AI agents need middle managers too
When the cost of moving and reconciling corporate information collapses, the roles built to perform these functions must change.
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An AI agent can price a contract but managers who can direct their work and shoulder the consequences of their actions will remain central to their companies, says the writer.
PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK
Kai-Fu Lee
Back in 1958, two forward-thinking management scholars predicted in the Harvard Business Review that computers would eliminate middle management by the 1980s. They were early and only half-right. Computers automated many of the tasks that managers performed, but they never replaced the managers themselves.
In the early 2000s, Silicon Valley tried to engineer the “Great Flattening”. At Google, Larry Page soon found himself buried in expense reports and HR disputes. Managers were back within a few months.