AI’s effect on work has already sparked anxiety around junior hiring, automation, and the future of entry-level development. Now, the spotlight is shifting higher up the org chart. A growing number of tech companies are signaling that so-called pure managers may be the next role under pressure, as AI adoption pushes businesses toward flatter structures, smaller teams, and leadership models that demand direct output as well as oversight.
Why AI Is Changing Management Roles Now
For enterprise leaders, this is an early signal that AI transformation is not just about replacing repetitive tasks. It is changing how management itself is defined. If the last wave of anxiety centered on whether AI would hollow out entry-level roles, this one asks a more uncomfortable question: what happens when the middle layer is asked to manage people, strategy, delivery, and AI agents all at once?
The immediate trigger is Coinbase. In a May 2026 staff letter, CEO Brian Armstrong said the company would cut about 14 percent of its workforce and move away from “pure managers,” insisting that everyone should be “a strong and active individual contributor.” He also described smaller teams, in some cases just one person supported by AI agents. Business Insider linked that move to a wider pattern already echoed by leaders at Block, Snap, Meta, and Atlassian, all of whom have talked up flatter, faster, more AI-enabled structures.
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What Coinbase’s “No Pure Managers” Move Signals
This is where megamanagers enter the frame. The term describes leaders left managing bigger teams and broader spans of control after layers are removed. According to reporting cited by Business Insider, the average number of direct reports per manager rose from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025, while employers advertised 12.3 percent fewer middle-manager jobs in 2025 than in 2024. That is not a subtle tweak.
For employee engagement leaders, there is a catch hiding inside the efficiency story. Gallup said in April 2026 that global employee engagement declined for a second straight year and that manager engagement also dropped.
Josh Bersin’s research argues that traditional management is no longer enough in an AI-shaped workplace, but it also makes clear that the replacement manager must be more human-centered, not less: someone who can use AI, build trust, and orchestrate human-machine collaboration. In other words, the future manager is not a spreadsheet with a pulse.
Business Insider’s reporting adds weight from analysts. Richard Lachman said tech leaders are among the first to reshape org charts because they adopted AI early and are confident it can lift productivity.
Josh Bersin went further, arguing that “every employee now has an agent,” which means managers can no longer rely on positional authority alone when the technology may know more than they do about the task at hand. That changes the value equation of management fast.
How AI Could Affect Employee Engagement
For busy enterprise technology professionals, the takeaway is straightforward. AI’s impact is broadening from task automation to workforce redesign. The risk is not simply that companies cut middle managers. It is that they flatten too aggressively, overload the managers who remain, and then wonder why engagement, coaching quality, and execution all start wobbling. The opportunity, by contrast, is to redefine management around hands-on leadership, AI fluency, and better judgment. Less empire building, more player-coach energy.
