AI Won’t Replace Managers But It Will Expose Bad Ones

Key points

AI erases busywork; human leadership is the new value.

Task-tracking managers get exposed; coaches thrive.

Use AI-to-human pairing: “AI does X, I do Y.”

Replace surveillance with coaching, clarity, and care.

AI can now schedule meetings, summarize calls, draft emails, and write serviceable first drafts. That’s not the threat. The threat is what it reveals.

If your value as a manager lives mostly in tasks, AI will eat it. If your value lives in people— coaching , clarity, and meaning—AI becomes your time-maker.

The task trap (and why AI breaks it)

For years, many managers equated “being indispensable” with staying busy: approving requests, forwarding documents, chasing status updates, taking notes, and nudging people about deadlines. AI is rapidly absorbing that layer o