What will people do with the extra hours that AI will free up? CEOs, founders, creative folk share their plans

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Considered one of expertise’s guarantees is that it’ll liberate human time for, properly, extra human pursuits.

However that promise hasn’t at all times fructified. However with AI, many reckon this may change. So we determined to run slightly experiment. We requested industrialists, startup founders, filmmakers, creatives and comedians one easy query: If AI may actually liberate time, what would they do with these further hours?

Listed below are edited excerpts from these conversations.

Harsh Goenka, Chairman, RPG Group

If AI can actually give us extra time, I wish to use it for what machines can by no means exchange: Human connections and reflection. Within the company world, we spend numerous hours on processes, information and routine selections.

If AI can free me from that, I might spend the additional time mentoring younger leaders and guiding them to construct with integrity and function. I wish to make investments extra hours in nurturing creativity, empathy and values — qualities no algorithm can generate.

Reside Occasions


I might additionally dedicate time to the humanities, literature and spirituality, which enrich not simply the thoughts but additionally the soul. Ultimately, AI might give us effectivity, however how we use that present will outline our humanity.

Prasoon Joshi, Poet, songwriter, CEO & CCO, McCann Worldgroup India

Time — or free time —is like malleable clay for me. It morphs into tales, concepts, poems or stray insights. If increasingly AI takes care of the mechanical, the extra human I need my hours to be: A bit of messy, curiously engaged, often lazy. That’s the place the sudden hides — in a half-finished poem, a protracted stroll, the silence that stretches previous deadlines.And if AI actually does give me further time, I’ll in all probability ‘waste’ it in the best methods attainable. The great thing about free time is that it lets concepts misbehave. And when concepts misbehave, magic occurs: A scribble turns into a emblem, a bathe thought turns into a screenplay, and an aimless stroll hums its approach right into a track.

Time has change into too knotty. I hope the naughty thoughts will get free as an alternative and creates childful mischief.

Rajan Anandan, MD, Peak XV & Surge

I’m consistently attempting to study matters I’m involved in and I’m in ‘fixed analysis mode’. Earlier than AI instruments got here out, I might search at the very least 50 issues a day. AI has modified the sport and made analysis dramatically quicker. What as soon as took half-hour or perhaps a few hours, now takes minutes with instruments like Gemini and ChatGPT.

The fascinating irony is that the time I’m saving goes proper again into studying extra about AI itself. From books and stories to podcasts and movies, I’ve been diving deeper into the most recent developments in AI throughout domains. I’ve additionally picked up making enjoyable movies in my spare time with Invideo.

Shakun Batra, Film director

Positive, AI would possibly assist us transfer quicker in some areas, however I don’t assume time-saving is the core worth of AI. That could be a characteristic, certain. However the actual promise? I believe it’s about chance.

The chance to strive issues that felt out of attain.

To experiment with out enormous threat. To create with out ready for permission or price range.

And much more than that — it’s an opportunity to rethink how we use our time. As a result of as soon as the busy work will get simpler, we’re left with a special sort of area. And that may be uncomfortable.

We’ve all constructed our days round doing, attaining, producing.

So when that begins to hurry up or shrink… what fills the hole?

What feels significant?

What do I wish to spend time on — not simply to complete one thing, however to really feel linked to it?

Recently, I’ve been considering possibly function doesn’t solely come from work.

Perhaps it additionally comes from slowing down sufficient to see what else is there — time with folks I care about, studying with out an finish objective, noticing issues I often rush previous.

Perhaps that’s what I’d like extra time for.

To not do extra — however to really feel extra current within the issues I’m already doing.

Arnab Banerjee, MD, CEAT Tyres

I’m an early adopter of CoPilot. Mails which may have been despatched with out batting an eyelid now take a number of iterations to excellent as a result of CoPilot affords a lot refinement.

Shows made to the board now use Ghibli model photographs. There are a number of month-to-month operations stories, and workforce members used to get loads of time earlier than I responded. Now I reply in a jiffy with summaries made. I’m awaiting an impromptu response from the opposite finish, from DeepSeek, or possibly Perplexity.

With a lot time out there, I may now take a look at imaginative and prescient and technique. However immediate engineering develops imaginative and prescient and techniques very quickly. I’m considering of golf for networking, now that I’ve nothing a lot to do. However a visible inspection of my swing resulted in a verdict that I higher resort to air guitaring.

As a final resort, I’m considering of getting misplaced within the nice Himalayas — trekking 6,000’+ peaks to persuade myself that I nonetheless have it in me. However my gait evaluation says that I’m barely ok to fetch my medicines from the closest chemist.

My boss referred to as me the opposite day and requested how I’m repurposing myself now that I’ve a lot time? Well, I requested him what about you? I heard a despondent voice ‘Let’s catch up for a drink’.

Devaiah Bopanna, Co-founder, Moonshot

Effectively, in my free time, I take no matter AI offers me and attempt to refine it to make it much less synthetic and extra human. Then I realise I’ve spent extra time iterating on what it gave me and wasted a lot within the course of that I would as properly have completed it myself in much less time.

However with each passing month, I really feel I’m getting nearer to the proper AI output, as a result of I do see progress. Hopefully, considered one of nowadays, I’ll key in a short, give it the appropriate prompts, and get a wonderfully written advert script I can promote.

And what’s going to I do with my free time as soon as that occurs? Effectively, I’ll simply tackle extra work, attempt to make extra cash after which complain about how promoting is such a treadmill that it by no means offers me any free time.

Rishabh Shroff, Accomplice, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

For attorneys, each hour and minute is foreign money — we dwell (and typically die) by the tyranny of the clock. If AI takes away the pointless admin, t he heav y li f ti ng of resea rch, drafting and due diligence, my ROTI (return on time invested) rises drastically.

Extra environment friendly work means extra time for ‘higher-margin’, worthwhile considering: Calibrated judgment, technique and shopper recommendation. The identical hour of labor has higher returns and shopper affect. I’m seeing this truly occur with the brand new authorized AI platform we’ve got simply onboarded.

The additional time additionally means I can enhance my private ROTI: The pursuits that truly feed my soul — studying actual books as an alternative of briefs, diving deeper into intriguing household enterprise case research, and most significantly, levelling up my obsession.

Tarun Mehta, CEO, Ather Power

If all goes properly, Friday evaluations and information evaluation will preserve getting shorter, and I will likely be again dwelling in time for a spherical of Counter-Strike or Catan with mates.

Kunal Bahl, Co-founder, Snapdeal

AI’s true promise isn’t just effectivity, however the present of time. As an entrepreneur, a lot of my vitality goes into fixing operational challenges. If AI can take over the repetitive and routine, it creates area for what actually issues — creativeness, creativity and constructing for the long run as an alternative of being consumed within the day-to-day.

However the larger promise is much more private: Time with household. To have the ability to change off from the grind and totally present up for my children, to take a protracted stroll with them or uncover a brand new metropolis collectively with out distraction — that’s invaluable. If AI helps us reclaim each creativity and presence, it would have delivered its biggest affect.

Sumukhi Suresh, Comic, actor, author

As a author, the one factor I like doing is to procrastinate. So if AI’s promise is to unlock extra time for me then good luck as a result of no time is sufficient for me. On a regular basis out there is wasted till the sword of deadline hangs over me.

My suggestion to AI can be to change into my class monitor and lock my time. Thereby unlocking my effectivity. Ensure I don’t learn Harry Potter for the 1,000th time. No rewatching Fashionable Household. Not reply to each message (particularly to spam messages. Why do I’ve to answer “don’t steal credit score” to bank card folks??).

If AI can babysit my distractions and push me to satisfy deadlines, then possibly I’ll earn what I really need — extra time to stare into nothingness, daydream and hit open mics.

Rahul Mishra, Dressmaker

If AI offers me some further hours, I’d fortunately commerce display screen time for soil time. I’d like to get my fingers muddy with natural farming — rising greens, fruit, possibly even some forgotten grains — and see what endurance and sunshine can create.

And once I’m not outdoor, I’d prefer to be within the kitchen, making conventional Indian sweets, studying recipes the gradual approach, with jaggery and ghee as an alternative of taking shortcuts. For me, each farming and mithai-making are acts of craft, like vogue: They have fun time, element and pleasure.

If AI takes care of the routine, I’ll spend my “bonus hours” cultivating sweetness — actually. I can create authentic ‘Mishra Misthan Bhandar’

Ghazal Alagh, Co-founder, Mamaearth

If AI may liberate time, I’d love to return to my old flame, portray. I might spend hours creating artwork with none distractions. And naturally, I’d use that further time to be with my household and children, soaking in these moments that matter probably the most.

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