More companies are using software to assign tasks to full-time workers similar to the on-demand economy, says the Wall Street Journal.

GE and Shell are trying out the approach. Both told the paper they’re going to expand those projects in the new year.

• “Companies say the new tools make them more efficient and give employees more opportunities to do new kinds of work. … Researchers say the shift could lead to narrower roles for some managers and displace others,” WSJ writes.

Ater decades of shearing off layers of workers at the bottom of the pyramid, automation is bubbling up into management, threatening middle-ranking jobs and, eventually, officers near the top of the corporate ladder.

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