Middle managers are among the least protected from IT job cuts. Those who remain are expected to get their hands dirty, manage more people, and increasingly, oversee AI agents. They even have a new title: megamanagers.
Middle managers are among the least protected from IT job cuts. Those who remain are expected to get their hands dirty, manage more people, and increasingly, oversee AI agents. They even have a new title: megamanagers.
In a letter to Coinbase employees on Tuesday, CEO Brian Armstrong announced plans to lay off 14% of the staff and said that everyone at the crypto company needs to be a “strong and proactive individual performer.” He also noted that the changes mean smaller teams — in some cases, they will consist of just one person and their AI agents — and that “pure manager” positions will be eliminated, Business Insider reports .
Last month, Block CEO Jack Dorsey said the company was cutting 40% of its staff and renaming managers “playing coaches.” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel called the plan to lay off 1,000 employees part of a shift to small “squads” augmented by artificial intelligence. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brooks, and others have expressed similar ideas.
Technology leaders were among the first to radically change their organizational structures because they were the first to embrace AI, says Richard Lachman, a professor of digital media at Toronto Metropolitan University. In addition, in many cases, they are ardent advocates of the technology, convinced that it can significantly improve productivity.
"They believe in this hype," he noted.
This means that the bar for success for a manager is rising rapidly: companies expect them to be much more directly involved in the work of teams and the performance of functions, Lachman added.
Managers are now required to “have enough practical knowledge ‘in the field’” to be able to do the same job as the people they manage, he concluded.
According to job search site Indeed, employers posted 12.3% fewer job openings for middle managers in 2025 than in 2024. The total number of job postings also declined.
Additionally, a January Gallup poll found that there were an average of 12.1 employees per manager last year, compared to 10.9 in 2024. The study also found that 97% of managers take on the work of rank-and-file employees that goes beyond their direct management responsibilities.
The idea of a manager whose only job is to supervise others, rather than directly contribute, dates back to the Industrial Revolution, notes Josh Bersin, a human resources analyst and consultant.
“The workers did the work, and the manager told them exactly what to do,” he explained.
While this model has been eroding for decades, AI is now accelerating this shift and reshaping organizational structures, Bersin added, as the technology automates tasks and gives workers access to vast amounts of knowledge.
“Now every employee has their own agent,” he says. “AI can know even more than a manager.”
To stay in the leadership position in 2026, “you will have to look for more projects to be directly involved in and new initiatives to implement,” Bersin concluded.
