How AI is reshaping the big fat layer of Indian managers

Led by Agentic AI, India is predicted to witness its largest workforce transformation, redefining 10.35 million roles by 2030Indian firms have always had a large middle layer of managers as the management culture is built around hierarchies to ensure supervision, reporting, escalation and coordination. All of this was designed to ensure that humans are able to work together and deliver efficiently. Now, AI agents have been added to the mix.As a result, says Aditya Narayan Mishra, managing director and CEO of talent solutions firm CIEL HR, managers will increasingly lead teams wherein humans and AI work together. Their role will evolve from overseeing routine execution to ensuring AI is used responsibly, making strategic decisions and helping teams get the best outcomes from human-AI collaboration.But this will be a gradual transition as managers in their current roles will remain for some more time until enterprises complete a cycle or two of AI rollouts. Over time, says Francis Padamadan, CEO of Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm, new techno-functional roles will emerge—those that act as a bridge between business requirements and technical solutions. “Their main task will no longer be just managing people but also orchestrating AI-embedded processes and Human-in-the-Loop workflows,” says Padamadan.What this also means is that the number of mid-level project managers and delivery leads will reduce in the near term, especially in coordination-heavy roles, as AI automates more repetitive tasks at the entry and lower-middle levels. Those who are able to adapt will be highly employable. Shiv Nath Ghosh, chief commercial officer, professional talent solutions, at talent company Randstad India, says managers who add AI literacy skills will be sought after because their domain knowledge, business judgment, stakeholder instincts and accountability cannot be replicated by AI.This will happen because job roles will evolve from being assisted by AI to helping a person be more productive and work better as AI increasingly executes autonomously. “This will lead to the collapsing of the rigid line between a manager and a individual contributor, and managers will start contributing too,” says Thirumala (Thiru) Arohi, chief learning officer, Cognizant.That’s primarily because AI comes at a cost, and ensuring that it is kept in check will be a key focus area for managers, says Richard Lobo, chief people officer at Tech Mahindra. AI should be used in areas where it drives efficiency, but not where it doesn’t, and that judgment will be the responsibility of the new manager. “This will be the real role of the manager—of how much of my team should use AI, how much of my team should still use the skills they have as people, and how do I run a ship efficiently using both these aspects,” he says.As a result, organisations need to redesign their talent pyramid. Arohi says that at Cognizant, they are upskilling middle managers to evolve from oversight roles into player-coaches. “The player-coach isn't a new title; it's a new operating posture. The manager remains hands-on in the work, running AI-assisted workstreams while also developing their team's capabilities,” he says.The world’s second-largest IT company, TCS, has already announced plans to train all its employees to work alongside AI. ServiceNow AI Skills Research 2025 predicts that, led by Agentic AI, India will see its largest workforce transformation, redefining 10.35 million roles by 2030.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsPublished By: Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On: Aug 24, 2026 18:49 IST