AI is already taking over managers’ busywork—and it’s forcing companies to reset expectations

AI isn’t just a new tool for the modern workplace; it’s already quietly reshaping how some companies are organized. Companies including Amazon, Moderna, and McKinsey are already eliminating management layers, working to flatten organizations, and deploying AI agents to automate routine work. 

As AI rewrites the corporate org chart, humans can avoid some managerial drudgery, according to industry leaders at the Fortune Brainstorm AI conference. Managers currently spend a lot of time bogged down by digital tools and administrative tasks, Danielle Perszyk, a cognitive scientist at Amazon’s AGI SF Lab, said: “Whether you are a manager or an IC [individual contributor], you are tethered to your computer screen, and all of the productivity apps that we are using are actually undermining our productivity.”

AI agents functioning as “universal teammates” and doing some of these tasks could help managers escape this cycle, Perszyk said, allowing them to focus on strategy. Aashna Kircher, group general manager in the office of the CHRO at Workday, said this could free up managers’ time for other kinds of work. “The role of the manager will very much be as a coach and ...