Is Agentic AI Upending the Corporate Ladder? EY’s Global Consulting AI Leader Shares What’s Coming

Diasio predicts that employees joining companies as early as next year will effectively start as managers on their first day.

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Dan Diasio, EY’s Global Consulting AI Leader, views agentic AI—autonomous AI systems that can independently plan, execute tasks, and make decisions—as driving the most significant revolution in management history.

This technology upends the traditional corporate ladder by compressing hierarchies and allowing junior employees to take on managerial responsibilities much earlier in their careers.

Core Belief: New Hires as Managers from Day One

Diasio predicts that employees joining companies as early as next year will effectively start as managers on their first day. Instead of overseeing human teams, they will manage an “agentic-based workforce” of powerful but sometimes unpredictable AI agents.

Key quote: “People that will join companies next year will be managers on day one. They will just be managing a workforce that is an agentic-based workforce, one that is extremely powerful and sometimes clumsy.”

How Agentic AI Upends the Corporate Ladder

Traditional progression — Historically, climbing the corporate ladder involved years of building credibility through human oversight, task execution, and people management.
With agentic AI — Routine and intermediate tasks are delegated to AI agents, enabling even entry-level workers to oversee complex workflows and achieve higher-impact outcomes immediately.
Result — This flattens or overturns the hierarchy, shifting the focus from managing people to “technological management”—instructing, evaluating, and collaborating with AI agents.

Required New Skills and Workflow

Diasio emphasizes a “human-agent-human” sequence of work to maintain differentiation and avoid commoditized results. Success in this AI-first environment will require skills like: