BMW Just Announced It’s Replacing Several Management Roles With AI

BMW announced Wednesday it planned to slash its management structure by 20% while expanding the use of artificial intelligence across its operations.

The luxury carmaker said it will reduce the number of divisions and associated management roles by 20% by mid-2027, with comparable reductions at lower organizational levels. BMW said AI will play a central role in making the company more efficient, speeding up decision-making and automating routine work across development, manufacturing, purchasing, sales and other operations.

The restructuring comes as BMW faces weak European demand, growing competition from Chinese automakers and U.S. tariffs, while its shares have fallen more than 30% over the past year, according to Reuters. The automaker is also seeking to restore its automotive operating margin after it fell to roughly 2.3% in its latest results.

“Consistent use of agentic AI applications across all areas of the company will be a game-changer for more agile and efficient development, leaner structures and faster decision-making,” BMW finance chief Walter Mertl said.

BMW’s plan suggests AI will increasingly perform work that has traditionally moved through layers of managers, including analyzing information, coordinating workflows and handling routine decisions. The company said using AI across its operations would support “leaner structures” and faster decision-making as it reduces divisions and management positions, tying the technology directly to its broader push to operate with fewer organizational layers.

BMW said artificial intelligence will increasingly be integrated directly into core vehicle development processes, including technical requirements, testing and release. Specialized AI agents will analyze complex information and automate routine tasks, while developers will continue to monitor, review and approve the results.

The company already uses AI throughout its factories for digital twins, quality inspections and autonomous transportation systems and plans to have digital AI agents perform increasingly challenging tasks autonomously.

BMW’s push comes as companies across the economy increasingly turn to AI while workers grow more concerned about job security and corporate restructuring. The mean probability Americans assigned to unemployment being higher a year from now rose to 44.4% in August, up 1.6 percentage points from July and the highest reading since April 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Major companies have also increasingly linked restructuring and workforce reductions to AI-driven efficiency, although evidence that AI alone is already causing widespread layoffs remains mixed.

Meta, for example, was planning layoffs that could affect 20% or more of its workforce as the company sought to offset enormous AI infrastructure spending and prepare for greater productivity from AI-assisted employees, Reuters reported in March.