What does the future of work actually look like – not as a prediction, but as a design challenge?

Join us at Atta Galatta, Bengaluru's beloved literary gathering space, for the launch of Shashidhar Sharma's Work and Workplace at the Edge of Intelligence – a groundbreaking new book that reframes the conversation on AI, productivity, and the human mind in the workplace.

At a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry, organisation, and career, this book makes a case that is both urgent and counterintuitive: the future of work does not depend on machines alone. It depends on our ability to understand – and protect – the distinctly human intelligence that no algorithm can replicate.

"This book is a wake-up call for us to truly understand the choice that we have to create, for the future we want." – Kay Sargent

About the Book

Work and Workplace at the Edge of Intelligence explores why the future of workplace productivity sits at the intersection of three forces that most organisations are still treating as separate conversations: Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, and the Human Mind. Drawing on decades of working with leaders, teams, and organisations across industries, Shashidhar Sharma argues that the workplace of the next decade will be shaped not by technology alone, but by the leaders and professionals who understand how to design environments in which genuine human intelligence can flourish alongside it.

This is the first volume in The Edge of Intelligence series – a body of work for the leaders, professionals, and organisations navigating the most consequential transformation of working life in a century.

The Evening

5:45 PM – Introduction: A welcome to the evening and the ideas at its heart.

6:00 PM – Author's Note: Shashidhar Sharma reads from and speaks to the book – what prompted it, what it argues, and why this moment demanded it.

6:30 PM – Fireside Chat with Mira Swarup and Shashidhar Sharma : An in-depth conversation between the author and Mira Swarup – exploring the book's central arguments, the provocations it raises for leaders and organisations, and what the audience can take into their own professional lives the very next morning.

7:15 PM – Thank You Note: A close to the evening, with time to connect, reflect, and take the book home.

About the Author

Shashidhar Sharma has spent more than three decades working at the intersection of organisational leadership, workplace strategy, and the future of knowledge work. His writing

and advisory work spans five generations of professionals and dozens of industries across geographies. Work and Workplace at the Edge of Intelligence is the first book in The Edge of Intelligence series, followed by How to Flourish in the Age of AI and Panic to Power.

About Mira Swarup

Mira Swarup brings to the fireside chat her own deep engagement with questions of leadership, organisation, and human performance – making her the ideal interlocutor for a book that operates at exactly that intersection.

Mira Swarup is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and founder of Impact Communication Coaching – a practice dedicated to helping individuals and organisations build trust, presence, and influence. With a background spanning clinical research at Johnson & Johnson, an MSc from Cranfield University, and global engagements with organisations including BCG, KPMG, Coca-Cola, and eBay, she brings both the rigour and the human depth that this conversation demands