How AI is Flattening Organizations

We are witnessing the most significant transformation in organizational structure since the Industrial Revolution.

Artificial intelligence is not just changing how work gets done; it’s fundamentally reshaping who does the job and how companies organize themselves.

The traditional corporate pyramid is collapsing, middle management is disappearing, and individual contributors are becoming organizational powerhouses.

The Great Flattening: What the Data Shows The Middle Management Extinction Event

The numbers are stark and accelerating. Gartner predicts that through 2026, 20% of organizations will use AI to flatten their organizational structure, eliminating more than half of current middle management positions.

This isn’t a gradual transition; it’s a rapid restructuring happening right now.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s recent mandate exemplifies this shift: each organization must increase “the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15%” by the end of Q1 2025.

According to Jassy, this will remove layers and flatten organizations while increasing teams’ “ability to move fast, clarify and invigorate their sense of ownership, drive decision-making closer to the front lines.”

The trend extends beyond tech giants. Companies like Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon collectively eliminated tens of thousands of middle-management positions in 2024, primarily targeting middle-skill roles that once served as reliable pathways to economic stability.

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