Everyone seems to be talking about Miuccia Prada and Alessandro Michele’s reactions to the robots at Vogue World yesterday.
Clips and screenshots are circulating across social media, with people interpreting their expressions as discomfort, scepticism even rejection.
Maybe.
But I think we’re focusing on the least interesting part of what happened.
Because Vogue World Milano put something much bigger on stage.
The event was built around the theme “Where The Future Is Made By The Hand” bringing craftsmanship, technology and AI into the same conversation.
Across five acts, it moved from the artisanal revolution to industrialisation, Made in Italy, the age of intelligence and finally the imagination revolution.
And then came the robots.
To me, the interesting question isn’t whether Miuccia Prada liked watching them dance.
It’s what happens when seeing robots around us stops being interesting at all.
Because that’s where we’re heading.
Robots will serve us.
AI will advise us.
Machines will manufacture, recommend, personalise and increasingly interact with us.
Things that currently require a person simply won’t.
And the more this happens, the economics of the human experience begin to change.
Human interaction stops being the default.
It becomes a choice.
And choices can carry a premium.
We already pay more for something handmade than mass-produced.
Soon, we may also pay more to be served by a person. Advised by someone with genuine expertise. Welcomed by someone who remembers us. Or to own something that required human time, judgment and care.
Not because technology is bad.
Because abundance changes what we perceive as valuable.
When efficiency becomes abundant, care becomes scarce.
When production becomes effortless, mastery becomes visible.
When machines can replicate almost anything, the things that still require a person acquire a different meaning.
And that has a very practical implication for business strategy:
If human involvement is part of what makes your product or service exceptional, stop treating it as an inefficiency.
Start treating it as part of your value proposition.
Vogue World was ostensibly showing us the future of fashion yesterday.
I think it was showing us something much bigger:
The more technological our world becomes, the more valuable genuinely human experiences may become.