In October 2026, American Express said it would cut about 5% of its positions worldwide while reporting record quarterly revenue of $20.1 billion. CEO Stephen Squeri said leaders were told to remove layers that slow decisions. CFO Christophe Le Caillec tied the plan to AI: “you don’t want to automate processes that are not optimally structured” (HCAMag).

Amex is the latest of many companies doing this in 2026. But the year also produced the first major reversal. Meta, which held up a 50-to-1 engineer-to-manager ratio in its new AI division, is now asking some of those engineers to become managers again (Yahoo Finance).

Key Takeaway

What happened: Amazon, Block, Coinbase, Microsoft, Meta, and Amex all cut management layers in 2025 and 2026, several citing AI. By September, Meta was rebuilding some of the manager roles it had removed.

For your business: Flat structures can speed decisions. But AI handles coordination tasks, not the coaching and judgment people still need. Design for both.

For your family: Fewer management rungs mean fewer traditional career ladders. Leading without a title is becoming a core skill.

The flattening wave

Amazon. Amazon has cut about 30,000 corporate roles since October 2025 (Forbes). HR chief Beth Galetti described the goal as “reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy” (Amazon).

• Who was cut: internal data obtained by Business Insider showed more than 78% of the roles eliminated in the October 2025 round were managers at levels L5 to L7 (Business Insider).
• Washington state: Amazon’s filing for its 2,198 cuts there showed software development roles hardest hit, though several “Manager III” and “Senior Manager” positions were also eliminated (Moneycontrol).
• Jassy’s reasoning: CEO Andy Jassy told Bloomberg that “those middle managers, all well-intended, want to put their fingerprint on everything” (Fortune). He attributed the October 2025 layoffs to culture and bureaucracy, not AI (Forbes).

Block. On February 26, 2026, Block said it would cut more than 4,000 employees, nearly half its workforce. Its CFO said that would let the company “move faster with smaller, highly talented teams using AI to automate more work” (CNBC). On March 31, CEO Jack Dorsey and Sequoia’s Roelof Botha wrote: “There is no need for a permanent middle management layer” (Block). Dorsey said he aims to cut the layers between Block’s 6,000 employees and himself from about five to two or three (Business Insider).

Coinbase. On May 5, 2026, CEO Brian Armstrong cut 14% of staff. He replaced “pure managers” with “player-coaches,” capped the hierarchy at five layers, and raised the employee-to-manager ratio to 15-to-1 (Fortune).

Microsoft. CFO Amy Hood said in 2025 that Microsoft was “increasing our agility by reducing layers with fewer managers.” When executive Rajesh Jha retired in March 2026, a handful of executives replaced him instead of a single successor (GeekWire).

Not every cut is an AI cut. Goldman Sachs switched this spring to smaller rolling layoffs instead of its usual annual culling. Sources told Business Insider the cuts were not tied to the bank’s AI-driven efficiency initiative (Business Insider).

Meta’s U-turn

Meta pushed furthest, then pulled back:

• March: its new applied AI engineering team was set to run at a 50-to-1 employee-to-manager ratio, double the 25-to-1 usually seen as the outer limit (Fortune).
• May: Meta cut about 10% of its workforce and moved 7,000 workers into AI projects. Managers were laid off or moved into hands-on roles (The Register).
• June: Zuckerberg told employees the company had made “mistakes” in reshaping its workforce around AI. He said Meta would scale back the expansion of manager oversight responsibilities (IANS).
• September: Meta began asking individual contributors in its Applied AI division whether they would like to move back into manager roles. Business Insider reported the move is voluntary (Yahoo Finance).

What the data says

• Team sizes are up. Gallup found the average number of people reporting to a manager rose from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025, “a nearly 50% increase in team size since Gallup first measured in 2013” (Gallup).
• Manager hiring is down. Employers advertised 12.3% fewer middle-manager jobs in 2025 than in 2024, according to Indeed, though overall listings also declined (Business Insider).
• Flattening is common. In Korn Ferry’s Workforce 2025 survey, 41% of employees said their organization had cut management layers (HCAMag).
• Few companies can reorganize fast. A KPMG index found only 30% of executives say their structures can reconfigure quickly (Fortune).

What the research warns

Bayes Business School’s André Spicer said of Meta’s 50-to-1 plan: “It’s going to end in tragedy is the bottom line.” He says flat structures work best in “expert-oriented organizations” such as software engineering, and that research puts the right-sized team at about seven people per manager, give or take a few (Fortune).

Gallup found that one manager habit matters more than most: meaningful feedback to each employee at least once a week, which “nearly triples the percentage of engaged employees” (Gallup). The bigger the team, the harder that gets.

What this means for a small business

Here is our read:

1. Go flat, not manager-free. Automate status tracking and reporting. Keep a named person responsible for coaching and decisions. Meta’s reversal shows what happens when that job disappears.
2. Set spans by the type of work. Expert teams that coordinate among themselves can run wider. Newer or junior teams need closer to seven per lead.
3. Write down who decides what. “People always will need clarity on decision rights and accountability,” said StockX cofounder Chris Kaufman (Business Insider).
4. Fix the process before you automate it. That’s Amex’s sequence, and it works at any size.
5. Test AI before adding headcount. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke asked staff to show why they “cannot get what they want done using AI” before requesting headcount (CNBC).

For Your Business

• This week, list every coordination task your leads do, such as status updates, scheduling, and reports, and mark which ones an AI tool could take over.
• Then list the coaching and judgment tasks, and protect time for a human to do them.
• Set a span target for each team based on how experienced it is.

For Your Kids

• Ask your teen: “What does a good team leader actually do?”
• With fewer management rungs at big companies, help your teen practice leading projects, clubs, and group work without a title.

What to watch

• Meta’s manager rebuild. Whether or not other companies follow its partial reversal.
• Amex’s execution. Le Caillec said Amex plans to remove layers and widen managers’ spans first, then automate more work over the next few years (HCAMag).
• Gallup’s next span-of-control reading. It will show whether team sizes keep climbing.

FAQ

Is AI replacing middle managers?

Partly, and the companies disagree. Block and Coinbase tied their cuts to AI. Amazon’s CEO attributed its October 2025 cuts to culture, not AI. Goldman’s spring cuts were reportedly not tied to AI. Meta is now restoring some manager roles.

What is a healthy span of control?

Research cited by Bayes Business School’s André Spicer puts it at about seven per manager, give or take a few. Expert teams that coordinate among themselves can run wider.

Should a startup have managers at all?

Yes, though fewer, and with clear jobs. Use AI for coordination, and keep humans accountable for coaching, decisions, and culture.

Sources

• HCAMag (Human Resources Director), “Amex slashes 5% as it strips out management layers to clear the way for AI” (October 2026), https://www.hcamag.com/us/specialization/change-management/amex-slashes-5-as-it-strips-out-management-layers-to-clear-the-way-for-ai/594799

• Yahoo Finance (originally Fortune), “Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta bet that AI would shrink its management ranks. Now it’s quietly rebuilding them” (September 2026), https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/mark-zuckerberg-meta-bet-ai-091600760.html

• Amazon (Beth Galetti), “Update on our organization” (January 28, 2026), https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-layoffs-corporate-jan-2026

• Business Insider, “Internal Amazon data shows retail managers hardest hit by US job cuts. Employees worry AWS could be next.” (October 28, 2025), https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-layoffs-hit-retail-managers-hardest-aws-could-be-next-2025-10

• Moneycontrol, “Amazon layoffs 2026: Tech and leadership roles face deep cuts as company trims layers across its Washington headquarters” (February 4, 2026), https://www.moneycontrol.com/technology/amazon-layoffs-2026-tech-and-leadership-roles-face-deep-cuts-as-company-trims-layers-across-its-washington-headquarters-article-13809769.html

• Fortune, “Amazon CEO says he’s cutting middle managers because they want to ‘put their fingerprint on everything.’ That’s music to the ears of Gen Z” (March 4, 2025), https://fortune.com/2025/03/04/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-middle-managers-rto-gen-z/

• Forbes (Jon Markman, contributor), “What Amazon’s Largest Layoff Means For The S&P 500” (January 30, 2026), https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/01/30/amazons-largest-layoff-and-what-this-mean-for-the-entire-sp-500/

• CNBC, “Block shares soar as much as 24% as company slashes workforce by nearly half” (February 26, 2026), https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/26/block-laying-off-about-4000-employees-nearly-half-of-its-workforce.html

• Block (Jack Dorsey and Roelof Botha), “From Hierarchy to Intelligence” (March 31, 2026), https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence

• Business Insider (Sarah E. Needleman), “Goodbye, middle managers. Hello, ‘player-coaches’ and ‘org leads.’” (April 4, 2026), https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-block-managers-player-coaches-org-leads-2026-4

• Fortune, “Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong replacing ‘pure managers’ with ‘player-coaches’ is another sign the org chart is changing in a big way” (May 5, 2026), https://fortune.com/2026/05/05/coinbase-layoffs-org-chart-player-coach-replaces-managers/

• GeekWire (Mary Jo Foley), “Mary Jo Foley: What the heck is going on with Microsoft lately?” (March 31, 2026), https://www.geekwire.com/2026/mary-jo-foley-what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-microsoft-lately/

• Business Insider (Reed Alexander), “Goldman Sachs is shaking up how it cuts low performers this spring” (March 19, 2026), https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-layoffs-cuts-underperformers-sra-spring-summer-2026-3

• Fortune (Claire Zillman), “Meta’s new AI team has 50 engineers per boss. What could go wrong?” (March 14, 2026), https://fortune.com/2026/03/14/metas-ai-team-50-flat-management-structure/

• The Register, “Those spared latest Meta job cuts forcibly reassigned to AI roles” (May 20, 2026), https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/20/meta-axes-thousands-of-roles-forcibly-transfers-7000-more/5243365

• IANS, “Zuckerberg rules out more Meta layoffs in 2026, admits mistakes in AI workforce overhaul” (June 13, 2026), https://ianslive.in/zuckerberg-rules-out-more-meta-layoffs-in-2026-admits-mistake-in-ai-workforce-overhaul–20260613103347

• Gallup, “Span of Control: What’s the Optimal Team Size for Managers?” (2026), https://www.gallup.com/workplace/700718/span-control-optimal-team-size-managers.aspx

• Fortune, “The org chart isn’t ready: How AI exposed the hidden crisis inside the American corporation” (April 15, 2026), https://fortune.com/2026/04/15/org-chart-c-suite-change-kpmg-adaptability-index/

• CNBC (Annie Palmer), “Shopify CEO says staffers need to prove jobs can’t be done by AI before asking for more headcount” (April 7, 2025), https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/07/shopify-ceo-prove-ai-cant-do-jobs-before-asking-for-more-headcount.html