What is getting you up in the morning and what is keeping you awake at night in 2026?We are in a moment where growth is reliant on relevancy, readiness, and responsibility. Most companies are genuinely trying to build something better for their consumers, better for their employees, and for many leaders, better for the world. I get to wake up every day and help leaders and companies make things better. I get to help them reinvent how they work, create new forms of value, and make an impact – and I get to help leaders alongside some of the best creatives, strategists, and technologists in the world; that is energising.What keeps me awake at night is the willingness of teams and organisations to change at the speed that we need everyone to. In some ways, technology is moving faster than both acceptance and adoption, faster than skills can be built, and faster than operating models can evolve. Constant analysis and chasing the next thing are no substitute for focus, commitment, and the hard work of reinvention: investing in people, making clear choices, and defining the experience your brand stands for.I also think a lot about talent. Because ultimately, none of this happens without people. We have an opportunity to make this industry more inclusive, more flexible and more human. But it won’t happen by accident – it requires intention. If we don’t create environments where people can keep learning, experimenting and evolving, we risk losing the very creativity we depend on to be relevant. So for me, 2026 feels like a defining year: those who lean into meaningful change will accelerate, and those who don’t will feel the gap widen very quickly. How do you turn creativity into a competitive advantage (when some in the industry appear to be putting less of a premium on it)?I think part of the challenge is that we’ve defined creativity too narrowly for too long. Competitive advantage doesn’t come from a single expression of creativity – it comes from combining different forms of it. There’s expressive creativity, which we see in storytelling, brand and advertising. And there’s inventive creativity, which shows up in design, technology and problem‑solving. The organisations that win are the ones that bring both together and embed them across the business.When creativity is part of how you design products, shape experiences and make decisions, it stops being an output – it becomes a growth engine. What I’m seeing now is that in moments of uncertainty, some organisations default to efficiency and short‑term optimisation. And while that can feel rational in the moment, it’s rarely where long‑term advantage is built. Creativity is what allows you to see around corners. It’s what enables you to differentiate in a meaningful way. And it’s what keeps you relevant as customer expectations continue to shift.But that doesn’t happen by accident. Turning creativity into a competitive advantage requires real leadership commitment. You have to protect it, invest in it and connect it directly to outcomes. When you do that, creativity moves from being a “nice to have” to being one of your most powerful strategic assets. How can people get future-fit for a career in this industry, and what is your company doing to help your own people?Being future‑fit in this industry starts with a simple mindset shift: reinvention is no longer a phase in your career, it’s a constant. Roles are changing. Tools are evolving. Expectations are shifting. And AI is accelerating all of that. The people who will thrive are those who stay curious, keep learning and are comfortable operating at the intersection of creativity, technology and business.That means building both depth and range. You need a strong core capability, but also enough fluency across data, design and AI to collaborate differently and make better decisions. Because AI isn’t about replacing creative or strategic thinking, it’s about augmenting it. And knowing how to work alongside it is essential.Within our own organisation, we’ve made continuous learning a core expectation, not a side activity. Last year alone, Accenture invested around $1bn in learning and delivered roughly 47 million hours of training globally. More than half of Accenture’s talent is trained in generative AI, and we’re now rolling out foundational agentic AI training across our entire workforce.But skills are only part of the equation. We focus just as much on how people apply those skills – encouraging mobility, experimentation and constant reinvention. Because you cannot build a culture of creativity if you don’t allow room to explore and evolve. In an industry defined by change, adaptability is the most valuable capability you can have.Ndidi Oteh is the global chief executive of Accenture SongThis story first appeared on Campaign UK.