Middle managers have the jobs AI still can't do

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U.S. occupation postings for mediate absorption roles were astir 42% little successful precocious 2025 than they were successful April 2022, erstwhile mediate manager occupation postings peaked, according to Revelio Labs data. Instead of eliminating the mediate man, is Corporate America eliminating the mediate manager?

No. Middle absorption isn’t disappearing. But it does look similar it’s being reinvented.

Companies are flattening their org charts successful galore cases to chopped costs and accelerate decision-making. Take a small economical unit from here, immoderate AI automation for administrative tasks from implicit there, adhd a pinch of salt, and bam — less absorption openings.

Yet portion the fig of jobs whitethorn beryllium shrinking, the request for the superior functions of mediate managers is arsenic beardown arsenic ever. They’re the conduit, successful some directions, betwixt precocious absorption and the teams doing the day-to-day enactment of the business.

“The superior relation of a ‘middle manager’ has often been viewed arsenic translating expectations, perspectives, and priorities betwixt elder enactment and those closest to the work,” said Jenn Christison, a main advisor astatine Seven Ways Consulting. “For example, elder enactment sets an edict. It is the mediate manager’s occupation to recognize the implications for their teams and construe high-level absorption into actionable adjacent steps. And erstwhile their teams propulsion backmost oregon connection suggestions, it is the mediate manager who indispensable find a mode to construe their applicable considerations into ‘strategic imperatives’ that volition resonate with the C-suite.”

Less attraction is fixed to the arsenic important task of ensuring effectual collaboration crossed functional silos, Christison said.

“Middle managers are successful the unsocial presumption of proceeding perspectives from each angles of their organization: the top, bottom, and sides. Their bosses springiness them direction, their nonstop reports springiness them the laic of the land, and their peers springiness them insights into the gaps between,” she said. “As organizations turn ever flatter — unluckily astir often owed to urgent outgo cutting alternatively than thoughtful plan — mediate managers tin stress their unsocial worth by creating deliberate connection forums with their peers, sharing concerns, insights, and ideally, process improvements. In gathering effectual collaboration crossed functional silos, mediate managers volition trim important friction and show committedness to the organization’s objectives.”