Americans Open to AI Bosses, Survey Finds
▼ Summary
– A Quinnipiac University poll found 15% of Americans are willing to have an AI program as their direct supervisor for tasks and schedules.
– Companies such as Workday, Amazon, and Uber are implementing AI to handle management tasks like expense reports and employee pitches.
– This trend of using AI to replace management layers is being referred to as “The Great Flattening” in organizations.
– The same poll shows 70% of Americans believe AI advances will decrease the number of job opportunities for people.
– Among employed Americans surveyed, 30% are concerned that AI could make their own job obsolete.
A surprising portion of the American workforce is now open to the idea of taking direction from artificial intelligence. A recent national survey reveals that 15% of U.S. adults would be willing to work in a role where an AI program served as their direct supervisor, handling task assignments and scheduling. This data comes from a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in late March 2026, which gathered responses from nearly 1,400 adults on topics including AI adoption and workplace anxieties.
Naturally, a strong majority still prefer human leadership. Yet the practical application of AI in management roles is undeniably expanding, even if these systems are not yet overseeing entire departments. Major corporations are already integrating this technology to streamline operations and reduce managerial layers. Workday, for instance, has introduced AI agents capable of autonomously filing and approving employee expense reports. Amazon has implemented new AI workflows that assume certain middle-management duties, a shift that accompanied significant layoffs within its managerial ranks. At Uber, engineers developed an AI simulation of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to vet project pitches before the real executive reviews them.
This trend toward using automation to replace traditional management tiers is part of a broader corporate movement some analysts term “The Great Flattening.” The logical extension of this shift could eventually lead to highly automated organizations, perhaps even billion-dollar enterprises operated with minimal human intervention.
Despite this technological march forward, American workers express considerable concern about its implications. The same Quinnipiac survey found that 70% of respondents believe AI advances will decrease job opportunities overall. Looking closer, 30% of currently employed Americans reported being very or somewhat concerned that AI technology could specifically render their own positions obsolete.
(Source: TechCrunch)
