless productivity gains, one thing is clear: AI is dramatically changing the role of all workers.
Most of the discussion to-date has focused on the knowledge worker, but where does it leave managers?
Surprisingly, managers — many of whom are promoted for technical excellence rather than people skills — must adjust to a new reality in which their responsibilities are becoming overwhelmingly human, not task-centered.
As AI-powered tools expand individual capacity, employees become more productive and more capable of managing their own tasks and even their own AI agents. Given these changes, the pathway that elevates top technical performers into management roles no longer makes sense.
With significant portions of technical tasks now effectively outsourced to AI, the skill profiles for leadership roles must shift. Organizations will need managers whose primary strengths lie in communication, empathy, coaching and culture building, not just in technical mastery.
Tensions Are Rising. Do They Need To?
The conversations I have every day with CHROs, CLOs and CEOs reveal some tension about all this. But this is really happening, and you need to understand it. Because it is so effective, AI is obligating organizations to rethink role design, career paths and the skills required for leadership. And this isn’t five or 10 years out: in the organizations we track, it’s already the reality.
Interestingly, what’s emerging is a paradox: precisely because technology handles more of the work mechanics, the management role is becoming more human. AI is actually raising expectations for leadership, and the new breed of manager coming into focus is one who consciously creates work cultures that encourage experimentation, learning and creativity — areas where AI cannot perform on its own.
Team leadership will be about helping employees understand, adopt and integrate AI tools into their workflows — not about tracking checklists — even if you yourself are not an AI expert. The evidence is that what matters is not knowing how the technology works, but fostering curiosity, encouraging people to ask better questions, and supporting teams in making sense of new tools.
Surprising as it sounds, AI success demands stronger human leadership, not less. The problem is that a lot of managers aren’t actually that great at this kind of human-centric leadership.
Inspiring, not Frightening, Change Is On the Way
Let’s be fair — that’s because we never asked them to be. Traditionally, management was about metrics and KPIs, not flourishing or creativity. Most leaders excelled first as individual contributors, being pushed up the ladder often with little to no formal training in the “soft skills” side of leadership.
In the past, the HR function was there to balance the gap. But as HR work has decentralized over the years, from engagement surveys to performance conversations to employee development, managers have assumed responsibility for tasks that used to sit squarely within that office. Today, they influence the employee experience far more than HR does, but are rarely rewarded or recognized for people outcomes as strongly as they are for operational performance.
AI changes this by making managerial soft skills the centerpiece of organizational leadership. How will managers cope? AI in this case is both cause and solution. Managers can turn to AI for continuous, private and context-aware support.
Which is why the doomsayers get it wrong. Instead of replacing managers, AI can become their expert people issues coach at their side.
Get Ready for AI as an Always-On HR Coach
This has so many facets. For one, managers who find difficult conversations stressful can lean on AI for scenario planning, talking points, phrasing guidance, conflict management strategies and even the “right words” to defuse tense situations.
In terms of people development and performance management, AI will help prepare agendas, structure feedback, outline development pathways and suggest next employee moves — actions that both align with company policy, but offer ways to realize potential. Used in this way, AI becomes a reliable source of guidance for even the shyest or least people-skilled leader, offering support exactly in the moments they most need it.
This is particularly valuable in environments where managers dislike or avoid HR-related tasks. Historically, they’ve had to log in to separate HR systems — Workday, SAP, Oracle — often after repeated reminders. In an AI-enabled future, these tasks will be embedded directly into tools they already use, such as Teams or Slack. A manager might simply receive a prompt asking for a quick summary of an employee’s performance. AI would then convert that text into structured documentation, generate a development conversation guide, and automatically schedule the next meeting.
In this way, the administrative friction that once made people management feel like a burden becomes negligible. I can confirm that early adopters of AI as a training and support platform already see employees responding more positively to constructive feedback that’s come from AI, because it feels less personal and more objective.
What makes this shift more urgent is the speed of change. AI-driven work redesign is already happening, and mixed teams of humans and AI agents are fast becoming the new reality.
Which means — and again, this is exciting, not a reason to retire early — managers must guide employees through ambiguity, support continuous learning and help teams make the most of AI while staying grounded in human needs.
Ultimately, AI does not diminish the importance of managers. It elevates them, opening up a world where the manager is part strategist, part coach and part human connector — empowered, not replaced, by technology.
What’s the action list here? Becoming an AI-empowered super-manager means embracing both sides of modern leadership: the human side and the technology side. Those who do will help their teams achieve outcomes far beyond what either humans or machines could accomplish alone.
In summary:
- AI is changing work for everyone, both individual contributors and managers.
- Increasingly, work is being done by mixed teams of humans and AI agents, and managers will need to manage both.
- AI will help teams do their jobs better, but also help you coach and manage them more effectively.
- AI will support managers in the tough and challenging people-skills and soft-skills aspects of their roles — even if they don’t feel fully prepared or naturally skilled.
Webinar
On demand
Fuel Your Front Line: Workforce Trends Shaping 2026
Get expert insight into the tools and tactics top frontline teams will need in 2026.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Fix the Disconnect Between Projects and Profit
Your margins are hiding in disconnected data. Let's find them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
AI in Customer Service: Faster Resolutions, Happier Customers
Don’t let rising demand burn out your team. See how to build a smarter, more resilient support org.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Accelerating Healthcare Ops with AI
Sign up to see how your peers are putting AI to work — and making it stick.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Nice-to-Have to Non-Negotiable: Prove the Value of Your EX Stack
Transform your tech stack: prove its value, secure your future.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
The Great Workforce Breakdown (And How to Stop It)
Disconnected employees. Failing communication. It’s time to turn things around.
Watch Now
And this is the story about AI that we need to be telling ourselves, far more than the scary narratives.
Editor's Note: Catch up on more ways AI is changing work below:
- Is Generative AI Actually Freeing Workers From Low-Level Work? — Take AI evangelists' promises with a grain of salt. But that doesn't mean AI success is out of reach, just that you might have to switch goals.
- AI Creates the Value. Leaders Decide Where It Goes — The real AI divide isn’t tech, it’s leadership. EY data shows a split between those who reinvest AI gains for growth and those who cash out.
- AI Is Moving Skills Management Out of Spreadsheets and Into Action — Skills shape hiring, learning and knowledge management, but efforts are often fragmented. Can AI-powered solutions finally fix how organizations manage skills?
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
