The end of the era of classic managers. AI changes the rules, companies want “megamanagers”

In a letter to Coinbase employees on Tuesday, CEO Brian Armstrong announced plans to lay off 14%. employees and stated that everyone in a cryptocurrency company must be a “strong and active individual contributor.” He also added that teams will be smaller — in some cases consisting of just one person and their AI agents — and that There will be no more “pure managers”.

Sound familiar? Last month, Jack Dorsey said Block was cutting 40%. personnel and changes the role of managers to “player-coaches”. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel unveiled a plan to lay off 1,000 people as part of a transition to small, AI-powered “squads.” Mark Zuckerberg, Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes and other leaders have expressed similar views.

“They believe all the hype”

This trend reflects the shrinking world of technology in which middle-level managers are among the groups most at risk of layoffs. Those who remain are expected to be more involved in day-to-day work, supervising more employees and, increasingly, AI agents. A new term has even been coined: “megamanagers”.

A Gallup study from January shows that managers were responsible for an average of 12.1 employees last year, up from 10.9 in 2024. The study also found that 97 percent managers also perform individual work beyond their leadership responsibilities.

Moreover, according to Indeed, employers posted 12.3% more in 2025. fewer job offers for middle managers than a year earlier (the overall number of job offers also decreased).

Technology leaders are among the first to change their organizational structures in this way because they were early adopters of AI – notes Richard Lachman, professor of digital media at Toronto Metropolitan University and author of the book “Digital Wisdom: Searching for Agency in the Age of AI”. They are also often strong supporters of this technology and believe that it can increase productivity.

“They believe in all the hype,” says the expert.

This means that The bar for success for managers is rising rapidlybecause companies expect much more hands-on engagement between teams and departments, Lachman added.

According to him, managers today are expected to have “sufficient direct operational knowledge” to be able to do the same job as the people they manage.

Read also: Four people who changed their careers to work with AI. Here's how they did it

An evolving model

The idea of ​​a manager whose only job is to supervise others rather than directly contribute to work dates back to the times of the industrial revolution – says Josh Bersin, HR analyst and consultant.

“Employees did their jobs and the manager told them what to do,” he emphasizes.

While this model has been weakening for decades, AI is now accelerating this change and transforming organizational structures, Bersin adds, as technology automates tasks and gives employees access to vast amounts of knowledge.

“Every employee now has their own agent,” he says. “AI may know more than a manager,” he adds.

To remain a manager in 2026, “you need to engage in more projects and lead new initiatives” – says Bersin.

A Coinbase manager who was not affected by Tuesday's layoffs reveals that AI has a significant impact on the way work is done at his company.

He adds that Armstrong's memo did not reveal anything new about managers' responsibilities because those expectations had already been communicated. In his opinion Managers should only worry if they don't know how to use AI or don't have good ideas.

“Then you're in a bit of trouble,” the employee said.

The above text is a translation from American edition of Business Insider