More than eight in 10 leaders say managers’ roles have grown over the past three years, while only one in 10 believes AI will reduce their importance, new research finds.
Managers are being asked to do more across almost every part of their role, from leading change and coaching employees to developing talent and overseeing AI adoption, according to new research from Betterworks. The study of 521 senior HR and business leaders in the US and UK finds that more than 80% say managers’ responsibilities have expanded over the past three years, while almost half, 47%, report that managers are now leading larger teams.
At the same time, relatively few respondents believe artificial intelligence will make managers less important. Just 10% say AI will reduce the importance of managers, while 82% expect managers to remain as important or become more important to business success.
The findings challenge the idea that AI will significantly reduce the need for people managers. Instead, Betterworks argues that organisations need to redesign the manager role and use AI to create capacity rather than simply adding another layer of responsibility.
THE EXPANDING MANAGER ROLE
Managers are increasingly expected to deliver business results while simultaneously leading organisational change, coaching employees, developing talent and helping teams adopt AI. According to Betterworks:
- 86% of respondents say leading through change has become more important during the past three years;
- 86% say coaching employees has become more important;
- 85% say employee development now matters more;
- 82% say AI-enabled work has become more important; and
- 82% say talent planning has become more important.
Those competing expectations can make it harder for managers to focus on the work that ultimately matters most: helping teams translate strategy into results. “The findings make one thing clear above all else: the manager role is expanding on nearly every front at once,” Doug Dennerline, CEO of Betterworks. “While the barriers holding managers back rarely start with the manager, it’s incumbent on them to figure out how to close the gaps to keep their teams aligned and performing at a high level. This ultimately impacts whether the business hits its goals.”
The findings reinforce a growing body of evidence that managers are increasingly being asked to absorb organisational complexity without always receiving the time, training or systems needed to manage it effectively. Recent research found one in four UK managers regularly think about quitting as people pressures mount. The same study found increased stress, extra administration, difficult conversations and unrealistic expectations among the challenges weighing on people managers.
AI ADDING ADDITIONAL WORKLOADS
AI is one of the newest additions to managers’ growing remit. Some 78% of Betterworks respondents say their managers oversee employees who use AI tools, AI agents or both. But Betterworks argues that the introduction of AI should not simply add another responsibility to an already overloaded job.
Instead, organisations need to ask whether AI is actually giving managers time back. That question is increasingly important because other workplace research suggests AI productivity gains do not automatically translate into lighter workloads. Seven in 10 employees say AI makes them feel more productive, yet workloads remain largely unchanged.
If AI allows managers to produce more reports, attend more meetings or process more information without removing lower-value work, it may simply increase the amount organisations expect from them. Betterworks puts the issue plainly. If AI is not giving managers capacity back somewhere, it is adding to their workload.
COULD AI AUTOMATE MANAGEMENT?
Despite growing speculation that AI could automate significant parts of management, the Betterworks findings suggest senior leaders expect managers to remain central to organisational success. Only 10% believe AI will reduce managers’ importance.
By contrast, 82% expect managers to remain as important or become even more important. That finding reflects the changing nature of the role. AI may be able to automate administration, summarise information, generate feedback prompts or help managers prepare for conversations.
But managers remain responsible for areas that require judgement, context, trust and human interaction. Those include:
- motivating employees;
- resolving conflict;
- explaining organisational change;
- coaching performance;
- supporting employee development;
- making difficult people decisions; and
- translating strategy into meaningful action for teams.
The more technology changes work, the more employees may need managers who can help them understand what that change means.
MANAGERS ARE ALREADY STRUGGLING
The Betterworks research closely echoes other evidence showing that managers are being asked to lead through a rapidly changing workplace without always feeling prepared. Only four in 10 managers say they have received sufficient preparation for difficult workplace conversations around AI anxiety, layoffs and workplace conflict.
That research found that managers are increasingly expected to guide employees through AI adoption, restructuring, wellbeing concerns, career uncertainty and organisational change while continuing to deliver business results.
Together, the findings suggest the problem is not that managers are becoming less relevant. It is that the role is expanding faster than many organisations are redesigning it.
WHY BETTER MANAGEMENT MATTERS MORE IN THE AI ERA
The growth of AI could make management quality more important rather than less. Employees need help understanding where AI fits into their jobs, which tasks they should delegate to technology and where human judgement still matters.
They also need support when AI changes workflows, skill requirements and career pathways. Earlier research found managers and executives are already experiencing some of the biggest changes in workload and skill requirements from workplace AI, while understanding and trust remain uneven across organisations. One study found 81% to 85% of managers and executives said AI had changed their workload, while 84% to 90% said they needed new skills to keep pace.
The managerial challenge is therefore becoming two-sided. Managers need to learn how to use AI themselves while also helping their teams adapt to it.
AI SHOULD BE A CAPACITY STRATEGY
Betterworks argues that organisations should treat AI as a way to create managerial capacity rather than simply as another productivity tool. That means prioritising use cases that remove low-value work. For managers, that might include:
- summarising meetings;
- preparing routine reports;
- tracking objectives;
- organising feedback;
- identifying recurring administrative tasks;
- surfacing relevant performance information; or
- reducing manual coordination.
The aim should be to free managers to spend more time on the work that technology cannot easily replace, including coaching, decision-making, relationship-building and supporting employees through change. That approach aligns with what managers themselves say they need.
The recent UK manager study found the most commonly requested improvement was less unnecessary bureaucracy, alongside fewer meetings, less administration, more leadership support and better training.
HOW AUTOMATION CAN CREATE NEW WORK
Employers also need to recognise that AI does not automatically remove work. Poor-quality AI output can create additional checking and correction. Two-thirds of employees say they spend up to six hours each week fixing low-quality AI-generated work, according to earlier research.
For managers, that may mean more responsibility for quality control, governance and correcting work produced by team members using AI. The central test should therefore be whether AI genuinely removes friction or merely shifts it elsewhere.
REDESIGN THE ROLE, DON’T JUST ADD MORE TRAINING
Betterworks argues that improving manager effectiveness requires redesigning the work itself. Its first recommendation is particularly significant: “Redesign the role, don’t just relabel it.”
Before adding another management course or new responsibility, organisations should understand what has been added to managers’ jobs during the past three years and, crucially, what has actually been removed. That distinction matters. Training can build capability.
But no amount of training solves a job that contains more responsibilities than one person can reasonably perform. The findings suggest organisations should examine the overall architecture of the manager role rather than assuming managers simply need to become better at coping with it.
RUN A FRICTION AUDIT
Betterworks also recommends identifying the organisational processes that create unnecessary work for managers. A “friction audit” could examine:
- excessive approval processes;
- unnecessary meetings;
- duplicated reporting;
- inefficient systems;
- administrative tasks;
- conflicting priorities; and
- unclear decision rights.
Removing those barriers can potentially create more managerial capacity than simply asking managers to work faster. That reflects the same principle emerging from wider workplace research: productivity should not automatically mean increasing the volume of work employees are expected to absorb.
FROM PERIODIC TRAINING TO REAL-TIME COACHING
Betterworks also recommends shifting away from relying primarily on periodic management training. Instead, organisations should provide support closer to the point where managers actually need it. That could mean real-time coaching, embedded guidance, accessible HR expertise and tools that help managers prepare for difficult conversations or make decisions in the flow of work.
This is particularly relevant when workplace challenges are changing faster than traditional annual training programmes can keep pace. Managers dealing with AI anxiety, restructures or new workforce expectations may need support when those situations arise, not months later.
CONNECTING MANAGER EFFECTIVENESS TO BUSINESS OUTCOMES
Another important recommendation from Betterworks is to connect manager effectiveness to business outcomes. Rather than measuring management programmes only through training completion or employee sentiment, organisations should track people metrics alongside execution and performance indicators. That might include:
- employee retention;
- engagement;
- team productivity;
- goal completion;
- internal mobility;
- absenteeism;
- performance improvement; and
- delivery against strategic priorities.
The objective is to demonstrate that better management is not merely an HR initiative. It is part of how organisations execute strategy.
WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DO
The Betterworks findings suggest organisations need to address the design of management roles before asking managers to absorb another wave of workplace transformation. Employers should:
- audit what has been added to managers’ roles over recent years;
- identify which responsibilities can genuinely be removed;
- use AI primarily where it creates measurable capacity;
- reduce unnecessary meetings, approvals and administration;
- clarify competing priorities;
- provide managers with real-time coaching and practical support;
- train managers to lead teams through AI adoption and organisational change;
- ensure managers have enough time for coaching and employee development;
- measure whether AI actually reduces workload;
- monitor manager wellbeing and retention risk; and
- connect manager effectiveness to business-performance measures.
The wider message is that organisations cannot continuously expand managers’ responsibilities while treating the structure of the role as fixed.
BETTER MANAGERS, NOT FEWER MANAGERS
The Betterworks findings challenge one of the simpler narratives surrounding workplace AI: that automation will inevitably reduce the need for managers. The evidence presented here points in another direction. Managers are becoming responsible for more, not less. They are expected to lead change, develop employees, coach performance, plan talent and increasingly guide teams through AI adoption.
Technology may help them do some of that work more efficiently. But if organisations simply add AI oversight to an already overloaded management role, it risks becoming another source of pressure rather than a solution.
The opportunity is therefore not simply to automate management. It is to redesign management around the work humans remain best placed to do, while using AI to remove the friction that stops managers doing it well. In the AI era, organisations may not need fewer managers. They may need better-supported managers with clearer priorities, more capacity and better tools.
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