When knowledge and technology become easily accessible, competitive advantage is no longer determined by having them, but by people’s ability to select what is most important, understand the context, make informed decisions, and implement them quickly. AI opens access to knowledge and technology, but not the ability to make good decisions, so the race for technology is increasingly becoming a race for talent.
Capital can buy technology, but does not guarantee productivity
In recent years, Lithuanian companies have invested heavily in digitalization, data, automation, and AI, but these investments alone cannot create a competitive advantage, just as large US investments in AI infrastructure do not automatically guarantee economic returns.
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) draws attention to the very rapid growth of investments in AI, semiconductors, and data centers, but productivity returns remain uneven and highly dependent on organizations’ ability to integrate technologies into their operations.
Capital can buy technology, but it cannot automatically turn it into greater organizational productivity. I see this working on business transformation projects at “Senukai”. Implementing separate, fragmented solutions is much easier than changing the entire organization’s way of working.
Technology begins to create value when processes, responsibilities, decision-making, and the work organization model itself change together.
When intellect depreciates, the value of decision-making increases
This change is already visible in the labor market. The “Financial Times”, based on labor market trends, writes about AI’s impact on entry-level positions: technology changes both the tasks performed and the competencies employers expect from young specialists.
Today, AI helps perform tasks faster in everyday work that previously took a lot of time: analyzing data, checking information logic, programming, summarizing results, or preparing decision alternatives.
The period when AI reduces the cost of information search, analysis, and some expert work, the value increases for what technology itself does not provide, namely the human ability to understand context, choose direction, and take responsibility for the result.
Competing for highly qualified people, we no longer compete only with other Lithuanian companies or neighboring Baltic countries.
In this light, the concept of talent is also changing. Value will be created not only by people who have accumulated a lot of technical knowledge but also by those who can combine professional competencies with business logic, see the “big picture,” and be able to select the right decisions and take responsibility for their results.
The talent market is already global
Competing for highly qualified people, we no longer compete only with other Lithuanian companies or neighboring Baltic countries. Today, specialists can already choose between Vilnius, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Singapore, or some other city in the world.
A competitive salary remains important, but it is no longer enough. We must answer the fundamental question: what can Lithuania offer a person who can choose almost any country in the world for their career?
One of the answers is the opportunity to gain real responsibility faster, have greater influence, and see the results of their decisions.
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The advantage of small countries – speed
Lithuania’s opportunities lie not in size but in speed. We cannot compete with the US, China, or other large economies in terms of capital volume, market size, or technology infrastructure scale. However, in the AI era, this does not necessarily mean that smaller economies have fewer opportunities.
In a smaller country, we can potentially connect business, universities, government institutions, and talent faster and shorten the path from problem to solution, and from solution to implementation.
If we cannot win by scale, we must win by speed.
Therefore, very practical questions become crucial: how quickly can we attract talented specialists and respond to changing competency needs? Will we be able to connect the knowledge accumulated in universities with real business needs? Will we provide talents the opportunity not only to work in Lithuania but also to implement ambitious ideas here?
From company initiatives to Lithuania’s strategy
At the business level, we try to solve this problem practically. At “Senukai”, we started the “100 talents for Lithuania” program, into which we plan to invest about 6 million euros over the next five years and attract 100 highly qualified specialists.
The initiative started by transforming the business and facing a specific competency need. We realized that to attract specialists with international experience, we must not only offer them a job but also create conditions to apply their knowledge in Lithuania, provide real responsibility, and the opportunity to create visible results.
However, the good intentions and initiatives of individual companies will not be enough. Competition for talent must become one of Lithuania’s economic strategy priorities.
Lithuanians studying, working, and living abroad are today a particularly important opportunity for Lithuania. The network of Lithuanian talents scattered around the world has accumulated competencies, connections, and experience in various economic and technology centers. The question is whether we can create a strong enough reason to connect these competencies with Lithuania.
To do this, we need to move simultaneously in three directions: actively bring back and attract talents with international experience, much faster connect university competencies with real business needs, and create an environment where highly qualified people can gain real responsibility and influence early.
Is Lithuania ready to win?
We have the necessary prerequisites: a strong technology ecosystem, universities with international experience, growing businesses, and the flexibility provided by a small country, but individual prerequisites do not yet create a common strategy.
If we want to win, we must consciously turn our smallness into speed, closely connect business, science, and government, and give people space to grow, create, and take responsibility.
If we turn our smallness into speed, the race for talent can become Lithuania’s competitive advantage.
