310 - Rethinking the Manager Role & Career Growth (CPOs of Yelp, Zapier, & Time Doctor)

Daniel Huerta moderated a live panel at Running Remote 2026 with Carmen Amara (Yelp), Brandon Sammut (Zapier), and Vinícius Coelho (Time Doctor) to discuss how AI is reshaping leadership, management, and career growth. They explored why clarity matters more than ever, how organizations are rethinking people leadership, and what the future of work looks like when AI becomes part of every team. ---- Sponsor Links: 🔗Learn more about Intuit QuickBooks Payroll at QuickBooks.com/workforce http://Quickbooks.com/workforce 🔗Learn more about Cloverleaf at cloverleaf.me/mpl https://cloverleaf.me/mpl/ 🔗Explore the 2026 ​Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insigh... MPL Links: 🔗Go sign up for MPL Build. ---- (05:07) Talent Development and Why Managing Is Getting Harder (07:09) Employee Clarity, Engagement, and Organizational Alignment (08:29) AI Adoption, Skill Building, and Employee Expectations (10:01) Zapier’s AI Journey: From Hackathons to Business Impact (12:43) Moving Beyond AI Adoption to Strategic Outcomes (13:36) Building AI Functions and Faster Decision-Making (15:21) Yelp’s AI Strategy and Operationalizing AI Across the Business (18:43) How AI Is Changing the Role of Managers (19:30) The Future Manager: More Scale, More Development, or More Building? (22:29) Leadership, Talent Growth, and Manager Evolution (24:36) Fewer Management Roles and New Career Paths (25:28) Leadership Beyond People Management (28:53) Executive-Level Individual Contributors and AI-Enabled Roles (29:42) Flattening Organizations and Growing Without Promotions (32:05) The Challenge of Career Development in Flat Organizations (35:01) New AI-Native Roles and the Rise of AI Automation Engineers (38:30) Helping Employees Grow Through Lateral Development (40:47) Final Advice: Rethinking Leadership and Career Growth (44:15) Audience Q&A Begins (44:54) Developing Future Leaders Who May Leave the Company (47:29) Keeping Management Layers Lean Without Overloading Managers (49:10) Should AI Agents Receive Performance Reviews? (50:45) Why Zapier Created the AI Automation Engineer Role (52:04) Does Managing AI Mean Everyone Becomes a Manager? (53:57) The Future of Early-Career Talent in an AI World ---- 📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps 💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn 😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn 😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn ---- Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.