With AI, the frontline can take control in everyday operations

Inverted pyramid is more relevant than ever with AI

For years, digital transformation has mainly strengthened headquarters: more dashboards, more reporting systems, more centralized decision-making. Meanwhile, frontline teams — those who produce, repair, serve, deliver, or welcome — still work with tools that are slow, heavy, or not designed for action.

This is where the value is created

And yet, this is where value is created: in the interaction with the customer, the product, the technical incident, the material detail. These teams frequently say:

“We know what should be done. We just don’t have the authority to do it.”

This is not a motivation issue. It is a power issue: the power to act has been centralized too high.

Generative AI changes the situation because it can support decision-making where work actually happens. But the key point is this:

Technology changes nothing if authority stays where it is.

Thomas Davenport, Marco Iansiti and Mariya Yao all show that digitalization only transforms organizations when decision-making moves closer to the real world.

AI can reinforce autonomy and responsability

If AI only removes uncertainty but keeps the decision at the top, it reinforces control. If AI helps frontline workers evaluate situations and act within a defined responsibility zone, it reinforces autonomy and accountability.

Example

A field technician detects an abnormal vibration. Before: report → validation → diagnostic → delay → sometimes too late.Now: smartphone app + threshold rules:

• If the problem is within the norm → immediate local action

• If the problem exceeds the threshold → escalation

AI does not replace judgment. It supports judgment and secures autonomy.

As Ethan Mollick puts it:

“The manager’s role is shifting from the center of decision to the architect of autonomy.”

This doesn’t mean “less management”. It means a more valuable form of management: one that clarifies the boundaries and encourages initiative.

Power to act

The real transformation is not digital. It is organizational and managerial:

We strengthen engagement not by motivating people,but by giving them the power to act.

• Thomas H. Davenport — The AI Advantage: How to Put the Artificial Intelligence Revolution to Work, MIT Press, 2018. MIT Press.

• Marco Iansiti (avec Karim R. Lakhani) — Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World, Harvard Business Review Press, 2020.

• Mariya Yao — Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook for Business Leaders, (co-auteurs : Adelyn Zhou, Marlene Jia), White­Paper / Digital Press, 2019.

• Ethan Mollick — Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI, Penguin Group, 2024.