Beyond Ladders: Building Relationship Capital in an AI World

Nearly 40 percent of global employment is exposed to artificial intelligence, according to a 2024 analysis by the IMF. Exposure rises to about 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies where screen based, cognitive work is more common.

A 2025 article from the World Economic Forum reports that 40 percent of employers expect to reduce their workforce where AI can automate tasks. This trend puts particular pressure on entry level roles that have long served as on ramps to more stable careers.

Corporate Ladders Under Pressure

Twentieth century corporations often offered stable salaries in exchange for loyalty and specialization. This model was supported by layers of middle management that coordinated work and provided predictable promotion paths.

As software absorbs more repeatable tasks, that model faces pressure. Routine coordination such as drafting, summarizing, and routing decisions can be handled with AI tools rather than dedicated roles.

Research summarized by the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research finds that an AI support tool increased customer service productivity by about 14 percent on average. The largest gains were seen among newer and lower skill workers who learned tasks faster.

A related study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics reports that access to generative AI suggestions raised the number of customer issues resolved per hour by 15 percent on average. Improvements were even larger for lower skill and novice agents.

When software narrows skill gaps in this way, firms can often achieve the same output with fewer junior staff and fewer managers focused mainly on training and oversight.

Scarcity Shifts to Human Judgment

As routine tasks migrate to code, the scarcest contribution inside firms becomes judgment under uncertainty. This includes choosing priorities, negotiating trade offs, and taking measured risks when data are incomplete.

These activities require colleagues to trust that decisions are sound even when outcomes are not fully predictable.

Teams with high internal trust can move more quickly because they spend less time checking intermediate steps. They can devote more time to applying shared context to new problems.

In flatter organizations that combine this trust with AI tools, small groups can take on work that previously required much larger departments.

When work is organized around smaller units that rely heavily on software, performance depends on how reliably people share information and accept delegated decisions. That kind of coordination relies less on formal hierarchy and more on repeated interactions where competence and reliability are visible.

Weak Ties Prove Their Worth

Mark Granovetter’s 1973 strength of weak ties theory argued that acquaintances, rather than close friends, often play a central role in job finding. They connect people to new information and social circles.

A 2022 field experiment published in Science examined this idea at LinkedIn scale. It found that weaker ties increased job transitions more than strong ones on average in that setting.

When career ladders inside firms become less certain, these bridging connections shift from optional networking to practical infrastructure. They help workers learn about openings in other teams or organizations before their own roles erode.

These ties also provide channels to move between firms that are adopting AI at different speeds.

In a labor market where AI reshapes task mixes instead of guaranteeing one for one replacement of jobs, access to diverse weak ties can influence who is able to change roles without long periods of unemployment. Workers whose networks cross industries or geographies are better positioned to respond when specific functions are automated or reorganized.

From Transactional to Relational

In many professional settings, networking has often emphasized the number of contacts rather than the depth of collaboration with any one group. As generative AI tools spread and information becomes widely accessible, large contact lists matter less on their own because many people can reach similar data or general advice.

According to a 2025 overview from the World Economic Forum, trends in AI and information processing are projected to create about 11 million jobs while displacing about 9 million. That pattern favors adaptable teams and individuals who can move across projects and employers as roles change.

This adaptability is more valuable than relying only on advancement within a single, fixed hierarchy.

In organizations that experiment with AI, stable groups of collaborators can apply lessons from one assignment to the next, reducing the need to renegotiate expectations each time. This persistence allows high trust relationships to function as operational assets that lower coordination costs and support more complex work with fewer people.

Implications for Workers and Firms

For individual workers, career security increasingly depends on two related forms of relationship capital. Broad networks of weak ties surface information about emerging opportunities.

Smaller circles of strong, high trust partners make it easier to pursue those opportunities quickly and with shared standards.

For firms, combining AI enabled efficiency with cultures of trust makes it possible to run lean structures without constant bottlenecks. Organizations that rely only on thick hierarchies risk slower decisions and higher costs.

This happens as competitors use small, coordinated teams to recombine talent and technology for new projects.

This creates a clear tension. The same technologies that compress corporate structures and reduce the number of routine roles increase the practical value of durable, high quality relationships that technology does not replace.

For many people and organizations, continuity now rests less on a single employer and more on the set of trusted collaborators they can call when the next shift in tools or tasks arrives.

Sources

• International Monetary Fund. "AI Will Transform the Global Economy. Let's Make Sure It Benefits Humanity." IMF Blog, 2024.
• World Economic Forum. "How AI Is Reshaping the Career Ladder, and Other Trends in Jobs and Skills on Labour Day." World Economic Forum, 2025.
• MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research. "Generative AI and Worker Productivity." MIT Sloan School of Management, 2024.
• Erik Brynjolfsson, Danielle Li, Lindsey R. Raymond. "Generative AI at Work." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2025.
• Mark Granovetter. "The Strength of Weak Ties." American Journal of Sociology, 1973.
• Sinan Aral, Erik Brynjolfsson, and coauthors. "Weak Ties in LinkedIn Job Mobility." Science, 2022.