Managers managing managers is out. Managers managing AI agents is in. (www.businessinsider.com)

Companies are starting to hire people not to manage other humans but to manage fleets of autonomous AI agents — software “teammates” that break down problems, plan, and take actions without constant prompting. This shift follows the 2023 “flattening” of middle management and is already visible in examples like Vercel, which trained an agent on its top-performing sales rep and consolidated a 10-person sales team to a single human lead, and in early job postings (e.g., a $200k “AI SDR manager” overseeing 10+ agents). Firms including PwC say they will upskill existing staff into these roles rather than hire externally. The role is significant because it changes the skill set and organizational design needed for productive teams: agent managers must be technically fluent in training, prompting, and auditing agents; able to decompose tasks, define measurable “North Star” objectives, and design intentional workflows and guardrails (including human-in-the-loop checkpoints). While it may lower traditional seniority barriers, it raises demand for orchestration, monitoring, and governance expertise, and creates new implications for productivity gains, workforce redeployment, and safety/compliance practices as companies scale agent deployments.