AI Will Flatten Corporate Hierarchy, Says AI CEO

This article is part of an interview with Joe Roushar, CEO and founder at Empathi AI, conducted for Tech.co’s newsletter, The AI Strat. For more interviews with AI experts on the latest trending topics, subscribe to the newsletter here. 

AI will eventually lead to the flattening of corporate leadership structures, according to Empathi AI CEO and founder Joe Roushar in an exclusive interview with Tech.co.

Experts weighing in on the subject believe the source of workplace power will change, as AI changes the kinds of capabilities workers have access to. This creates new opportunities to teams on the ground floor and entry-level workers who are new to the workplace.

Despite these changes, Roushar believes in the importance of managers during times of AI investment, and urges businesses to continue to train and monitor management as the technology becomes more and more integrated.

Corporate Structures Will Flatten Because of AI, Expert Says

Joe Roushar, CEO and founder at Empathi AI, believes AI will help “break down the silos” that make hierarchial structures within businesses necessary, leading to a flatter corporate pyramid.

“When you break down the silos, you also break down the stone pipe. Having a flatter structure between the people on the floor and the people in the office will be an inevitable result of more artificial intelligence,” Roushar said in an interview with Tech.co.

With AI, it could be the case that employees below the management level gain access to capabilities that would otherwise have been obtained through years of experience.

How Companies Will Organize Themselves After AI

Anish Batlaw, writing for General Atlantic, describes how he believes workplace hierarchy will more closely resemble a “shape-shifting organism” as AI becomes more widely integrated.

Batlaw explains how tasks will be completed within this new structure: when a task needs to be done, teams come together, organize and use a team of AI agents to achieve the outcome, and collapse when the task is done. “The teams coordinate laterally rather than reporting vertically. They set outcomes, define constraints, and make the judgment calls that require human context.”

Many experts have weighed in on the potential of AI, but it can be intimidating to imagine entire corporate structures changing. Is it even possible to imagine a workplace without managers, and how will ambitious employees develop and rise in their companies without opportunities for promotion?

In an article for Forbes, Bernard Marr suggests AI could provide an opportunity for junior and mid-level employees to come into the workplace with superior skills than those in senior positions. AI will, according to Marr, allow these workers to “produce work that once required researchers, analysts, designers, administrators, and technical specialists.”

This new set up suggests any employee, at any level, will be able to make a large impact within companies. However, it may mean AI will have to be more carefully regulated, if businesses reach a point where senior leaders aren’t interacting with every project AI touches.

Management Remains a Key Influencer

We’re not at the point where managers are obsolete, however, and Joe Roushar explained to Tech.co how he believes management is a vital component of how AI develops and performs within a business.

“They say that the most common reason for people leaving a company is because they have a poor relationship with their supervisor, and I believe that’s true,” Roushar said, suggesting strong management is key to retaining top talent.

“Good companies improve the quality of their middle management. Having AI doesn’t impair that capability, it just makes you have to be more planful and intentional in training your management, in monitoring your management, and in making sure your management continues to incentivize each of your employees who are using AI,” Roushar continued.

Similarly, Roushar advises managers and leaders to continue to empower their employees during times of AI investment, and give them the opportunity to reinvent themselves on their terms. “As AI takes over more brain tasks, and might require fewer people to do those tasks, people will reinvent themselves, and that’s a good thing.”

At the center of Roushar’s philosophy on AI is giving employees the option to be the hero of their own story, and decide what it is AI is going to do for them, not just their company.