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Our Guest Author Franco Colomba
Our Guest Author Franco ColombaFranco Colomba is an SEO strategist and career development advocate with over a decade of hands-on experience in digital marketing and remote team building. As Senior Outreach Strategist at Rezi, he helps professionals improve their online presence, optimize their resumes, and build personal brands that open doors, especially in remote and flexible work environments.
His work has helped thousands of professionals grow their visibility and land roles aligned with their strengths and goals. A lifelong learner, Franco is passionate about sharing strategies that empower others to create the life they dream about through intentional personal and professional growth.
HR leaders are currently obsessed with the idea that AI is the ultimate cost-cutter. The logic seems sound on a spreadsheet: AI agents can schedule meetings, track KPIs, and generate reports faster than any human. Therefore, the people who used to do that, middle managers, are dead weight.’
This isn’t just water cooler talk. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2026, 20% of organizations will use AI to flatten their structures, potentially eliminating over half of traditional middle management roles.
If you are an HR leader nodding along to that statistic, you are walking your company off a cliff.
The mistake here is fundamental. You are confusing administration with management. And if you gut your middle layer based on that confusion, you’re going to face a leadership vacuum that no Large Language Model (LLM) can fill.
The Great Flattening is a Math Problem, Not a Solution
The narrative suggests that because AI can handle the “what” (tasks), we no longer need the “who” (managers). HR leaders are buying into the idea that they can simply widen the “span of control”, the number of direct reports per manager, because AI will handle the administrative burden.
The data proves this is a fantasy.
According to Gallup’s 2025 data, the average team size per manager has already jumped to 12.1, up from 10.9 just a year prior. You might think, “One extra person, what’s the big deal?” But when you combine that with a 20% reduction in management layers, you are engineering burnout.
Recent reports show that 22% of managers are now reporting severe burnout, more than double the rate of CEOs (10%). Why? Because when you remove the middle layer, the remaining managers stop being leaders and start being triage nurses. They don’t have time to mentor because they are managing a dozen people’s AI-generated workflows.
The result is a costly paradox:
- Global employee engagement has dropped to 21%, largely driven by disengaged managers.
- Replacing these burned-out leaders costs up to 213% of their annual salary.
When you automate the admin, you don’t eliminate the need for the manager. You free them up to actually manage. If you fire them instead, you don’t get a flatter organization but a leaderless mob.
The Junior Employee Dilemma
Here is the variable most HR strategies ignore: the Junior Workforce is already using AI, and they are hiding it from you.
We are seeing a massive shift in how entry-level work is produced, and it is happening in the shadows. A recent survey found that 48% of Gen Z workers conceal their AI use from employers because they fear being judged for “cutting corners.”
They are bypassing the “struggle” phase of learning, the phase where you learn why something works by doing it the hard way. Even they know it’s a problem: 49% of Gen Z admit they are concerned that AI will harm their ability to think critically.
The risk in here?
We are building a generation of “editors” who never learned to be “writers.” They can generate code, copy, and strategy at lightning speed, but they lack the foundational struggle required to vet that output.
To alleviate that issue, you need experienced middle managers more than ever to act as the “Human in the Loop.”
If you fire the managers, who is going to audit the 78% of employees bringing their own unvetted AI tools (BYOAI) into your workflow? Who is going to tell the junior employee that their AI-generated strategy is hallucinations wrapped in a nice font?
At Rezi, we see this disconnect daily. Candidates use AI to optimize resumes perfectly, but once hired, they face complex, human problems that ChatGPT can’t solve. Without a middle manager to bridge that gap, to teach the nuance that the LLM missed, your junior talent will plateau immediately.
Re-imagining Instead of Removing Middle Management
The companies that win in the next decade won’t be the ones that fired their managers to save on payroll. They will be the ones that re-skilled them.
Instead of celebrating the death of the middle manager, HR leaders need to pivot the role:
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- Mentor over monitoring. Stop tracking hours. Start tracking skill acquisition.
- Have managers work as editors. Managers shouldn’t just assign work; they need to act as the final editorial layer on AI-generated output.
- Use the time saved on reporting to focus on cross-departmental alignment.
The Bottom Line
Efficiency is great. But efficiency without oversight is just a faster way to make mistakes.
AI can predict a trend, write a memo, and schedule the meeting to discuss it. But it can’t talk a high-performer out of quitting, it can’t navigate a sensitive client dispute, and it certainly can’t mentor your next generation of executives.
Don’t let the Gartner stats scare you into a “flattening” frenzy. Keep the managers. Just make sure they stop doing the robot’s job and start doing the human’s.
FAQ Section
Does AI really make middle managers unnecessary?
No. AI can automate administrative tasks like reporting, scheduling, and KPI tracking, but it cannot replace the human responsibilities of management—such as mentoring, coaching, conflict resolution, and critical oversight. Removing middle managers creates leadership gaps that AI cannot fill.
Why is flattening management structures risky for employee engagement?
Flattening organizations increases managers’ spans of control, leading to burnout and disengagement. Data shows manager burnout is rising sharply, and disengaged managers directly contribute to lower overall employee engagement and higher turnover costs.
What role should middle managers play in an AI-driven workplace?
Middle managers should evolve into mentors and editors—guiding junior employees, reviewing AI-generated work, and providing the human judgment AI lacks. By acting as the “human in the loop,” managers ensure quality, ethical use of AI, and long-term skill development across teams.
