A.I. Won’t Eliminate Managers, But It Will Redefine Leadership

The discourse surrounding artificial intelligence in the workplace is thick with dystopian forecasts and utopian promises. Will it eradicate jobs or usher in a new era of human creativity? For managers and leaders, the question is more pointed: will advances in A.I. make my role obsolete? The answer is a definitive no. A.I. will not replace managers. It will, however, act as a great accelerant, stripping away the administrative crutches many have leaned on for decades and laying bare a critical deficit in our organizations: the inability to genuinely manage people.

For more than a century, the prevailing management model has been one of command-and-control. Managers were expected to be the nexus of knowledge, the primary problem-solvers and the arbiters of work. Promotion into management was typically a reward for attaining technical proficiency in a particular area, creating a legion of what the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has called “accidental managers”—individuals promoted for their knowledge but utterly unprepared for the human complexities of leadership. In the U.K. alone, the CMI estimates that 82 percent of managers receive no formal preparation or training to take on the people management aspects of their role.

This is the category of manager that A.I. is coming for. The manager whose primary value lies in holding information, creating reports, assigning tasks and resolving routine problems is standing on a trapdoor. Generative A.I. and advanced analytics can now perform these functions with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Knowledge is no longer power because knowledge is ubiquitous. A recent MIT Sloan study found that access to A.I. tools increased productivity for knowledge workers by over 40 percent, largely by automating the synthesis and retrieval of information—the very tasks that once consumed a manager’s day. When the “what” and the “how” of a task are automated, what is left for a manager to do?

The answer is everything that truly matters: the “who” and the “why.” What remains are the deeply human skills that A.I. cannot replicate. These include fostering psychological safety, building trust, inspiring motivation, navigating conflict and cultivating an employee’s innate potential. In this new landscape, the manager’s role shifts from chief problem-solver to chief enabler. Success will no longer be measured by the solutions a manager provides, but by the problem-solving capabilities they build within their teams.

This is where the crisis in management becomes painfully evident. Despite decades of investment the world over in leadership development programs, each busying itself inventing its own version of a management wheel, employee engagement levels remain stubbornly low. Gallup reports that only 10 percent of workers in the U.K., for example, feel engaged in their work. Globally, the share of employees experiencing high daily stress has steadily climbed over the past 20 years to 41 percent, rising to nearly 60 percent for those working under poor management. Together, disengagement and stress are estimated to cost the global economy $8.9 trillion annually, roughly nine percent of global GDP. 

Traditional management approaches, which emphasize telling, directing and correcting, are misaligned with how people learn and perform. By removing autonomy and short-circuiting learning, they unintentionally fuel disengagement and burnout, precisely the outcomes organizations can least afford in an A.I.-accelerated environment. 

The solution requires a fundamental reboot of our management operating system. For years, organizations have attempted to retrofit coaching skills onto managers through formal, session-based models like GROW. These models, while effective in executive coaching contexts, are ill-suited for the dynamic, fast-paced reality of frontline management. Time-starved managers rarely have the capacity for scheduled, hour-long coaching conversations, nor the psychological distance required to coach their direct reports while holding them accountable for performance.

What’s needed instead is a more integrated, behavioral approach that embeds coaching into the fabric of daily interactions. This means shifting from reflexively fixing problems to facilitating better thinking in others, and bringing development into the flow of work. 

At its core, this approach can be distilled into a simple behavioral sequence summarized as STAR. 

Stop: The first, and most difficult, step is resisting the instinct to immediately solve the problem when an employee raises an issue. Instead of jumping to an answer, the manager pauses and takes a step back.

Think: In that pause, the manager assesses whether this is a coachable moment. Is the situation non-urgent? Is there an opportunity for learning rather than rescue?

Ask: Rather than telling, the manager adopts an inquiry-led approach, using questions to prompt reflection and ownership. A subtle but effective shift is moving from blame-oriented “why?” questions to solution-focused “what?” questions. For example, replacing “Why is this late?” with “What obstacles came up, and what options do we have now?” changes the tone from accusation to collaboration.

Result: The interaction concludes with clear next steps and follow-up, reinforcing accountability while ensuring the employee owns the outcome and and that there will be an opportunity for appropriate feedback.

This is not coaching as a formal, scheduled meeting. It’s a 90-second interaction in the hallway or a two-minute exchange on a video call. It’s coaching as a continuous micro-practice. The cumulative impact, however, is macro. Government-sponsored research conducted by the London School of Economics has shown that managers trained in this approach increased the amount of time they spent coaching in the flow of work by 70 percent. The benefits ripple outwards: managers regain time as their teams become more self-sufficient, employees feel more valued and trusted and the organization develops a resilient, adaptive and highly engaged culture.

A.I. is an epochal technology that will automate complexity and democratize access to knowledge. This transition will be uncomfortable for managers who have built their authority on being the expert in the room. But for those who recognize that the future of leadership lies in human connection, judgment and meaning-making, it represents the greatest opportunity in a generation. 

The challenge is clear: evolve from a director of tasks into a developer of people. A.I. will increasingly manage the tasks. Leaders must manage meaning and the conditions in which people can do their best thinking. A.I. won’t replace those who fail to make this shift, but it will make them increasingly irrelevant by revealing a new, higher standard of leadership.

Dominic Ashley-Timms is the CEO of the performance consultancy Notion and co-author of the bestselling book, The Answer is a Question: The Missing Superpower That Changes Everything and Will Transform Your Impact as a Manager and Leader.