By Michael Scissons

Let’s get specific.

Everyone’s talking about AI reshaping work — but very few are naming where actual shrinkage is going to happen.

We’re not talking about philosophical displacement. We’re talking about the next 3–5 years of headcount and org design.

Because it’s already happening.

In the AI economy, some roles will vanish, others will evolve — and a few will expand dramatically. The real shift is structural: from execution layers to systems leverage.

If you’re a CEO, CHRO, or investor, the question is no longer “Will AI change our org?”

The question is: Where will we shrink, and where should we reinvest?

The Headcount Mirage Is Over

Most companies have long operated with a hidden inefficiency baked into their orgs:

• Manual coordination
  
  
• Layered review processes
  
  
• Middle-tier execution roles
  
  
• Admin-heavy workflows
  
  
• Knowledge work that isn’t actually strategic
  
  

AI is exposing these inefficiencies — fast. And the best operators aren’t panicking. They’re planning.

Three Categories of Functional Impact

Let’s break this down:

Function Type -> AI Impact -> Net Org Effect

Admin & Execution -> High automation, low differentiation -> Shrinks dramatically

Translation & Ops -> Partial automation, tool expansion -> Evolves, consolidates

Judgment & Strategy -> AI-augmented, human-led -> Expands and gains leverage

Now let’s go deeper.

1. The Roles That Will Shrink (or Disappear)

These aren’t bad people. These are roles built on repeatability, formatting, or reactive process.

🧾 Admin & Executive Assistants

Why: Scheduling, email filtering, travel booking, light note-taking — all now AI-augmented with tools like x.ai, Motion, and Superhuman’s AI assistant.

Expected Shift:

• 50–70% fewer EAs per org
  
  
• One EA managing 3–5 execs with AI support
  
  
• More focus on strategic ops, less on logistics
  
  

📋 Middle-layer Project Coordinators

Why: When project tracking, Gantt charts, meeting summaries, and nudges can be automated, the role of coordinator becomes tech-enabled.

Expected Shift:

• Shrinkage or absorption into delivery roles
  
  
• Project managers now need to drive insights, not just track tasks
  
  

🧑‍💻 Basic Content Writers and Copywriters

Why: AI can now generate blog posts, landing pages, SEO copy, and email variants faster than any junior marketer.

Expected Shift:

• Shrinking content teams
  
  
• One strategist with AI outproduces 3–4 traditional copywriters
  
  
• In-house content becomes tone guardians, not wordcount producers
  
  

📞 Tier 1 Support Reps

Why: AI agents already handle up to 40–60% of inbound tickets in B2B SaaS and consumer support — with CSAT increasing.

Expected Shift:

• Tier 0 and Tier 1 shift to automation
  
  
• Tier 2+ becomes human-led escalation, with smaller, sharper teams
  
  
• Support headcount frozen even as ARR scales
  
  

📊 Junior Analysts

Why: When GPT-powered tools can ingest data, visualize trends, and draft insights, junior analyst layers compress.

Expected Shift:

• FP&A, RevOps, and BizOps teams get flatter
  
  
• Senior analysts become “interpreters” and scenario planners
  
  
• Entry-level work handled by AI dashboards and copilots
  
  

🧑‍🏫 Training, Onboarding, and L&D Coordinators

Why: Interactive AI tutors, onboarding copilots, and training modules are replacing decks, LMS systems, and workshops.

Expected Shift:

• Smaller L&D teams
  
  
• Training becomes async, AI-guided, and role-specific
  
  

2. The Roles That Will Evolve

These are translation and coordination-heavy roles that won’t disappear — but will get refactored.

🧠 Product Managers

Why: AI helps write specs, summarize user research, and generate feature ideas — but PMs still need to prioritize, validate, and lead.

Expected Shift:

• PMs become more strategic
  
  
• Less time writing Jira tickets, more time aligning teams and users
  
  
• Ratio of PMs to engineers increases
  
  

🛠️ RevOps & Sales Enablement

Why: Reporting, playbook creation, and sales training are now semi-automated. But RevOps still owns design and accountability.

Expected Shift:

• Ops teams run leaner
  
  
• Focus shifts from reporting to systems design and optimization
  
  
• AI used to auto-generate dashboards, track performance
  
  

📈 HR Business Partners

Why: AI can now write job descriptions, screen resumes, and generate compensation benchmarks. But HRBPs remain central to people strategy.

Expected Shift:

• Leaner recruiting coordination
  
  
• Higher-value HR work focused on performance, culture, retention
  
  
• Fewer generalists, more AI-savvy specialists
  
  

🧰 Customer Success Managers

Why: With AI flagging churn, drafting QBRs, and summarizing product usage — the CSM role becomes about relationships, not reports.

Expected Shift:

• Fewer low-touch CSMs
  
  
• Tech-touch or AI-touch for SMB tiers
  
  
• Strategic CSMs managing more accounts, deeper relationships
  
  

🎯 Account Executives

Why: AI now supports research, personalization, objection handling, and call summarization.

Expected Shift:

• More focus on human selling, trust-building, and strategy
  
  
• Higher quotas, fewer reps
  
  
• New expectations for hybrid human-AI outbound
  
  

3. The Roles That Will Grow — But Look Different

These aren’t traditional roles. These are the new centers of leverage.

📐 AI Strategy & Enablement

Why: Someone needs to own internal AI transformation. Cross-functional, roadmap-driven, and outcome-oriented.

Expected Shift:

• Every company needs one: Head of AI Strategy, Enablement, or Transformation
  
  
• Embedded in ops, product, or systems
  
  
• Becomes a core leadership seat
  
  

🧭 Systems Architects & Workflow Designers

Why: Companies need people who design how tools talk to each other — and how humans interact with them.

Expected Shift:

• New cross-functional roles focused on work design
  
  
• Common inside growth-stage ops, product, and design orgs
  
  

🎨 Creative Direction & Brand

Why: AI can generate content, but can’t originate tone or concept. Human taste becomes more valuable.

Expected Shift:

• Leaner content teams
  
  
• Sharper brand guardians
  
  
• More in-house creative leads, fewer production roles
  
  

🕹️ Strategy Operators & Chief of Staff Roles

Why: When coordination and execution are AI-supported, the humans that remain are the ones who know what to build next.

Expected Shift:

• COSs become company architects
  
  
• Operators move into productized thinking
  
  
• High-judgment roles with fewer direct reports
  
  

What the Org of the Next 3 Years Looks Like

Flatter. Faster. Sharper.

Visualize your current org chart.

Now:

• Compress 30% of coordination layers
  
  
• Double down on system owners and strategic operators
  
  
• Strip out repetitive admin
  
  
• Rebuild with AI workflows at the center
  
  
• Retrain for judgment, communication, and velocity
  
  

You don’t need a reorg deck. You need a refactor.

The Talent Strategy You Need Now

Here’s how to plan:

• Audit every function for repeatable work
  
  
• Rescope roles to include AI workflows and performance expectations
  
  
• Redeploy high-performers into system ownership and experimentation
  
  
• Hire for strategic leverage, not just headcount fill
  
  
• Invest in your internal AI roadmap — org structure is the output
  
  

This isn’t about reducing people. It’s about raising the bar on what those people can do.

Final Thought

The AI economy isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s here. And your org will change — whether you drive that change or react to it.

Some roles will disappear. Some will evolve. But the most valuable ones will be those that own systems, drive outcomes, and operate with judgment.

If you want to build a company that scales in the next 10 years, build one that gets leaner, faster, and more human — not one that gets stuck trying to preserve the org chart of the past.

Sources & Data:

• McKinsey: “The Future of Work After AI,” 2024
  
  
• OpenAI: Enterprise Usage & Function-Level Impact Study, 2023–2024
  
  
• BCG: “AI and the 2025 Org Chart,” 2024
  
  
• Bain: “Refactoring the Growth Org for AI,” 2024
  
  
• Salesforce: “State of Work Productivity,” 2024
  
  
• Gong Labs, Notion AI, GitHub Copilot usage benchmarks

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