What The Boss Can Do, AI Has Been Able To Do For A Long Time

How AI is changing the org chart, who is currently most threatened, and what skills are needed to avoid being replaced by AI

More and more company managers are being represented by artificial intelligence when things get hectic – or unpleasant. But these are not the only professions threatened by AI. It looks particularly bad for simple administrative employees or clerks. And middle management also has reason to worry.

As early as 2025, the payment service provider Klarna unleashed an AI avatar of its CEO. Recently, an AI clone of the CMO followed, which "no longer wanted to hear the whining in meetings". Previously, Mark Zuckerberg made headlines with his announcement that he would clone himself virtually (once again). And the three actually seem to be only the tip of a larger ice floe.

A recent survey by Bitkom showed that almost one in three can actually imagine being bossed around by AI: 29 percent consider their superiors to be replaceable by AI.

Interestingly, not even a quarter of employees (23%) consider themselves dependable. Yet it is precisely they who have to tremble the most at the moment.

Accenture, Meta, Oracle, Block, eBay: By May 2026, tens of thousands of jobs in the tech industry alone had already fallen victim to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) or were eliminated in the course of AI restructuring.

German companies are also increasingly citing AI as a reason for staff cuts, including Allianz Partners (over 1000 jobs), SAP (up to 10,000) and Bosch (over 7000). There could be 800,000 in the next few years.

Researchers at the Institute for Employment Research believe that AI will create as many jobs as it destroys. However, management consultants at the Boston Consulting Group are convinced that AI will destroy or change more jobs than create new ones.

Employees in administration, customer service, processing and data collection as well as in software development are particularly affected. Entry-level jobs in particular are at risk – and more and more often middle management as well.

Elimination Of The Information Hub

In fact, AI is likely to bring about one of the most radical upheavals in middle management. There, the technology takes over exactly those tasks that previously made up the core of this role: coordination, reporting and operational control.

The role of pure information broker becomes superfluous. Previously, middle managers spent a lot of time aggregating data from the bottom up and communicating strategies from the top down. Today, smart dashboards provide top management with data in real time; AI-powered knowledge bases and bots answer questions faster than an armada of managers. AI agents can also link information across different tools and domains and break down silos.

Classic monitoring and dispatching functions (target/actual comparisons, shift planning, resource allocation) are also increasingly being taken over by algorithms that perform these tasks more objectively and efficiently. This fundamentally changes the role.

The manager goes from being a controller to a mentor and conflict solver. It has to motivate teams, nurture talent, and ensure psychological safety in the team – things that AI can't do. In addition, he must reduce the fears of the workforce and operationally anchor the new tools in everyday life. In hybrid teams (human and AI), he moderates collaboration and reduces friction losses.

In addition, middle managers move closer to the strategic level, as they have to interpret and contextualize the AI results. For example, AI provides scenarios (e.g., "What happens if we change production?"), but the manager must make the final decision taking into account company culture and ethics.

Future-Proof Skills

Regardless of level or career phase, three areas of expertise are currently crucial to remain in demand in the long term:

AI literacy (technical understanding). You don't have to be a programmer, but you should know how to use AI tools in a meaningful way. These include prompt engineering – the ability to give precise instructions to AI models in order to obtain high-quality results – as well as "AI Tool Fluency", the confident handling of industry-specific AI tools. Data literacy is also important: Those who can read and interpret data are better able to critically classify and evaluate AI results.

"Human-only" skills (soft skills). Anything that requires empathy and complex social dynamics remains difficult to replace. Because AI also often hallucinates, critical thinking and verification are required – i.e. people who can check facts and evaluate the meaningfulness of AI outputs. At the same time, emotional intelligence (EQ) and social skills are gaining in value, for example in negotiation, team leadership, conflict management and empathetic customer service. In addition, there is the ability to make ethical judgements: companies need employees who can assess and help shape the responsible use of AI with a view to data protection, fairness and bias avoidance.

Adaptivity and meta-skills. Because the half-life of knowledge is decreasing, the ability to learn becomes more important than the knowledge itself. Learning agility describes the willingness and speed to familiarize oneself with new technological updates every few months. Complex problem-solving also remains central: AI recognizes patterns, but often fails due to completely new, unstructured problems that require creative transfers. Change management is becoming a key competence – i.e. accompanying transformation processes in the company and involving colleagues in the introduction of new tools.

Conclusion

Middle management is democratized. Tools take the management of work off the hands of managers. This frees up time for what AI can't (yet): solve complex interpersonal problems, develop strategic visions and lead the team emotionally. Those who focus on empathy, strategy and AI control become more valuable than ever. Those who only manage processes can be directly replaced by AI.

This article originally appeared on MES Computing’s sister site Computing Deutschland.