Creativity in the Age of Machines | ft Shama Pagarkar

What happens when we stop asking what AI can do and start asking what it should do? Shama Pagarkar has spent more than two decades at the crossroads of technology, product, and people, culminating in leading AI transformation work at PayPal. In this episode of B the Way Forward, Brenda sits down with Shama to talk about building products people actually need, why "AI isn't a strategy," and how PayPal's Maya initiative turned a weeks-long merchant integration into a few hours. Shama also makes the case that as answers get cheaper, human judgment becomes the whole job, and shares what she told her team when she asked them to trade old-school PRDs for hands-on prototypes. If you're leading through change, building your career in tech, or wondering which human skills will matter most in the age of AI, this conversation is for you. We Talked About Why you should obsess over the customer and the problem, not your solution What's truly different about generative AI, and why it can be "confidently wrong" Good friction vs. bad friction in product design Taste, judgment, and creativity as the human skills that grow in value as AI advances Connect with Shama on LinkedIn Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:55 Meet Shama Pagarkar of PayPal 02:55 Early Career Lessons: Be Brave and Try Hard Things 05:10 Entrepreneur vs. Product Leader 06:15 Focus on the Problem, Not Your Solution 09:05 What Makes an Idea Worth Pursuing 10:10 Strategy vs. Iteration 11:05 What Failure Teaches You 12:30 What Makes Generative AI Different 14:50 What Companies Get Wrong About AI 18:00 PayPal's Maya: Making the Complex Simple 19:40 Good Friction vs. Bad Friction 21:00 How AI Changes the Human at Work 23:30 Taste, Judgment, and Creativity 25:30 What We Should Be Teaching Young People 26:55 Skills That Will Seem Outdated in 10 Years 28:25 Leading Through Uncertainty 31:10 An Uncomfortable Truth for Young Professionals 32:15 What Future Are We Building? 34:40 What "B the Way Forward" Means to Shama 36:20 Closing Thoughts #BTheWayForward #AnitaB #WomenInTech #AILeadership #ProductManagement #GenerativeAI #FutureOfWork #TechLeadership #PayPal #Innovation