07-23-2026IMPACT COUNCIL

The floor got lowered—now it’s flooding

AI raised the ceiling at the same time, and smart teams are spending their saved time up there.

[Photo: Getty Images]

The Fast Company Impact Council is an invitation-only membership community of top leaders and experts who pay dues for access to peer learning, thought leadership, and more.

A product manager I know got a four-word message from her boss last month: “Do more with less.” She had the AI tools. She had a shrinking deadline. She also had a kind of dread.

She is good at her job. She works hard. And she is watching that job change shape while she is still doing it.

That feeling is everywhere right now, and SaaS leaders in B2C and B2B are both sensing and naming it.

John Maeda leads design and AI at Microsoft. His mantra is simple, and he shared it in a podcast: Lower the floor, raise the ceiling. Jagjit Chawla runs Feed, Reels, and Search at Meta as a VP of product management. He says nearly the same thing. AI........

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