Large companies have spent years weeding out middle managers. Two major employers are now redefining some of these roles and handing over jobs to AI.
Meta Platforms last month began giving employees in its Reality Labs division one of three new job titles: “AI Builder,” “Pod Leader,” or “Organization Leader” as part of its “AI Native” efforts.
Payments company Block is also removing the “m-word” from its hierarchy. Managers are becoming “player-coaches” who build with their teams, while “individual contributors” use AI tools to inform their decisions rather than waiting to be told what to do.
Businesses have long reorganized around disruptive technologies, from the Internet to mobile computing. For some, AI is the latest catalyst.
Eliminating full-time middle management and handing over some of that work to AI is unconventional and reminiscent of Zappos’ holacracy experiment in the 2010s. Block CEO Jack Dorsey has expressed his desire to eventually eliminate all layers of management.
But for now, some of the new descriptions still refer to human oversight and support, so the rebranding of Meta and Block may not be as drastic.
Chris Kaufman, a leadership consultant and co-founder of e-commerce giant StockX, said that even when companies rethink hiring, “real structural change” may not occur. “It’s like moving the peas to the corn plot on TV Dinner.” he said.
no layers at all
The reorganizations occurring at Meta and Block are a continuation of a long-standing trend of companies cutting management ranks in the name of speed and efficiency. According to job site Indeed, there were 12.3% fewer middle management jobs advertised by employers in 2025 than in 2024. (The overall number of listings also decreased.)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call in January that the company is investing more in AI-native tools to flatten its structure.
“Projects that once required large teams are now being accomplished by a single, extremely talented person,” he said.
AI is a key driver. For example, in Meta’s Reality Labs division, organizational leaders are responsible for reviews and promotions with support from AI systems, Business Insider previously reported.
Block’s Dorsey and Sequoia partner Roelof Botha laid out their vision for a completely flat future in a blog post published Tuesday. “There is no need for a permanent middle management layer,” they write. “Everything else that the old hierarchy was doing, the system will adjust.”
On Thursday’s episode of Sequoia Capital’s “Long Strange Trip” podcast, Dorsey said his goal this year is to reduce the number of layers between himself and the company’s 6,000 employees from about five to two or three. The “most ideal case” would be to have no layers at all, he added. “Everyone in the company reports to me,” Dorsey said.
Mr. Mehta declined to comment, and Mr. Bullock did not respond to a request for comment.
Linda Hill, a professor at Harvard Business School and co-founder of AI-driven software startup InnovationForce, said moving to smaller, cross-functional teams can help companies innovate faster by bringing together employees with complementary skills. But you also need human leaders, what she calls “bridges,” who can help those teams collaborate.
“Without diversity of thought and expertise, we rarely achieve innovation,” Hill says.
Now that AI can automate many tasks, companies may be able to get by with fewer employees, and some companies, including Mr. Block, have made statements justifying layoffs. But it’s simply unrealistic to completely hand over manager responsibilities to AI, said Patti McCord, former Netflix chief people officer. He helped rethink traditional management structures through his famous “Culture Deck” slide presentation, which advocated reducing the number of managers and increasing autonomy.
“AI is not going to eliminate humans,” she says. Instead, “some tasks will go away, just like the factories did.”
The dangers of micromanagement
Unconventional hierarchies can be counterproductive. More than a decade ago, Zappos made a push to eliminate hierarchy and empower workers, but it ultimately fell apart in practice. This experiment, which abolished manager roles and titles in favor of “self-management,” is notorious for creating ambiguity and lack of accountability among the online retailer’s employees. Hundreds of employees have since quit.
“People are always going to need clarity about decision rights and accountability,” Kaufman said.
However, while the Zappos experiment was not tied to any major technological changes, Meta and Block are compatible with today’s highly advanced agents and generative AI tools.
For some companies, deviating from traditional workforce structures may not make sense. For example, medical device manufacturers typically require stiffer structures because the cost of human error is too high, McCord said.
But changing hierarchies can and does work for other companies like Netflix. And for now, traditional top-down management may not be very effective for software companies like Meta and Block, McCord said, because the full potential of AI is still unknown.
“The last thing you want when innovating is micromanaging,” she said. “It’s the opposite of innovation.”
McCord added that this is especially important to keep in mind when dealing with technologies that are not yet fully understood, such as AI.
“You really don’t want people who are overly controlling. They can be wrong.”
JoEllen Posner, a professor at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business who studies and teaches organizational function and dysfunction, said driving any kind of organizational change requires more than simply updating job titles and descriptions. Companies also need to set new performance goals and new ways to measure and reward success.
“It’s all about execution,” Posner said. Otherwise, “people will just do what they’ve always done.”