Why Your Org Chart Needs To Be Pentagon Shaped
AI isn’t just automating tasks – it’s reshaping the very structure of work. According to Accenture, 44% of working hours in the US are now in scope for automation or augmentation, while LinkedIn reports that 20% of today’s professionals hold job titles that didn’t exist in 2000. Roles are evolving faster than traditional org charts can keep up.
As agentic AI tools become more capable, companies face a strategic challenge: how to design work that maximizes human potential while leveraging AI. This is the Great AI Workforce Redesign.
And the early signs are worrying. Since late 2022 – when generative AI went mainstream – employment for early-career workers aged 22–25 in the most AI-exposed fields has fallen 13% relative to other groups, according to Stanford researchers. The World Economic Forum predicts that 83 million jobs will be displaced by 2027. Entry-level positions are often named among the first to go.
If you believe these headlines, the future of work looks diamond-shaped: a narrow base, a swollen middle, and a thin top. But this is a dangerous illusion. If companies hollow out their entry-level hiring in pursuit of efficiency, they risk starving the middle layer of tomorrow’s leaders and leaving critical gaps in skills transfer.
The answer is the pentagon-shaped org chart – a model with a slightly smaller base, a robust middle layer, and lean, strategic leadership at the top. This structure balances talent, skills, and tasks, allowing organizations to integrate AI, optimize workflows, and future-proof their workforce.
Early-Career Talent: Fewer, but Strategic
“EIC [early-in-career] employees are AI natives who are already leading the transformation. They intuitively engage with tech, bring creative agility, and have the curiosity needed to thrive in fast-changing environments… If we don’t protect and modernize the EIC pipeline, we risk widening the skill gaps and stalling the impact and ROI of AI solutions. EIC talent will be tomorrow’s leaders, so we need to build pathways for them today.” – Jacqui Canney, chief people and AI enablement officer, ServiceNow
The pentagon model recognizes that entry-level hiring should be smaller, but more intentional – enough to support growth, ensure skills transfer, and sustain mentorship, without overloading the base.
The Middle Layer: Where AI Meets Skills
The middle layer is the organization’s engine of value creation. Roles here combine human judgment, collaboration, and AI fluency to deliver innovation at scale. Mapping skills to tasks makes it clear where humans add unique value and where AI can augment work.
A strong middle layer ensures that AI adoption enhances human performance rather than simply automating work away. And critically, the middle cannot exist without a steady pipeline of talent from below – which is why the “diamond” structure collapses in the long run.
Emerging AI Roles Across the Organization
AI is redefining tasks and creating new roles – from prompt engineers to AI ethics coordinators to AI agent trainers. Pentagon org charts help align evolving skills to these roles, ensuring workforce planning is proactive, strategic, and task-focused.
Learning & Growth Built Into The Structure
Retention and development are embedded in the pentagon. Early-career employees expect learning to be personalized, bite-sized, and integrated into workflows. Programs like rotational assignments, apprenticeships, and reverse mentoring give them exposure across the organization – strengthening both the base and middle layers while fueling continuous skill growth.
Structured learning also pays off: companies that invest in growth and development see lower attrition and faster progression among early-career hires. (ServiceNow saw a 7% lower attrition rate in EIC hires’ first two years thanks to structured learning programs.)
Strategic Workforce Planning: The Pentagon Advantage
The big point: the shape of organizations is not flipping into a diamond, despite the hype. Some efficiencies will emerge at the bottom, but the ratios between the base and middle still need to hold. If companies neglect early-career hiring, the middle layer will wither – and with it, innovation, leadership, and the ability to execute strategy.
A pentagon-shaped org chart strikes the balance – enough early-career hires to fuel growth, a strong middle to drive AI-powered innovation, and lean leadership to guide strategy.
“Leaders don’t need to decide between cutting costs and investing in the future. They can do both when they focus on transforming the workforce.” – Jacqui Canney, chief people and AI enablement officer, ServiceNow
Companies that embrace AI, task intelligence, and skills mapping will not just survive the AI era – they’ll define it. Learn more about AI-powered workforce intelligence from Beamery.