For a long time in tech, "more impact" quietly became shorthand for "more people reporting to you." I think that assumption is breaking.
AI is increasing the value of high-judgment operators who can move work end to end. It makes management a choice again, instead of the default path to influence.
I have worked as an engineer, lead, manager, and executive long enough to see how easily organizations confuse headcount with leverage. Some of the highest-value people I know were never bottlenecked by title. They were bottlenecked by tool access, context, and the distance between decision and execution.
AI is reducing some of that distance. The result is not "management is obsolete." The result is that weak management becomes easier to see, while strong hands-on operators become harder to ignore. That is a healthy correction. Titles should follow leverage, not compensate for its absence.
If your title keeps growing while your direct leverage keeps shrinking, is that really progression?