Flipping through the latest Harvard Business Review (September – October 2025), one thing is clear: AI now sits at the center of nearly every conversation about work — its impact on leadership, productivity, and how organizations adapt. A few articles in particular caught the eye and made us think about the changing world of work.
AI is reshaping not just how we work — but who does the work, how decisions flow, and how brands (and employers) show up in the digital world. From shifting management structures to new forms of digital visibility, here are three ideas worth watching.
1. The Middle Manager Meltdown: What Happens to Information Flow?
As highlighted in Harvard Business Review’s article Where Are the Middle Managers?, organizations are rethinking their management layers. The Korn Ferry Workforce 2025: Power Shifts survey (15,000+ employees) found that 41% of respondents said their organizations have fewer middle managers this year, and 37% said the lack of managers has left them feeling directionless.
Why does this happen? When managers leave, senior executives are often left to pick up the slack — on top of their already heavy strategic workload.
As automation and AI tools take on coordination roles, companies are experimenting with flatter structures. But that raises a big question:
If information has always cascaded through managers, how will it flow without them?
The traditional “cascade” model — executive message → manager → team — is breaking down. Organizations will need new digital infrastructures and cultural norms to keep alignment and trust intact. Internal communication tools, AI knowledge hubs, and transparent strategy-sharing may become the new “middle layer.”
Read more: Korn Ferry: Workforce Planning Insights
2. When AI Makes Us Less Motivated
According to the Harvard Business Review article Using Gen AI Can Make Workers Feel Disengaged, AI can boost quality but hurt motivation when people go back to working without it.
In a study of 3,562 UK workers, researchers found that people who collaborated with ChatGPT produced higher-quality work — from marketing posts to performance reviews — but later felt less motivated and more bored when asked to perform similar tasks solo.
Specifically, their intrinsic motivation dropped by 11% and boredom rose by 20% once the AI assistance was removed. The takeaway: AI can make work easier, but it may also make it less satisfying when the human-AI partnership disappears.
To balance this, researchers suggest managers:
– Communicate clearly how AI supports, not replaces, human contributions.
– Frame collaboration with AI as skill enhancement, not delegation.
– Focus on meaning, not just output — helping employees see how their input matters to the end result.
AI can be an empowering partner, but it shouldn’t become the only source of stimulation at work.
Read more: Nature study on GenAI and motivation
3. Employer Branding in the Age of AI Search
As discussed in Harvard Business Review’s Brands Must Optimize for LLMs, Not Just Search, research by Jellyfish and INSEAD (Meet the Model: How to Market to LLMs and Sell to Humans) reveals a growing gap between how brands appear in LLMs (like ChatGPT) and how customers recognize them in real life.
That raises a new question for HR and employer branding:
How visible and accurate is your employer brand inside AI systems that jobseekers and professionals use every day?
Try this experiment:
1. Start simple: “Tell me about [Your Company] as an employer.”
2. Go deeper: “What are the best companies to work for in [your industry]?”
3. Analyze: Is the answer accurate, positive, and aligned with your real brand?
4. Compare competitors: Which employers show up first — and why?
Over time, “AI visibility” may become a new metric in employer branding. If generative models are the next search engines, companies will need to understand how they are portrayed — and optimize accordingly.
Read more: Jellyfish & INSEAD: Meet the Model — How to Market to LLMs and Sell to Humans
Closing
From shifting power structures to the psychology of AI collaboration and the new frontier of digital reputation, the message is clear:
AI isn’t just transforming work — it’s transforming how people connect to work.
At GuavaHR, we help teams adapt to these shifts — combining data-driven insights with human-centered design to keep organizations aligned, motivated, and ready for what’s next.
Sources
- Harvard Business Review, September–October 2025 edition: Where Are the Middle Managers?; Using Gen AI Can Make Workers Feel Disengaged; Brands Must Optimize for LLMs, Not Just Search
- Korn Ferry: Workforce Planning Insights
- Nature study on GenAI and motivation
- Jellyfish & INSEAD: Meet the Model — How to Market to LLMs and Sell to Humans