For years, the biggest fear about artificial intelligence has been that it will replace engineers, developers and other highly skilled technical workers. But according to Anupam Mittalfounder and CEO of People Group and a judge on Shark Tank India Season 5, this fear may be misplaced.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Mittal argued that the real target of AI disruption is not the coder, but the middle manager. “AI is not aimed at coders first. It is aimed at middle managers,” Mittal wrote, calling the shift a fundamental overhaul of how companies define value and productivity.
Why Coders Are Safer
Despite the rapid rise of code generation tools and AI co-pilots, developers remain essential to modern businesses. Writing software, creating products, debugging systems, and making architectural decisions always requires human judgment, creativity, and responsibility.
AI can speed up coding, but it doesn’t replace the need for people who understand systems end-to-end.
In fact, Mittal emphasizes that the companies he supports are more modest than ever, but deeply technical.
It said it was invested in companies generating ₹300-1,000 crore in annual recurring revenue with around 50 employees, powered by stacks of AI agents. The common thread is not fewer engineers, but fewer layers of management.
The knowledge premium has collapsed
The real risk, according to Mittal, lies in roles that have been built around knowledge of processes rather than outcomes.
“In the ancient world, seniority was an indicator of process knowledge and work coordination,” he writes. “You were paid to know who to call and how to get things done. That knowledge bonus is now zero.”
AI systems excel at precisely these tasks: routing work, summarizing information, coordinating workflows, and handling unstructured data. These were once the main strengths of middle management.
Today, they are increasingly automated.
Why middle management is vulnerable
Mittal was blunt in his assessment of roles that lack direct ownership. “The ‘vice president of operations’ who doesn’t manage anything is an endangered species,” he said.
In an environment of high interest rates and tight capital, companies are examining their overhead costs more aggressively. Roles focused on coordination without measurable results are harder to justify when AI can perform similar functions more quickly and at lower cost.
“If your work is mostly coordination, with no measurable output, you have overhead. And in a world of high interest rates, overhead is low,” Mittal added.
The rise of the “Individual Contributor Plus”
Rather than a future dominated by AI replacing humans, Mittal envisions a future shaped by amplified individuals.
He calls this model “Individual Contributor Plus”: professionals capable of building, coding, creating, selling or aligning teams while using AI to multiply their impact. “These are people who can do the work of a team of 20 people thanks to AI,” he wrote.
This change rewards practical skills, decision-making, and responsibility when it comes to hierarchy and titles. It also explains why engineers, designers, product builders, and sales professionals who actively use AI become more valuable, not less.
Adapt or be automated
Mittal is clear that AI is not a silver bullet and will not solve everything. But it performs exceptionally well in non-deterministic workflows and messy data – the same areas where human managers once added the most value.
His advice is direct: learn to build, not just manage. “Challenge default thinking. Synthesize quickly, separate signal from noise, and turn it into judgment,” he wrote.
