# The Death of Expertise - Synthesis A By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2025-11-25 Upon the premature publication of his obituary in 1897, Mark Twain, while still being very much alive, responded that “the report of my death was an exaggeration.” And so it might be as well with the death of expertise, or God. Time will tell. AI significantly lowers the barrier to being able to do some heretofore highly technical things. Software coding is one example. It also enables one to produce written text upon direction. Both AI-enabled capabilities encroach upon specialized skills. It remains to be seen whether these democratizations diminish expertise. Being able to do something passably well is a relatively low bar of performance. As with so many things, context matters. If used as a personal assistant, ideation interlocutor, or technical facilitator, AI holds potential. It can enable one to do things and explore concepts and implications. This potentiality should not be minimized. There is real potential there. Potential that humans might pursue beneficially. The crux of the issue is the extent to which such fluencies represent or are indistinguishable from expertise. Again, context matters. If one were to ask an expert, that individual would be more than happy to explain how AI is an inadequate substitute. Such an assessment is likely a mix of an accurate appraisal of the limits of AI and subconscious, psychological defense of one’s self-image and worth. Experts are human after all. There is a difference between knowing something and simply being able to do something. It is unclear to what extent this difference is important or has economic value. It may be that organizations have always wanted only the functionality, and were willing to put up with the expertise when only experts could do what was desired. If this is the case, AI will enable organizations to replace experts with functionaries quickly. If they value expertise, they won’t be interested in adopting AI for anything they consider essential. Time will tell. Pressing a button and having a computer generate something doesn’t seem well aligned with the human needs for creativity and meaning. Maybe we could ask AI to generate its own obituary.  #### Related Items [[Expertise]] [[Artificial Intelligence]] [[Work]] [[Business]] [[Value]]