By 2025, the most daunting reality in the workplace will not be that "AI replaces humans," but rather that "AI eradicates the environment that allows mediocre managers to thrive."

In the past, a typical day for a middle manager in a B2B enterprise might unfold as follows: In the morning, they would prod subordinates into submitting daily reports; by noon, they would compile summaries from cross-departmental meetings; in the afternoon, they would dissect directives from directors and disseminate them to the team; and in the evening, they would consolidate the team's output into a PowerPoint presentation for upward reporting. They functioned like highly compensated "routers," with their primary value lying in the transmission, correction, and aggregation of information.

However, by 2025, with the widespread integration of AI agents, when 80% of "execution and reporting" tasks are accomplished by AI at no cost, middle managers who merely "relay messages" and "monitor personnel" will abruptly find themselves teetering on the brink of obsolescence.

This is not merely a source of anxiety; it is a "lean and mean" organizational movement that is already well underway.

I. The Ongoing 'Middle-Layer Reduction': Data Speaks the Truth

If Meta's "Year of Efficiency" in 2023 served merely as a prelude, then from 2024 to 2025, global giants are collectively propelling the "middle-layer reduction" to its zenith.

Amazon's '15% Mandate'

At the close of 2024, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy unveiled a policy that sent shockwaves through the management ranks: each core organization was mandated to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers by at least 15% by the first quarter of 2025.

What does this entail? It signifies that a manager who previously oversaw five individuals must now manage seven to eight, or that organizations with multiple reporting layers must consolidate.

According to Morgan Stanley's projections, this initiative could lead to the elimination of approximately 14,000 management positions, resulting in annual savings of around $3 billion for Amazon. Jassy's rationale is straightforward: "Fewer managers translate to fewer decision-making layers and swifter action."

2. Bayer's 'Dynamic Shared Ownership' Experiment

As a traditional B2B pharmaceutical behemoth, Bayer's reform has been even more radical. CEO Bill Anderson introduced a "dynamic shared ownership" model, aiming to have 95% of decisions made by frontline teams rather than through multiple layers of approval.

The outcome has been ruthless: in Bayer's U.S. division, roughly 40% of middle management positions have been axed. This is not merely about layoffs; it represents a reconstruction of organizational logic—only those who can directly generate value (whether through drug development or client acquisition) are deemed core, while pure "people managers" are losing their foothold.

3. Gartner's Grim Forecast

In its "IT Organization Forecast for 2025 and Beyond," the authoritative consultancy Gartner presented a stark figure: by 2026, 20% of organizations will leverage AI to flatten their organizational structures, eliminating more than half of their middle management positions.

The reasoning is straightforward: AI excels at scheduling, reporting, and performance monitoring—tasks that once consumed a substantial portion of middle managers' time.

II. Why Now? The Twilight of the 'Router'

In B2B operations, middle managers were once indispensable due to lengthy business chains and severe information asymmetry. However, the advent of AI agents has obliterated this asymmetry.

Before: To ascertain why sales in the East China region were declining, a sales director would need to dedicate an entire day to conversing with five sales representatives and manually extracting Excel data for analysis.

Now: The director simply queries a BI agent, and within 30 seconds, AI retrieves CRM data, compares competitor dynamics, analyzes call records, and directly generates an attribution report.

In this process, if a "sales manager" merely serves as an information conduit, their value becomes detrimental—not only failing to expedite information flow but potentially distorting it through subjective filtering.

The current consensus among enterprises is unequivocal: we require coaches who can both engage in frontline combat and lead teams, not pure managers (supervisors who talk the talk but do not walk the walk).

III. Survival of the Fittest: Three Transformation Paths for Middle Managers

Faced with "pressure from above and AI encroachment from below," middle managers must evolve to survive. Here are three specific transformation avenues:

1. Become an 'AI Architect' and 'Business Translator'

Core Logic: AI is formidable but lacks an understanding of business context.

Future managers will no longer assign tasks solely to "people" but to "people + AI." You do not need to possess coding skills yourself, but you must know how to dissect a vague business objective (e.g., "increase renewal rate by 20%") into an AI-executable workflow.

Scenario Example: Previously, you would monitor subordinates as they crafted weekly reports; now, you construct a workflow that enables AI to automatically capture data submission records, task progress, and Feishu documents, generating a visualized project risk report every Friday. Your value shifts from "collection" to "designing this automated system."

2. Become a 'Cross-Departmental Collaborator'

Core Logic: AI possesses high intelligence quotient (IQ) but zero emotional quotient (EQ). It cannot navigate office politics or resolve conflicts over resource allocation.

In B2B enterprises, cross-departmental collaboration (sales vs. product, delivery vs. R&D) is invariably a pain point. AI cannot persuade a stubborn CFO to approve additional budget or emotionally appease an irate major client to salvage an order.

Transformation Strategy: Cease being a "supervisor" and commence acting as a "diplomat." Shift your focus from micromanaging your team to integrating resources externally. Your key performance indicator (KPI) should be the number of cross-departmental bottlenecks resolved, not the number of internal meetings convened.

3. Transition from 'Management' to 'Super-Expert'

Core Logic: "Ascending to a managerial position" is no longer the sole pathway to advancement. With AI empowerment, a senior expert wielding AI tools can produce output equivalent to that of a five-person team from 2020. Organizations need to cultivate a genuine "dual-track" culture.

Actionable Advice: For middle managers weary of crafting PowerPoint presentations and conducting performance reviews but possessing robust business acumen, stepping back can be liberating.

Leverage your decade of industry experience, combined with AI tools, to become a "super individual" within your company. You will discover that not only has your salary remained intact, but your job security and sense of accomplishment have significantly improved by shedding the "people management" burden.

"In the past, you exhausted yourself attempting to 'manage people'; in the future, you will thrive by 'managing AI' and becoming a one-person army."

END

The crisis of 2025 is essentially a reckoning for "management dividends."

The era when middle managers could prosper on "information gaps" and "directive transmission" has drawn to a close. In future B2B organizations, there will only be two types of individuals: those who define problems (leveraging AI to solve complex issues) and those who resolve interpersonal problems (handling relationships that AI cannot).

These are the last two tickets for managers. Will you choose to board the ship or remain on the deck of the old era, awaiting sinking?