I don’t see why this would stop at middle management. With rapidly evolving AI and things like chatGPT, I don’t see why many senior management functions could not be replaced. The only thing potentially limiting this possibility is that the managers would have to obsolete themselves. Not likely. However, an honest board of directors acting on their fiduciary responsibility. Probably should choose to replace much of this high priced meat with digits that have no self interest. Only those can bring value above and beyond the technology would have a place.
For established companies making mostly legacy products, it is often hard to justify CAPEX because the cost savings on making todays goods are not sufficiently high. Manufacturing headcount is already not that high. The total delivered costs of a plant's output are not primarily driven by plant personnel costs. Instead costs for input materials/components and logistics often dominate.
I don’t see why this would stop at middle management. With rapidly evolving AI and things like chatGPT, I don’t see why many senior management functions could not be replaced. The only thing potentially limiting this possibility is that the managers would have to obsolete themselves. Not likely. However, an honest board of directors acting on their fiduciary responsibility. Probably should choose to replace much of this high priced meat with digits that have no self interest. Only those can bring value above and beyond the technology would have a place.
For established companies making mostly legacy products, it is often hard to justify CAPEX because the cost savings on making todays goods are not sufficiently high. Manufacturing headcount is already not that high. The total delivered costs of a plant's output are not primarily driven by plant personnel costs. Instead costs for input materials/components and logistics often dominate.