The Transformation of Organizations and the Rise of AI Leading to an Individual-Centered Society and a New Economic Philosophy

 Written by Mitsuaki Koga

✨ Prologue: Standing at the Threshold of a New Era

In the past, “to work” meant belonging to an organization and fulfilling a role.
That framework is now quietly beginning to waver.
The rise of AI is not merely a technological innovation; it is an opportunity to reconsider the very essence of our humanity.

Today, we stand quietly, yet unmistakably, at a turning point in history.
Organizations are being shaken, AI is evolving rapidly, and the very act of working itself is being reexamined.

Management scholar Peter Drucker once said: “The information society is a society of organizations.”
In an era when information held value, it was believed that organizations had the power to harness it and transform it into results.
Indeed, corporations, governments, and educational institutions have sustained society by gathering information and mobilizing people.

Yet now, with the advent of AI, the way information is handled is undergoing a fundamental transformation.
Writing, creating images, analyzing, making decisions—these acts are increasingly possible at the level of the individual.
In other words, the center of gravity of information is shifting from organizations to individuals.
We are living through a transition from an organization-centered society to an individual-centered society.

This change is not merely technological.
It is the stirring of a new society built upon human dignity and relationships.
And this stirring can become a source of hope not only for managers and professionals who support them, but for all working people who engage with society through their daily choices.

Beyond outcomes lies integrity and resonance—a space where unspoken feelings are shared and trust is nurtured.
This is the kind of future being cultivated.
(Here, “resonance” refers to the phenomenon in which existence and existence echo with one another, giving rise to movement from within.)

By reading this essay to the end, you will surely see the changes unfolding in our time,
and how we might face them together.

Chapter 1: The Transformation of Organizations — From Aggregation to Resonance

In the past, organizations were seen as “places to gather people.”
By presenting shared values and purposes, and bringing together those who agreed, productivity was increased.
Underlying this was a framework of uniformity, control, and hierarchy.
Leaders at the top set the direction, and members below followed it, producing efficient results.
For a long time, this structure was regarded as the “ideal form of organization.”

Today, however, that premise is quietly beginning to waver.
Values have diversified, and ways of working have become varied.
People now place greater importance on “being themselves” rather than “all facing the same direction.”
As a result, organizations are shifting from “unified collectives” to looser gatherings built upon differences in values.

In such organizations, outcomes are no longer “managed by top-down plans.”
Instead, they are understood as achievements born within trust and integrity, realized autonomously.
It is not about moving people, but about cultivating relationships in which people want to move on their own.
It is not about instructions, but about resonance, where movement arises naturally.
What organizations are now being asked is not “How do we manage?” but “How do we resonate with one another?”

Of course, this does not mean denying planning itself.
Rather, plans should not be tools for controlling people, but foundations of trust to be shared.

Chapter 2: The Rise of AI — A Partner Expanding Individual Productivity

The evolution of AI is bringing quiet yet profound changes to the way we work.
In the past, writing, creating images, analyzing, and making decisions—
these activities were carried out by professionals within organizations.

Now, however, many of these tasks are becoming possible at the level of the individual through AI.
AI is not merely a tool.
It is beginning to exist alongside us as a partner that expands individual productivity.

We are entering an era in which the scope of what one person can do is widening, and results can be achieved without depending on organizations.
This does not mean that organizations will disappear.
Rather, the role of organizations is being redefined.

In the past, organizations were places to gather and manage information and human resources.
From now on, organizations must become spaces where individuals can act autonomously, support one another, and resonate together.

Precisely because AI empowers individuals, organizations are no longer simply “containers for producing results.”
They are called to be soil that nurtures trust and integrity.

Within that soil, people resonate with one another, drawing out each other’s strengths.
This mutual resonance may well become the essence of how we work in the future.

Chapter 3: The Arrival of the Individual-Centered Society — The Loss of Stability and Anchors

With the rise of AI and the transformation of organizations, we have become freer than ever before.
Work styles, values, and affiliations are no longer fixed as they once were.
We are entering an era in which individuals can choose, act, and express themselves on their own.

Yet behind this freedom, many people quietly carry a sense of unease.
The more choices there are, the more the question “What should I believe, and how should I live?” is pressed upon each individual.

In the past, organizations and social frameworks provided answers to that question.
Now, each person must find the answer for themselves.
This is freedom, but it is also loneliness.

Information overflows, values diversify, and the idea of correctness has become relative.
Amid this, more and more people are losing their sense of grounding and becoming confused.

It is not enough to ask “What is correct?”
Without the ability to ask “What is sincere?”, we risk being swept away by the waves of information, tossed about by the expectations and judgments of others.

An individual-centered society is not simply “an era when one can do things alone.”
It is an era in which each person is required to hold their own axis and make choices with sincerity.

At the same time, it is also an era in which people achieve results by living authentically.
It is an era in which individuals shine.

Chapter 4: The Space of Dialogue — Companions Who Hold Questions Together

Have you ever experienced your thoughts becoming clearer simply because someone listened to you?
By putting feelings into words, vague emotions take shape, and through the other person’s response, you notice your true intentions.
Such moments are familiar to many of us.

Today, while individuals have gained freedom, we live in an era where it is easy to lose one’s axis.
Information overflows, choices expand, and the idea of correctness has become relative.
That is why questions that cannot be reached by thinking alone stand before us.

Many people long for “answers.”
And indeed, there are situations where answers are necessary.
Yet the more important the question, the harder it is to produce an immediate answer.
Perhaps you have experienced this yourself.

At such times, what we need is not only someone who can provide answers,
but someone who can hold the question together with us.

A person who listens sincerely, without rushing, without forcing clarity.
Within such relationships, we begin to recover our own axis.

Such a presence is sometimes called a “mentor.”
But more important than titles or roles is that the person is a space—
a place where questions can be safely placed, where resonance can occur.

For example, when facing questions such as “What do I truly want?” “What do I wish to value most?”,
we begin to notice the voices within ourselves.

A question is not only an entrance to finding an answer.
It is also a quiet beginning—an opportunity to face oneself and to nurture relationships with others.

By gazing at a question together with someone,
we encounter our own words and our own choices.

What is the depth of humanity that AI cannot replace?
It is the capacity to receive invisible emotions and unspoken feelings—a power rooted in the essence of being human.

To accompany another’s silence, to resist rushing to answers, to think together—
within such relationships, people gradually recover their own axis.

Chapter 5: A New Economic Philosophy I — Choices and Relationships Rooted in Integrity

In Chapter 4, we reflected on the importance of dialogue and companions who hold questions together, as a way for individuals to recover their own axis.
When such relationships are nurtured, the way individuals work changes, the atmosphere of organizations shifts, and eventually these changes quietly ripple into society and the economy.

Economic renewal cannot be achieved merely through reforms of systems or structures.
It begins with the renewal of humanity—with each person recovering their own axis.

Until now, economic activity has been designed around “correctness” and “efficiency.”
But today, we must turn our attention to another axis: integrity.

Integrity is not a posture for being evaluated by others.
It is the quiet alignment of daily actions with the inner axis one carries.
Through this accumulation, trust with others is nurtured, and economic activity itself is reconstructed as a chain of sincere choices.

In this view of the economy, the strength of organizations lies not in systems or rules,
but in the quality of relationships.

How people engage with one another, how they exchange questions,
and how they make choices with sincerity—
this process is what shapes the true value of an organization.

For example, meetings may shift from being “places of reporting” to “places of exchanging questions.”

• “Is the purpose of this project still valid?”
• “What do we truly value?”
• “Has this policy ignored the voices from the field?”

When such questions are raised, organizational thinking deepens, and direction quietly aligns.

Exchanging questions is not a competition to find the right answer.
It is an expression of respect for each other’s perspectives and a will to think sincerely.
And this accumulation transforms organizations from places of management into places of trust.

In fact, cultivating this soil of relationships is the essence of mentoring.
A mentor does not rush to answers, but holds questions together,
quietly creating spaces where people can be themselves.

This is like soil improvement—something not measured by visible outcomes alone,
but by the trust and integrity that grow within.
And this is the starting point of a new economic philosophy.

Economic renewal begins with the renewal of humanity.
Within this practice, organizations and society begin to change quietly.

When each person holds their own axis while honoring others,
a collective emerges that is neither dependent nor conformist, but resonant.
This may be a new form of quiet solidarity.
And this is the possibility of an individual-centered society.

Chapter 6: A New Economic Philosophy II — Redefining Time, Dialogue, and Self-Worth

When relationships rooted in integrity are nurtured,
work ceases to be merely a “means of producing results.”
It transforms into a practice of living authentically.

Within this practice, we are quietly invited to reconsider the meaning of “time” and “dialogue.”

Until now, the economy has been designed around speed, efficiency, and profit.
But today, we are beginning to realize something new—
that silence and pauses themselves are the invisible capital of the economy.

The time spent waiting for someone’s words.
The time of not rushing questions, not forcing answers, simply being together.
Within such time, trust and integrity are cultivated,
and those relationships eventually generate value.

Time is not merely a “cost.”
It is a space in which value grows between people.

How we treat that space will profoundly shape the quality of the economy.

And within that space, we encounter another question:
Am I undervaluing myself?

Am I conforming too much to others?
Am I hiding my true voice just to be evaluated favorably?

To preserve integrity,
we must treat our own value with care.

The economy is not merely a matter of transactions.
It is an exchange of value, and an expression of dignity.

For that exchange to remain sincere,
we need an attitude that both protects our own value and respects the value of others.

Work, then, is not simply a “means” to produce results.
It is a space for living authentically.
And this perspective may quietly sustain the economy of the future.

Chapter 7 (Final Chapter): As Beings Who Create Value — An Economic Philosophy Rooted in Authenticity

The economy does not move solely by numbers or systems.
At its foundation lies the quiet practice of what people value and how they seek to live.

As we have seen in the previous chapters,
when people recover their own axis, refrain from rushing to answers,
and build relationships of integrity,
work begins to carry meaning not only as “results” but also as a “way of living.”

And within this way of working, we gradually rise as beings who create value.

Value is not only about being recognized by others.
It is when our sincere choices serve someone else,
and when that service circulates within trust.

For example:

• Listening carefully to someone’s words
• Thinking together without rushing to answers
• Respecting the value of others while not diminishing one’s own
• Engaging sincerely, without fear of silence or pauses

Such practices generate invisible value,
which eventually leads to the quiet emergence of a new economy.

This economy does not move by competition or efficiency alone.
It is a new economic philosophy rooted in authenticity.

In this era of transition toward an individual-centered society,
each person treating their own value with care and making choices with sincerity—
this practice itself becomes the force that sustains the economy of the future.

And this philosophy is not reserved for a select few.
Everyone can rise as a being who creates value,
through their own choices and relationships.

It is my hope that this essay touches the “quiet strength” within each reader,
and becomes a catalyst for economies rooted in authenticity to emerge in their own contexts.

And may your sincere steps become a light that illuminates someone’s heart.