Our Digital CoWorkers (Part 1): A New Org Chart

Written By Jay Kiew

Introduction: A Tectonic Shift in Organizational Structure

Did you know that in addition to taking over tasks, AI is rewriting company org charts?

Companies are leveraging The Change Fluency Co. to shift that number.

Recent insights suggest that within just a few years, machines and AI agents will handle more work tasks than human employees. In fact, a majority of business leaders anticipate this tipping point imminently – essentially two-thirds of executives expect AI to overtake humans in task execution in the near future. Companies are already seeing the impact: about 66% report measurable productivity gains from their AI initiatives.[1] However, most organizations haven’t kept pace in restructuring how work is done. Fewer than a third have fundamentally redesigned their workflows or org structures to integrate AI – one survey found that while 89% of companies revamped their data strategy for generative AI, only 26% have deployed AI solutions at scale in their operations.[2]

This gap between AI’s potential and traditional org design is growing into a chasm.

AI is effectively automating tasks faster than organizations can reimagine roles, creating urgency for a new kind of org chart.

AI Disruption is Breaking the Old Org Chart

Change Fluency is required to adapt to rewriting the traditional Org Chart

Change Fluency is required to rewrite the old Org Chart

AI’s rapid uptake is disrupting traditional roles and ladders that once seemed stable. We’ve already witnessed tens of thousands of jobs eliminated this year due to AI, and surveys indicate 41% of employers plan workforce reductions in the next five years for the same reason.[3] But it’s not just individual jobs at stake – it’s the very hierarchy and design of organizations. Fast Company expert Mark Minevich warns that “2025–2026 will be the year companies prepare for a generational change in how we work with AI… Org charts will be completely rewritten or scrapped entirely.”[4]

In other words, the classic top-down org chart is on the verge of a major overhaul. AI tools and “digital coworkers” are taking over entry-level, routine, and even some analytical tasks that formed the lower rungs of the corporate ladder. As AI handles more work, companies can operate with leaner teams or entirely new team compositions. Traditional departments are being forced to reconsider how they deliver value when algorithms can do in seconds what junior staff did in days.

This upheaval is creating both chaos and opportunity.

  • On one hand, employees fear a “ladderless” future – if AI cuts out the bottom rungs (those junior roles), how do people gain experience and advance?

  • On the other hand, forward-thinking companies see a chance to fundamentally reimagine work. Rather than simply eliminate roles, they are inserting AI into the org chart as a new class of digital worker.

In these organizations, AI tools and agents become an integrated part of teams – handling data-crunching, first drafts, routine customer interactions, you name it – while humans focus on what truly requires human touch (creative strategy, complex relationship management, novel problem-solving).

But realizing this vision means redesigning processes and reassigning responsibilities between humans and machines. It’s a strategic realignment that few companies have mastered so far – only a minority have transformed “how work gets done” to harness AI, while most are still in pilot mode.[5]

Enter the Functional AI Leaders – New Roles for a New Era

To bridge this gap, pioneering organizations are adding new leadership roles dedicated to AI in each business function. Instead of expecting a legacy department head to figure out AI on top of their day job, companies are carving out AI-focused leadership positions: for example, VP of Marketing AI, Head of HR AI Agents, Director of Finance Automation. These are not just IT roles or data science positions – they’re hybrid business-technology roles sitting within functions, charged with weaving AI into every process and product in that domain. We can think of them as “AI chiefs” for each team, reporting into the function’s leader (or in some cases being the functional leader themselves with a strong AI mandate).

What’s driving this trend is the realization that AI integration requires full-time ownership and expertise. A VP of Marketing AI, for instance, would oversee the design and implementation of AI tools that generate campaign content, segment customers, and analyze brand sentiment – work that used to be done by numerous marketing analysts and coordinators. This functional AI leader doesn’t replace the marketing strategy; instead, they augment and elevate the marketing team’s capabilities with AI. Crucially, they also govern the use of AI in their domain – setting standards for quality, ethics, and ROI measurement. Similarly, a Head of HR AI Agents might deploy AI coworkers to automate recruiting screening, employee FAQ chatbots, or training personalization, all while ensuring these systems are fair and aligned with HR’s human values.

By establishing AI leaders in each department, companies create clear accountability for AI outcomes. These leaders act as translators between technical AI teams and business teams. They identify high-impact use cases, “coach” their AI coworkers (tuning models, refining prompts, retraining as needed), and continuously redesign workflows to best allocate tasks between people and machines.

The early evidence is promising – organizations that treat AI deployment as a business process redesign (not just an IT project) are seeing significant gains.

For example, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) recently introduced AI (Microsoft’s Copilot) across its operations. Under guided leadership, BCI redesigned workflows around human-AI collaboration – and as a result saw productivity jump by 10–20% for the vast majority of users, with job satisfaction up 68% and over 2,300 hours saved[6]. Notably, they achieved this not by simply throwing AI into the mix, but by reimagining how work gets done with AI in the loop. Such functional AI leadership ensures that AI isn’t just a tool, but a team member – one whose “schedule” and “job description” must be managed like any other employee.

Designing the AI-Integrated Org Chart

An AI-powered Digital Workforce Org Chart, designed by The Change Fluency Co.

An AI-powered Digital Workforce Org Chart, designed by The Change Fluency Co.

What does an AI-era org chart look like? In many companies, we will still see familiar departments – Marketing, Operations, Finance, HR, etc. – but within each, the team composition will include digital workers alongside human workers. Picture a project team where a human manager oversees several employees and a set of AI agents. The org chart might list an AI platform or agent as if it were a staff member (“AI Assistant – Reports Analysis, vacant” – occupied by a software agent). In practice, this means routine tasks (report generation, basic customer inquiries, coding QA) sit under the purview of AI, guided by human oversight. Meanwhile, new human roles emerge to supervise and optimize those AI agents (hence the functional AI leaders and their teams).

Moreover, entirely new divisions could form around AI capabilities. Some organizations are creating Centers of Excellence for AI – cross-functional teams that advise and support AI deployment company-wide. These centers often include ethicists, data scientists, change management experts, and are led by a Chief AI Officer or similar. Their job is to ensure consistency and governance as AI is infused everywhere. We’re also seeing roles like AI Product Manager, AI Trainer, AI Ethicist become common on org charts[7] – roles focused on maintaining AI systems as they would a workforce (training them, evaluating performance, preventing biases or security breaches).

For leadership, the implication is that every executive will need an AI strategy for their function. It’s no longer tenable for, say, a Chief Marketing Officer to leave AI experiments solely to the IT or analytics team. CMOs now appoint Marketing AI Leads to integrate generative AI into content creation. Chief HR Officers appoint heads of AI workforce augmentation to implement AI in training and talent management. Across the board, companies are elevating AI to the leadership level, often explicitly. According to industry recruiters, AI-focused leadership positions have surged, growing 40–60% year-over-year as enterprises seek talent who can drive AI adoption in each domain[8]. Simply put, if data was the new oil, then AI expertise is the new leadership gold.

Owning AI Design, Implementation, and Governance

One core mandate of these digital workforce leaders is governance – making sure AI is used responsibly and effectively. When AI sits on the org chart, questions of accountability naturally arise. Who “supervises” an AI agent’s work? Who evaluates its performance or flags when it makes a bad decision? This is where the functional AI leader must establish guidelines. For example, a Head of HR AI will set policies for how an AI hiring assistant screens resumes (and ensure bias isn’t creeping in). A VP of Marketing AI will decide what brand voice the generative AI should emulate and put in guardrails so it doesn’t go off-script. Essentially, these leaders own the design, implementation, and oversight of AI in their domain. They collaborate with central IT and data teams on technical execution, but they translate AI capabilities into domain-specific processes and rules.

Equally important, they focus on training their human teams to work alongside AI. This often means upskilling staff – teaching a marketer how to get the best results from a copywriting AI, or training a customer support rep to handle escalations from an AI chatbot. Change management and capability-building are part of the job description. Our own Change Fluency insights stress that organizations must build “change fluency” – the ability to continuously adapt through learning and experimentation – especially when introducing AI. Leaders who foster a culture of upskilling, transparency, and feedback help employees move from fearing AI to confidently leveraging it. (As we often note at The Change Fluency Co., fluency beats resistance – teams that treat change as a constant are far more resilient and innovative.) Companies that succeed with AI make change feel routine by normalizing new tools and iterating processes[9]. The functional AI leader thus acts as both innovator and educator, ensuring their org unit not only implements AI, but also embraces the new ways of working it requires.

Embracing the New Org Chart – Preparing for What’s Next

The takeaway for executives is clear: organizational structures must evolve if you want to unlock AI’s value. This isn’t a passive trend that will “settle down” – it’s an active reshaping of work. Leaders should assess their current org chart and ask: Where will AI have the biggest impact, and do I have the right people in charge of that?

If the answer is uncertain, it may be time to designate functional AI owners, invest in workflow redesign, and rethink how teams are composed. The companies already ahead of the curve are fundamentally reimagining roles rather than simply automating tasks. They recognize that AI’s full potential comes when you pair it with human creativity and oversight in a deliberate structure.

In short, tomorrow’s winning org charts will be those that deliberately mix human and AI talent. The leaders who lean into AI as a catalyst for progress will be the architects of tomorrow’s org charts. That future org chart will feature AI colleagues, AI-savvy functional leaders, and teams built around human-AI collaboration. The first movers are already redesigning job descriptions and workflows to accommodate this reality.

For others, the window to start is now.

Ready to Future‑Proof Your Org Chart?

That’s where The Change Fluency™ Co. comes in. For as little as $5K per month, we step in as your fractional Chief AI Officer (CAIO), giving you executive‑level AI horsepower without the full‑time payroll hit. Our team has guided organizations from first‑time pilots to enterprise‑wide rollouts, helping them redesign org charts, elevate human talent, and embed AI governance every step of the way. You can choose how we support you from a wide range of advisory services

Change Fluency Fractional AI Services.jpg

Change Fluency Fractional AI Services.jpg

Whether you’re just AI‑curious, knee‑deep in pilots, or struggling to scale, we’ll meet you where you are and turn AI disruption into your competitive edge.

Click here to book a 30‑minute discovery call today, and let’s draft the org chart your future deserves.

Jay Kiew
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