The three phases of everything we build - And why the fourth one will surprise you

Mumbai: Look closely at any human enterprise - an industry a business, a startup or even a craft - and you’ll notice a pattern. It almost always follows three phases:

Phase 1: Creation

Things start raw. Manual. Handmade.

They require effort, talent, intuition and a lot of trial and error.

A chef in the kitchen. A coder writing lines from scratch. A storyteller crafting an idea with nothing but imagination.

Phase 2: Optimisation

Then comes the process. Measurement. Tools. Technology.

We find efficiencies. Plug in platforms. Build repeatable systems.

It’s not fully automated, but it’s smoother, faster and scalable, with humans still at the wheel.

Phase 3: Automation

And finally, we reach full flow.

Where machines run the system.

AI writes. Algorithms decide. Bots build. Humans just monitor, maybe.

This is where a lot of the tech conversation is today. And it’s why the most disruptive startups are now either:

Going from 2 → 3: Taking optimised systems and fully automating them

Or leaping 1 → 3: Jumping directly from handcrafted creation to full-scale automation

But here’s where I want to pause the hype cycle, especially when it comes to creative industries.

The curation phase is coming. And creatives aren’t going anywhere.

In creative fields - like advertising, storytelling, branding and communication - AI is doing something fascinating.

It’s speeding up optimisation. It’s threatening commoditisation. Everyone is in a rush to generate more: more ideas, more assets, more formats. Faster, cheaper, better. But here’s the paradox: more output ≠ better storytelling.

Because at the heart of creativity lies judgment.

Tone. Timing. Taste.

The ability to say this one, over those ten. The instinct to surprise. The pause that builds drama. The metaphor that sticks. These are not artifacts of code. They are products of lived experience, cultural fluency, emotional intelligence and craft.

And that’s where the curation phase begins.

A phase where the world is flooded with content, so the most valuable people aren’t the ones who make more…

…but those who know what’s worth putting out.

The creative thinker with restraint. The writer with taste. The art director who knows when to stop. The planner who sees the cultural nuance before anyone else.

The way forward:

The best creative minds aren’t going extinct. They’re going premium. As automation saturates the market with content, the role of the human creative shifts from maker to meaning-giver. From doing more to doing less - but better.

And the best ones? Will be the ones who know how to work with AI not against it. Who use the machine to multiply imagination - not replace it.

So yes, automate the workflows. Optimize the processes. But in creativity - as in life - people will always seek that which feels made for them. Not just made.

So my dear real creative folks (you’ll know if you are one):

Your time is not going anywhere - it’s about to become much more precious than ever before. It’s the mediocrity that will go out of business.

And the countdown is on!!