Key Takeaways
- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says that “people managers” who mainly run recurring meetings will have no real value in an AI-driven workplace.
- He sees middle management, especially managers who only oversee others’ work, as increasingly vulnerable to elimination as companies adopt AI.
- Chesky says managers will need to be directly involved in the actual work to be considered valuable.
According to Airbnb’s CEO, one entire layer of corporate hierarchy will soon disappear.
Brian Chesky, who has led Airbnb as CEO since cofounding the company in 2007, spoke about the impact of AI on an episode of the Invest Like The Best podcast earlier this week. He said “people managers” faced the most risk of elimination, stating that he didn’t think the role had “any value in the future.”
“People who have lots of recurring one-on-ones are not going to survive,” Chesky said on the podcast. “That kind of leadership style is not going to work.”
As companies invest heavily in AI and face pressure to cut costs, middle managers, particularly those focused on coordinating work, aggregating reports and passing information up the chain, are facing uncertainty. Gartner predicts that by 2026, 20% of organizations will use AI to eliminate more than half of their middle-management positions. Professionals in supervisory roles that don’t involve hands-on work are in danger.
Managers will have to do more than oversee workers
On the podcast, Chesky said that the only managers who will remain relevant are those who get their hands dirty with actual execution rather than just coordinating others. In his view, the AI era demands leaders who can both oversee teams and contribute directly to the work itself. This means managers need technical skills, product knowledge or specialized expertise.
Executives who spend their days translating information between layers of hierarchy or managing workflows are vulnerable because AI tools can increasingly handle those coordination tasks, Chesky explained. Surviving in the age of AI means becoming indispensable to a company, not just providing oversight of the people who do the real work.
“You don’t manage the people, you manage the work,” Chesky said on the podcast. For example, if you’re a lawyer, “you have to actually read the case law, and you have to get involved.”
Other CEOs are rethinking middle management
Chesky’s comments reflect a broader rethinking among tech leaders about whether traditional management layers still make sense. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced earlier this week that the company would eliminate “pure managers” or employees whose sole responsibility is overseeing others, as part of layoffs affecting 14% of staff. In a memo to staff, Armstrong explicitly cited AI as the catalyst, writing that engineers now “use AI to ship in days what used to take a team weeks.”
“This is a new way of working, and we need to leverage AI across every facet of our jobs,” Armstrong wrote.
Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey, CEO of fintech company Block, wrote in a blog post in March that “there is no need for a permanent middle management layer.” He argued that AI could handle much of what middle managers traditionally do. Block is narrowing down its staff into three roles: individual contributors who build and operate systems, directly responsible individuals who own problems and outcomes and player-coaches who both build and develop people. The company laid off 40% of staff in February.
“Everyone is empowered, with a role that’s much closer to the work and the customer,” Dorsey wrote in the post. “AI doesn’t augment your company. It reveals what your company actually is.”
Key Takeaways
- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says that “people managers” who mainly run recurring meetings will have no real value in an AI-driven workplace.
- He sees middle management, especially managers who only oversee others’ work, as increasingly vulnerable to elimination as companies adopt AI.
- Chesky says managers will need to be directly involved in the actual work to be considered valuable.
According to Airbnb’s CEO, one entire layer of corporate hierarchy will soon disappear.
Brian Chesky, who has led Airbnb as CEO since cofounding the company in 2007, spoke about the impact of AI on an episode of the Invest Like The Best podcast earlier this week. He said “people managers” faced the most risk of elimination, stating that he didn’t think the role had “any value in the future.”
“People who have lots of recurring one-on-ones are not going to survive,” Chesky said on the podcast. “That kind of leadership style is not going to work.”
