According to Forbes, the corporate pyramid is undergoing a dramatic inversion as companies simultaneously cut entry-level jobs and middle management roles. LinkedIn data shows entry-level job postings fell roughly 30% from early 2024 to early 2025, following a 23% decline since 2020. Meanwhile, Revelio Labs reports middle management job postings have dropped more than 40% since 2022. Major tech leaders like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Andy Jassy are openly criticizing management layers as unnecessary bureaucracy. Gartner predicts that through 2026, one in five companies will use AI to eliminate over half of current middle-management roles. This dual reduction is creating organizations that are top-heavy and increasingly brittle.
The disappearing foundation
Here’s the thing about cutting entry-level roles: it seems logical in the short term but creates massive long-term problems. Companies look at AI’s ability to summarize content, clean data, and draft documents and think “why hire junior employees for this?” Basically, they’re treating the corporate on-ramp as optional. But entry-level positions aren’t just about getting tasks done – they’re where people build institutional memory, develop judgment, and become future leaders. When you shrink that base, you’re essentially mortgaging your organization’s future capacity. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns we might be “sleepwalking into mass unemployment,” with up to half of entry-level knowledge work potentially automatable within five years. That’s terrifying, but cutting these roles entirely is like deciding you don’t need to train new doctors because AI can diagnose some conditions.
The vanishing middle
Now let’s talk about the middle management massacre. It’s become fashionable to question whether managers are even necessary, but this thinking misses what managers actually do once you strip away administrative tasks. According to Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report, managers coach people, develop skills, mediate conflicts, and translate strategy into action. They’re the ones who sense when something’s off and provide clarity during volatile times. Think about it – who’s going to handle the human elements that AI can’t touch? Conflict resolution? Context-rich decision making? Judgement calls when the algorithm spits out nonsense? Middle managers are having a particularly rough time right now, but eliminating them creates organizations that can’t actually function when real problems emerge.
The brittle organization
When you cut both the bottom and the middle, what you’re left with is a structure that looks impressive on a spreadsheet but collapses under pressure. You’ve got senior leadership trying to make strategic decisions without the execution layer that makes things happen. You’ve got AI systems handling tasks but nobody redesigning workflows when circumstances change. And you’ve got no pipeline for developing future leaders because you’ve eliminated the roles where people learn the business. Gartner’s predictions about AI-driven flattening are coming true faster than anyone expected, but the organizations implementing these changes are discovering they’ve created something that can’t adapt, can’t innovate, and can’t handle complexity.
A better way forward
So what’s the alternative? Beamery’s “Inside the Human-Machine Economy” report suggests a pentagon-shaped workforce instead of an inverted pyramid. This model maintains an entry layer where early-career employees build judgment, a capability-rich middle that drives execution, and a strategic top focused on system-level decisions. The key insight is that AI shouldn’t erase layers – it should reshape the work each layer does. And honestly, this approach makes way more sense. The human-machine economy requires balance, not elimination. AI might handle execution, but only humans can determine what actually matters, how value gets created, and what makes one organization different from another. Companies that figure this out will build organizations that are both efficient and resilient. Those that don’t? They’ll discover that flat structures aren’t just streamlined – they’re fragile.
