Artificial intelligence is a part of the most profound shift in how we live and work. Many assume that as AI becomes more powerful, human skills become less important. I believe the opposite is true. The more capable AI becomes, the greater the premium on creativity, judgement, and entrepreneurial thinking.
Entire job functions are being reshaped in real time, while new ones are emerging just as quickly. Forward thinking governments around the world are investing in infrastructure and skills in anticipation of what is coming. India is a striking example. Through its national IndiaAI Mission, the government is investing directly in computing power, skilling, and research. Industry estimates suggest generative AI alone could add between 359 and 438 billion dollars to the Indian economy by 2030.[1]
We are at a crossroads. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a business Utopia, and it will require the very best creative talent to design it.
Change is now measured in weeks and months
I have witnessed several technological revolutions over six decades in business. To understand what’s happening now, it is worth looking back. In the 1970s, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors on a chip doubled roughly every two years, a principle that became known as Moore’s Law.
His insight was simple but powerful: progress is not linear; it is exponential. Incremental improvements can quickly become dramatic leaps forward.
Today, that cycle has accelerated again. Change is no longer measured in years, but in weeks and months.
For decades, businesses accumulated vast amounts of data, but much of it remained unused, trapped in silos or analysed long after decisions had been made. AI changes that. It dramatically narrows the gap between insight and action, allowing organisations to move from hindsight to real-time decision-making.
This shift is already beginning to reshape how decisions are made across industries.
Advertising engines generate bespoke creative tailored to individual behaviour in real time, while in healthcare, hyper-personalised treatment plans are increasingly being informed by AI analysis.
This is where the real significance of AI lies. It is not simply making existing processes more efficient. It is changing the speed at which businesses learn, adapt and compete.
Why creativity becomes more valuable, not less
As AI becomes more capable, many fear it will diminish the value of human contribution. In reality, it does the opposite.
AI makes information abundant. It makes analysis faster. It makes execution cheaper and more accessible.
When information becomes abundant, insight becomes valuable. When analysis becomes automated, judgement becomes scarce. And when execution becomes instantaneous, creativity becomes the ultimate competitive advantage.
Technology alone does not transform businesses. People do.
AI’s greatest strength is not replacing human thinking, but extending it. It can identify patterns, surface connections and generate possibilities at remarkable speed. But it still relies on creative people to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions and turn ideas into something meaningful.
After all, AI itself is a product of human creativity. It is trained on human knowledge, guided by human intent and applied to human problems.
The organisations that unlock the greatest value from AI will be those with the most imaginative people, capable of applying that technology in new and useful ways. Nowhere is that clearer than in India, where the World Economic Forum estimates that around 63 of every 100 workers will need retraining by 2030, with the sharpest demand falling on analytical and creative thinking.[2]
When young workers marvel at what AI can do, rather than fear it, it fuels the curiosity that drives innovation. Curiosity has always been the starting point of progress. India has one of the youngest workforces of any major economy, with a median age of around 28, and roughly 71 per cent of young Indians already believe that learning AI skills will strengthen their careers.[3]
Why access to talent matters and geography no longer does
This shift has direct implications for how businesses compete. In a world where creativity and adaptability carry greater weight, access to the right talent becomes critical.
Recent IWG research shows that 37% of businesses now cite convenience of location as their primary strategy for attracting talent, ahead of pay at 35%. This reflects a simple reality: in an AI-driven economy, businesses cannot afford to wait for talent. They need access to it quickly, wherever they are. For many large corporations headquartered in the West, it has led to setting up their global capability centres in a country like India, already home to roughly 55 per cent of the world’s GCCs.
These GCCs are the in-house hubs through which multinationals run real work, and their number is projected to reach around 2,400 centres by 2030, as companies build their teams close to the talent rather than the other way round.[4]
I want people starting tomorrow. I do not want to wait for them to relocate from Bangalore or Pune to California.
Technology allows work to happen anywhere, but innovation still depends on people. The businesses that can access the broadest and most diverse pool of creative talent will be the businesses that move the fastest. In that sense, geography is becoming less important than connectivity. In India this is already underway, with GCCs increasingly opening in tier-two cities such as Jaipur, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Coimbatore.[5]
Building a business utopia
AI is not an incremental change. It is a fundamental reset of how work is organised, delivered and measured – and it will reshape work, that is inevitable. But rather than reducing the importance of human creativity, it will increase it.
That starts with mindset: encouraging curiosity, rewarding experimentation and giving people the confidence to explore what these tools can do.
Ultimately, the future of work will not be built by AI alone. The winners in the AI era will not be the organisations with the most technology. They will be the organisations with the most creative people, empowered by the best technology, creating the potential for a true business utopia.
AI is set to become ubiquitous. Creativity will remain rare. And in business, rarity is what creates value.
Authored by Mark Dixon, Executiveperson and Founder of International Workplace Group (IWG)
[1] https://nasscom.in/voices/indias-strategic-role-ai-revolution
[2]https://www.weforum.org/press/2025/01/future-of-jobs-report-2025-78-million-new-job-opportunities-by-2030-but-urgent-upskilling-needed-to-prepare-workforces/
[3]https://niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2026-02/Scenarios-Towards-Viksit-Bharat-and-Net-Zero-%20An-Overview-Vol1.pdf
[4]https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/consulting/global-capability-centers/how-india-is-gearing-up-for-a-us-110b-dollars-gcc-industry-by-2030
[5]https://www.ey.com/en_in/insights/consulting/global-capability-centers/how-india-is-gearing-up-for-a-us-110b-dollars-gcc-industry-by-2030