Managers in the Machine: Rethinking Management for the Human-AI Era

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Kristen Bowen, Product Lead for People Development at Google; Omer Glass, CEO and Co-Founder at Growthspace; Jeff Schulz, Vice President of Professional Services at InStride; and Allison Bailey, Managing Director and Senior Partner at Boston Consulting Group.The speakers explored how, as AI agents took on more operational and cognitive work, leadership and management roles across organizations were being fundamentally reshaped. They examined how work once owned by individuals was increasingly being orchestrated through intelligent systems, while tools like digital twins were beginning to model workflows, performance, and decision-making at scale.This session focused on how management was no longer confined to formal leadership roles, as employees at every level were learning to direct, supervise, and collaborate with AI alongside human teammates. Panelists discussed what effective leadership looked like in an AI-enabled workplace where middle managers became critical translators between humans and machines, accountability was being redefined, and organizations needed new frameworks for managing both people and intelligent systems.At its core, this conversation examined how leadership itself must evolve in the human-AI era. By rethinking management as a dynamic capability that integrated human judgment, technological fluency, and organizational adaptability, the session highlighted what it would take to lead effectively in workplaces increasingly shaped by intelligent systems.