C-suites are redesigning work for AI. Managers are the ones who have to make it real.
And right now? They are struggling.
Manager engagement just hit its lowest point in years — down 9 points since 2022 (Gallup). They’re burned out, caught between executive pressure and exhausted teams, and 43% of them worry that AI will make parts of their own job obsolete.
Yet we keep asking them to lead others through the very change that's destabilizing them.
Here’s what I know from the research and from working inside high-stakes organizations: managers drive 70% of the variance in team engagement. When managers are overwhelmed, disengaged, or left out of the strategy, everything downstream suffers. They are not middle management, they are your competitive edge.
If you’re a C-suite leader building an AI strategy right now, here are 3 ways to support managers to ensure AI readiness and success:
1️⃣ Bring managers into the AI strategy planning early — not just as implementers, but as architects. Their proximity to the work gives you intelligence you cannot get from a boardroom.
2️⃣ Invest in AI fluency. A manager who understands AI will have great confidence to guide their team through the change. One who doesn't will become a barrier to adoption.
3️⃣ Redesign the role, not just the workflow. Asking managers to lead change while only adding to their workload is not optimizing human potential, it’s driving the human risk of burnout.
The organizations that get this right will design better, move faster, and build cultures people want to be a part of. We are redefining our work and workplace cultures.
The ones that don’t? They’ll have the technology, but none of the traction that is needed for peak performance.