The pace of technological change is accelerating, with AI infrastructure spending alone estimated to top $4 trillion in the next five years. The challenge for companies is to keep up, leveraging the full potential of the technology to create tangible business value.
At the same time, employees are grappling with a combination of both opportunities and fears around AI. On one hand, every employee can now become an AI-empowered “superworker”—leveraging the technology to dramatically increase their productivity, innovation and performance. But on the other hand, provocative headlines and mass layoffs have prompted uncertainty, with 58% of employees fearing automation threatens their job security. AI transformation is not just a technology challenge—it’s about the people undergoing the change.
How can companies harness the potential AI creates for them, navigate and mitigate concerns from employees, and power frontline innovation across every business unit?
Strong people leadership is essential: Superworker companies require a new kind of manager, which we call a “supermanager.”
See also: AI superworkers ‘coming on like a freight train.’ Are you ready?
Why does a superworker need a supermanager?
If a superworker can be defined as an individual who uses AI to dramatically enhance their productivity, performance and creativity, then what’s a supermanager? Does AI mean that we don’t need managers at all?
Our new research says otherwise. The role of the manager is not going away with AI; rather, it must evolve. Traditional managers solely responsible for supervising work, sharing status updates and writing performance reviews are becoming a thing of the past. Management in the age of AI is about redesigning work, encouraging and capturing frontline innovation and unlocking the potential of superworker teams—driving impact beyond functional areas and for the organization at large.
The supermanager is both a human-centered leader and a technology translator. Their contribution is to cultivate employee capability, curiosity and confidence on their teams. And supermanagers are the leaders who make AI work for their teams—while leveraging AI themselves to become more effective people leaders.
But, there’s a clear business driver here, too—without supermanagers, organizations will struggle to get the levels of ROI they are looking for from AI. The evidence is starting to become overwhelming that success in AI transformation is determined less by the sophistication of technology and more by whether organizations have leaders capable of integrating it humanely and effectively.
Supermanagers do just this: They offer a combination of human-centricity, technological prowess and transformation-ready skills to create an environment where superworkers can thrive. They are not just defined by how they adopt and evangelize AI tools, but also in the culture and employee experience they bring to bear. And HR—as stewards of manager and leadership development—will be crucial for enabling supermanager success and leading the redefinition of the organization’s management paradigms.
Making AI transparency a central pillar of transformation initiatives
Supermanagers operate on a foundation of trust. And in the age of AI, trust starts with intentional transparency at the organizational level. Few things corrode morale faster than the suspicion that a faceless algorithm is making decisions behind closed doors. When companies fail to explain how and why they are deploying AI, employees quickly fill the silence with fear and speculation.
The more advanced organizations we have spoken with have already made this realization. Firms such as ASOS, Microsoft and Clifford Chance, for example, have made AI transparency a central pillar of their transformation programs. Using platforms like Microsoft Copilot and Viva, they have created digital spaces where employees can see, in plain language, how AI is being used in their environments, what data it draws upon and what expectations apply to their own work.
These efforts are not merely cosmetic. They form a conscious redrawing of the foundational psychological “contract” between the employer and employees. When workers understand how AI systems operate and what safeguards are in place, they are more likely to experiment, to share ideas and to innovate.
Supermanagers play a critical role in the trust-building process—by translating companywide policies into context, emphasizing guardrails and creating psychological safety where experimentation is welcomed and encouraged. They must be able to explain how AI supports the company’s mission, create and reinforce boundaries for safe experimentation, listen to team member concerns and correct misconceptions.
Creating an open, two-way dialogue is critical, which requires ears and voices. When it comes to listening to employees in the age of AI, annual surveys and periodic check-ins are not enough. The good news is, AI has actually enhanced listening technology—unlocking capabilities to capture continuous feedback, analyze sentiment and nudge managers to take action to support their teams.
These platforms don’t just enable supermanagers—they empower them; rather than waiting for HR to interpret survey results and cascade recommendations months later, supermanagers can access data in real time and engage directly with their teams. Listening becomes a continuous process, woven into the rhythm of work itself.
The importance of supermanagers leading by example
The other side of listening is communication—which now has to be personalized, relevant and immediate. Here again, AI is helping. Intelligent communication platforms can tailor messages to individuals and teams, ensuring that each employee receives information that matters to them, in the channel they prefer, at the moment it is most relevant.
Yet the most powerful form of communication remains behavior. Employees learn what’s acceptable not from handbooks or slide decks, but from what their managers do every day. Supermanagers, therefore, play a symbolic as well as operational role—the human interface of digital transformation, demonstrating what trustworthy AI adoption looks like in practice.
So, managers will need to walk the walk. By using AI tools themselves—experimenting, learning, sharing both successes and failures—aspiring supermanagers legitimize experimentation for others, creating reassurance that trying, erring and learning is an important part of the transformation process.
When a global engineering services leader rolled out an AI-powered talent marketplace, for example, they encouraged internal managers to adopt it early and discuss their experiences candidly. As they did, employees began to follow—and the technology became a bridge to greater visibility, mentorship and mobility.
The result was not only more efficient talent deployment but also a deeper sense of trust. The lesson is that when managers lead by example, culture follows—and to make AI happen at your company, this is why you need supermanagers.
Help your company pick up the AI ball and run with it
Supermanagers have an important opportunity ahead. They are emerging as the bridge between employer-led digital transformation and workforce empowerment—ensuring that AI becomes a force multiplier for human potential.
Supermanagers do this by:
- Integrating AI seamlessly into daily workflows, using technology to enhance decision-making, creativity and team performance.
- Building trust and transparency, demystifying how AI is used, what data informs it and how it supports the organization’s mission.
- Modelling responsible AI adoption by using AI tools themselves, sharing learnings—both successes and failures—and creating psychological safety for experimentation.
- Empowering continuous learning, encouraging their teams to explore, adapt and grow with new technologies rather than fear them.
- Blending human-centricity with the power of technology, leveraging AI-powered platforms to become stronger people leaders and guide people through change.
For HR, enabling the emergence of supermanagers means leadership development must now include AI fluency and digital ethics as core competencies. Managers need the skills to not only support their teams through the changes ahead but also to lead the way themselves.
It’s time for companies to rethink their management models for the superworker era, redefine what strong management looks like and empower leaders at all levels to amplify and accelerate innovation.
Not how much AI, but how you can help your people use it to become superworkers
A major motivator is that our research shows that organizations leading in AI transformation focus on trust, AI transparency and empowerment, creating a safe environment for experimentation and learning. This requires strong leadership at all levels to carry this culture forward.
Bottom line: In 2025 and 2026, the defining challenge for organizations won’t be implementing AI, but driving meaningful impact from it. Rather than simply supervising people and implementing technology, supermanagers help by managing technology and empowering people, building trust through transparency, integrating AI seamlessly into daily workflows and creating the psychological safety that enables experimentation.
With nearly six in 10 employees still fearing that automation could replace their jobs, these leaders are proving that trust, not technology, is the real engine of transformation.
For HR leaders, the message is loud and clear: Future competitiveness depends not on how much AI you have, but on how you can turn every employee into an AI-powered superworker.
