- The year 2025 marks a turning point in governance: “managers managing managers” is gradually being replaced by “managers managing AI agents”—managers overseeing teams of autonomous AI agents.
- AI agents are virtual assistants capable of self-analysis, planning, and action without detailed instruction. They can take on roles in sales, marketing, engineering, and business operations, helping reduce middle management personnel and accelerate decision-making speed.
- Meta pioneered the “great flattening” trend in 2023—cutting middle management layers. Now, the “managing AI agents” model is the next step, allowing businesses to streamline their apparatus while expanding productivity.
- Vercel (a $9.3 billion cloud startup) trained an AI agent to emulate the company’s best salesperson. Result: The sales team was reduced from 10 people to 1 (the remaining 9 employees were transferred to other departments because the AI handled most of the work).
- According to Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO of Vercel), “managing AI agents” requires a goal-oriented mindset and the ability to articulate requirements clearly, but less demand for human communication experience than traditional management.
- This new profession has lower barriers to entry but demands different skills: understanding how to decompose tasks, train and monitor AI, and evaluate the agent’s output against specific goals.
- Jason Lemkin (SaaStr.com) predicts the soon-to-be-seen “$200,000/year Sales Development Representative” position, specializing in managing over 10 AI SDR agents, requiring technical and automation coordination skills.
- PwC plans to retrain current employees to become AI agent managers, instead of new hiring. Managers must know how to train, control behavior, design controlled processes, and clearly define when AI needs human permission before acting.
📌 Summary: As AI gradually takes over intellectual work, the human role shifts from “doer” to “AI trainer and supervisor.” In the next 3 years, leading companies are expected to have an official “AI Agent Manager” position, combining strategic thinking, technical knowledge, and the ability to coordinate intelligent systems—signaling a revolution in global corporate governance structure.
