Tech and retail giants cut middle managers amid AI shift

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — Companies across sectors are cutting layers of middle management in pursuit of efficiency. 

Tech giants like Google, Intel, and Amazon, and retail giant Walmart have laid off thousands of mid-level employees this year, reflecting a corporate trend dubbed “The Great Flattening.”

But this isn’t just about cost-cutting. Aneesh Raman, LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer, asserts that a fundamental redefining of the role of middle managers could represent a significant shift for millennials and Gen Z.

From taskmaster to team coach

“The role of the manager in this new economy is to be a coach,” Raman told the Business Insider. 

“Managers are going to have to think about managing people — not the tasks of people, but the energy of people… How you’re being mindful of where people’s skillset and energy are best used in the course of a project as it gets built. It’s a whole different way to manage than the old way.”

AI and automation are driving this shift. With routine oversight increasingly handled by tech, managers will focus on guiding people rather than projects. 

Raman emphasized that successful leaders in the coming decade will need to cultivate human strengths like collaboration, emotional intelligence, and creativity.

Younger workers hold the edge

Many millennials and Gen Zers already occupy middle management roles — and have spent their careers adapting to economic disruption, from the Great Recession to the pandemic.

“They have the ‘it’ credential right now,” Raman said. 

“They have resilience that is undoubtedly part of how those generations have approached work. They have an adaptability that they’ve had no choice but to learn, given all the atmospherics that they’ve had to contend with. Those are really important behaviors that everyone is going to want in their organization.”

With AI poised to reshape every job over the next decade, Raman urges younger workers to see this as a moment of reinvention. 

“I think every single person is having their career clock reset right now. Everyone’s job is changing on them, even if they aren’t changing jobs, and everyone’s career trajectory is changing on them,” he added.

New era, new career playbook

Raman likened today’s transformation to the early days of the internet. “Remember the early nineties, when no one was quite sure what was coming with the internet and the knowledge economy? Well, imagine if you could go back then and you knew everything that was going to come. What would you do?”

For millennials and Gen Z, that means identifying their unique strengths, embracing change, and building careers aligned not just with job titles, but with purpose and possibility.