By Guest commentary Friday, November 21st, 2025

By Gerhard Apfelthaler

For decades, business leaders have sketched their organizations as pyramids. At the top: executives. At the bottom: workers. In the middle: layers of managers. 

Some variations reflected distinct values of national or organizational cultures — steep and hierarchical in some environments, or flat and collaborative in others — but the basic shape was always the same: a pyramid. 

The pyramid symbolized authority, accountability, and predictable lines of command and control — a geometry that defined how decisions were made and how work was divided.

Technology, however, has always reshaped the pyramid. When personal computers and enterprise software emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, information became widely available. Executives no longer needed multiple layers of assistants and middle managers to filter and transmit knowledge. 

The result, as the Harvard Business Review described it, was “delayering” and empowerment. Organizations flattened. Decision-making moved closer to the front lines.

Today, artificial intelligence could redraw organizational geometry once again. Unlike earlier technologies that redistributed information, AI redistributes intelligence. Instead of simply flattening the pyramid, AI has the potential to hollow out its base. The resulting structure resembles less of a pyramid and more of an obelisk — a narrow and elongated cylinder.

Why does AI create obelisks? The answer lies in automation and decision-making. 

Tasks that once required research, creativity, or human judgment at lower levels are increasingly performed by agentic AI. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that up to 30% of tasks in 60% of all jobs could already be automated. Chatbots replace customer service tiers. 

AI copilots assist with coding, contract review, and marketing copy. Predictive models forecast demand or detect fraud more accurately than any junior analyst ever did — or ever will, unless they use AI.

As these functions become automated, entire strata of organizational life could be reduced. The traditional entry-level rung — where young professionals once learned the ropes while producing first drafts — starts to vanish as informal conversations I have recently had with top executives have confirmed, at least for some industries. 

With fewer rungs, the structure becomes tall and thin, a vertical obelisk where decisions flow from the top while execution is largely automated.

This “obelisk stage” offers both opportunity and risk. Companies gain efficiency, speed, and scale. But they also risk losing the human pipeline that, in the old pyramid, matured from the bottom up. 

Without intentional redesign, firms may face a leadership gap as AI strips away traditional career pathways, as MIT Sloan Management Review has warned.

Yet the obelisk is not the end state. As AI grows more capable, it will not only automate tasks but also augment higher-level strategic thinking. AI can simulate scenarios, test business models, and even generate options for boardroom debate. 

The Economist recently observed that AI is beginning to creep into “C-suite territory,” supporting mergers, acquisitions, and strategy development. When that happens, even the obelisk begins to shorten. What emerges might even be a cube — small, concentrated, but powerful. 

The cube represents a structure in which a few human leaders define vision and values while AI systems handle much of the execution, coordination, and analysis. The cube is not tall or wide, but dense – its value concentrated in a small number of empowered humans working alongside machines. 

This transformation — from pyramid to obelisk to cube — illustrates how technology shifts empowerment. In the past, empowerment meant giving employees more information so they could make decisions closer to the customer. Now, empowerment is shifting from individuals to systems. 

AI becomes the empowered agent, collapsing structures that once existed to process, translate, and decide. For today’s C-suites, this geometric evolution raises three urgent challenges. 

First, talent development without ladders: If entry-level jobs disappear, companies must invent new ways to develop future leaders. Apprenticeships, rotational programs, and AI-augmented learning experiences may replace the old “start at the bottom” model.

Second, governance and accountability: In a cube-shaped organization, who is responsible when AI makes a decision? Clear frameworks for accountability, transparency, and ethics will be essential.

Third, culture and trust: The cube may be efficient, but it risks becoming inhuman. Leaders must design cultures where employees feel valued and customers trust that AI serves human interests, not the other way around.

Geometry is destiny. The pyramid reflected a world of command and control. The flattened pyramid mirrored an age of distributed information. 

The obelisk could be the result of our current transition — lean, vertical, and AI-augmented. And the cube might just be the emerging shape of the future: compact, intelligent, and rebalanced between human purpose and machine capability.

C-level executives must not only recognize these shifting shapes but also consciously design them. The geometry of organizations is changing whether we like it or not, but it is still upon us to define the world that we want to live in, and the organizations we want to work in. 

Gerhard Apfelthaler is a professor of International Business and Dean of the School of Management at California Lutheran University.