Thanks for writing this. I admire the courage it takes to put a viewpoint out there. Knowing your writing over the years, I suspect you’re not necessarily trying to be “right” here as much as trying to provoke thinking. That’s valuable.
That said, our assumptions don’t always lead us where we expect.
It’s possible the future will look like human expertise + AI leverage. But I’m not convinced. Economic incentives tend to dominate these outcomes.
If part of this is hope, that’s understandable. But history often points in a different direction.
A deliberately extreme analogy: when cars replaced horses, we lost a lot of the everyday expertise around horse riding and horse care. At the time people worried about that loss. In the end, efficiency won.
Something similar may happen here.
The future may end up being less about deep human expertise and more about human taste, judgment, and oversight — with AI doing most of the execution.
It’s not hard to imagine a world where many people no longer need to:
• code
• drive
• perform certain surgeries
Just like we no longer need to hunt for food, run long distances for survival, or live as nomads.
History suggests efficiency usually wins over preserving expertise.
Also, this framing may miss another role AI can play — helping humans build expertise and understand foundational concepts much faster than before.
The scarce human skill may end up being judgment rather than execution.
Disclosure: I wrote these points and had ChatGPT polish it.
Thank you for the reframe and helping parents realize what they CAN control to help their children naviagate the career landscape as it will continue to change at an extremely fast pace.
I'm curious what you think of the notion that there will become more and more companies with a single owner and no employees (this already exists), and perhaps the best new set of skills that can be taught in schools are how to make money off the stock markets? This is a critical income stream for the wealthy and yet skills that are not taught to the general population. During this transition, I have zero faith our government will do the right thing to help the citizens in our country stay afloat.
AI-proofing is simpler than people think. Step 1: use AI for 15 minutes today. Step 2: do it again tomorrow. Step 3: repeat for 30 days. That's it. You don't need a course, a certification, or a strategy retreat. You need to draft one email with ChatGPT and see that it's better and faster. The habit forms naturally from there.
“Disrupting the learning process that builds expertise” is the real strategic risk here.
In the rush to optimise costs with AI, companies are quietly dismantling their entry-level pipelines. It looks efficient in the short term — but five years from now, it creates a structural expertise gap.
And that gap will matter.
Because effective use of AI isn’t about access — it’s about judgement:
– asking the right questions
– knowing when the answers are wrong, incomplete, or misleading
That judgement is built, not downloaded.
Remove the layer where it develops, and you don’t get leverage — you get dependency.
What’s surprising is how few CEOs are being asked the obvious question: if entry-level roles disappear, where does the next generation of expertise actually come from?
That’s not efficiency. It’s deferred risk — and it will show up exactly when firms need real expertise the most.
I have been following your writing on Li and your course as well with Kellogg on AI. I do feel there is leverage for senior professionals atleast for now to combine their expertise and judgement with AI for better lever and faster execution, but wondering that’s only because we haven’t seen AI disrupting this as yet as it’s disrupting the middle and entry level order as you also pointed out in your article. Do you see that holding or it’s only a matter of time ?
Great insights as always, Professor Sawhney. This is such a critical message for the modern professional. Understanding how to stay relevant and more importantly, how to avoid the 'zombie' trap of obsolete skills is a lesson everyone needs to address right now
Loved the analogy and emphasis on real-life experience that needs to exist in order to leverage and amplify the output. I am a parent of two high school kids and go through the anxiety of what you are describing.
Mohan, great perspective on this. Keep pushing this as the education system needs to realize that what we need to learn and how we need to learn have to be reimagined and reinvented.
Thanks for writing this. I admire the courage it takes to put a viewpoint out there. Knowing your writing over the years, I suspect you’re not necessarily trying to be “right” here as much as trying to provoke thinking. That’s valuable.
That said, our assumptions don’t always lead us where we expect.
It’s possible the future will look like human expertise + AI leverage. But I’m not convinced. Economic incentives tend to dominate these outcomes.
If part of this is hope, that’s understandable. But history often points in a different direction.
A deliberately extreme analogy: when cars replaced horses, we lost a lot of the everyday expertise around horse riding and horse care. At the time people worried about that loss. In the end, efficiency won.
Something similar may happen here.
The future may end up being less about deep human expertise and more about human taste, judgment, and oversight — with AI doing most of the execution.
It’s not hard to imagine a world where many people no longer need to:
• code
• drive
• perform certain surgeries
Just like we no longer need to hunt for food, run long distances for survival, or live as nomads.
History suggests efficiency usually wins over preserving expertise.
Also, this framing may miss another role AI can play — helping humans build expertise and understand foundational concepts much faster than before.
The scarce human skill may end up being judgment rather than execution.
Disclosure: I wrote these points and had ChatGPT polish it.
I appreciate the thoughtful comments. Indeed, predictions are hard. Especially about the future!
Thank you for the reframe and helping parents realize what they CAN control to help their children naviagate the career landscape as it will continue to change at an extremely fast pace.
I'm curious what you think of the notion that there will become more and more companies with a single owner and no employees (this already exists), and perhaps the best new set of skills that can be taught in schools are how to make money off the stock markets? This is a critical income stream for the wealthy and yet skills that are not taught to the general population. During this transition, I have zero faith our government will do the right thing to help the citizens in our country stay afloat.
Thank you!
AI-proofing is simpler than people think. Step 1: use AI for 15 minutes today. Step 2: do it again tomorrow. Step 3: repeat for 30 days. That's it. You don't need a course, a certification, or a strategy retreat. You need to draft one email with ChatGPT and see that it's better and faster. The habit forms naturally from there.
Spot on, Mohanbir.
“Disrupting the learning process that builds expertise” is the real strategic risk here.
In the rush to optimise costs with AI, companies are quietly dismantling their entry-level pipelines. It looks efficient in the short term — but five years from now, it creates a structural expertise gap.
And that gap will matter.
Because effective use of AI isn’t about access — it’s about judgement:
– asking the right questions
– knowing when the answers are wrong, incomplete, or misleading
That judgement is built, not downloaded.
Remove the layer where it develops, and you don’t get leverage — you get dependency.
What’s surprising is how few CEOs are being asked the obvious question: if entry-level roles disappear, where does the next generation of expertise actually come from?
That’s not efficiency. It’s deferred risk — and it will show up exactly when firms need real expertise the most.
Thanks for sharing this Professor!
I have been following your writing on Li and your course as well with Kellogg on AI. I do feel there is leverage for senior professionals atleast for now to combine their expertise and judgement with AI for better lever and faster execution, but wondering that’s only because we haven’t seen AI disrupting this as yet as it’s disrupting the middle and entry level order as you also pointed out in your article. Do you see that holding or it’s only a matter of time ?
Great insights as always, Professor Sawhney. This is such a critical message for the modern professional. Understanding how to stay relevant and more importantly, how to avoid the 'zombie' trap of obsolete skills is a lesson everyone needs to address right now
Thank you, Neeraj
Loved the analogy and emphasis on real-life experience that needs to exist in order to leverage and amplify the output. I am a parent of two high school kids and go through the anxiety of what you are describing.
Lol! Five kids here - last one still in college!
We are all in the same boat!
Mohan, great perspective on this. Keep pushing this as the education system needs to realize that what we need to learn and how we need to learn have to be reimagined and reinvented.
Trying to do my bit!
And doing it very well!
Indeed. I have met the enemy, and it is us!
Let’s lead the charge to incite change. That’s the way to pave the future and pay it forward. Yes?