Gartner predicts: By 2026, 20% of companies will cut more than half of their middle management positions.

Gartner predicts:

By 2026, 20% of companies will cut more than half of their middle management positions.

The reason is not a cost-cutting programme.

The reason is automation.

AI is taking over exactly what middle management has long done:

1. Produce status reports
2. Consolidate information
3. Prepare decision papers
4. Track progress
5. Coordinate tasks

The wrong conclusion:

We no longer need middle management.

The right one:

We need a different kind of middle management.

Because when AI takes over coordination, leadership changes fundamentally.

Away from:

Information channel, control function, reporting layer.

Towards:

Providing context, enabling decisions, developing teams, steering AI.

It is not middle management that disappears.

Its old task disappears.

So the real question is not:

How many managers do we still need?

It is: What should middle management do in the future?

#Leadership #AI #Transformation