The Human Premium: Sridhar Vembu's Contrarian View on AI and the Economy
Broadcasting virtually at 3:15 AM following his presentation at the Global India AI Impact Summit, Zoho Co-Founder and Chief Scientist Sridhar Vembu delivered a pragmatic assessment of where artificial intelligence is actually driving the software industry. Moving past the typical industry hype, Vembu outlined a near future where raw intelligence becomes a baseline commodity.
This reality forces enterprises to rethink where true value is created. The prevailing anxiety in the market is that artificial intelligence is simply coming for everyone's job. Vembu offered a powerful, contrarian counterpoint: as AI handles routine information and automation, jobs that center on genuine human connection will only grow more valuable.
The Commoditization of Code and Intelligence
The core of Vembu's technical argument is that artificial intelligence capabilities will not remain a walled garden controlled by a few massive corporations. Leading models are constantly learning from each other through distillation. Furthermore, as models increasingly rely on high quality synthetic data to refine their reasoning, the traditional barrier of needing massive proprietary data is dissolving.
Vembu stated clearly: "There is no particular walled intelligence itself." Businesses must build their long term foundations on the assumption that core AI reasoning and code generation will be cheap and universally accessible commodities.
Models are generating their own high fidelity synthetic data to train subsequent generations, breaking the reliance on human generated internet scraping.
Accessible AISoftware generation becomes highly accurate and affordable, allowing organizations to deploy custom solutions without massive engineering overhead.
Cost ReductionAs AI absorbs predictable workflows, the remaining tasks are inherently messy, complex, and require high levels of human empathy to navigate.
Human PremiumRoles previously viewed as cost centers will be recognized as the primary value drivers, leading to significant structural changes in compensation.
Value ReallocationThe Human Economy and Enterprise Operations
His reasoning is grounded in a simple reality: as long as humans are the ones buying, selling, and making strategic decisions, there will always be a high demand for people who know how to work with people. "The economy is going to be human operated," Vembu noted.
School teachers, customer support specialists, and professionals whose jobs require genuine interaction are not just safe from automation; they are moving into a much stronger economic position. AI will comfortably handle information retrieval, solution generation, and repeatable coding tasks. However, the more AI takes over the routine baseline, the more complex and personal the remaining human interactions become.
Realigning the Enterprise Workforce
CIOs and business leaders must begin restructuring their teams to reflect this new distribution of labor.
Employees armed with AI tools who can translate complex technical solutions into clear, empathetic client communications.
Roles dedicated entirely to managing the friction points where digital automation meets human unpredictability.
The Shashi Speculation: The End of Pure Tech Differentiation
If the foundational code and the intelligence running your software are the same cheap commodities your competitors use, technology alone cannot be your differentiator. The market is heading toward a state of technical parity.
Organizations relying on massive offshore centers executing basic scripts will find those operations entirely obsolete as AI handles Tier 1 interactions flawlessly.
Brands will compete entirely on the quality, empathy, and problem solving capability of their human representatives at the critical points of customer friction.
What Does This Mean for the Next Five Years for CIOs?
The message for CIOs and strategic leaders is definitive. You must stop viewing artificial intelligence purely as a tool to eliminate headcount. Instead, view it as a mechanism to clear routine tasks so you can heavily reinvest in the human layer of your business. Roles built on empathy, clear communication, and human judgment could see significantly better compensation in the years ahead. Over the next five years, the enterprises that win will be the ones that use commoditized AI to empower highly skilled, highly empathetic human workers to solve complex customer challenges. Invest in people skills; they are the ultimate future proof asset.
Sources
- Vembu, Sridhar. "Sridhar Keynote." ZohoDay26, 2026. Zoho Corporation
