You can create enormous value without being the one who benefits most from it.
The Rules of Success Are Changing
Last week, I questioned whether years of experience still guarantee credibility. But that conversation raises another question. If experience no longer carries the same weight it once did, what does that mean for the value of the person who has spent decades building it?
For generations, we've been encouraged to develop our skills, work hard and gain experience. The belief was simple. The more you knew, and the better you became at what you did, the more valuable you would become.
Of course, it was never a perfect system. Talent and hard work didn't always receive the recognition they deserved. But expertise still gave people a way to build careers, create opportunities and improve their position in life.
Now AI is beginning to challenge that relationship.
Someone with relatively little experience can produce research, presentations and business strategies that once required a team of experienced professionals. Work that took years to learn can now be produced in a fraction of the time.
That doesn't mean experience has suddenly become worthless. But it does raise a question we haven't really had to face before.
When the work becomes easier to produce, what happens to the value of the person who spent decades learning how to do it?
When Money Can Buy More Intelligence
I recently came across an article in City AM that raised an uncomfortable question about where AI could take us.
The article explored an argument linked to economist Chad Jones. As AI becomes more powerful, those who own the technology and computing resources could gain a much larger share of the wealth it creates.
Think about what that could mean for business.
Imagine two companies competing in the same market. One has spent years building a team of highly skilled, experienced people. The other has far greater financial resources and can invest heavily in AI systems capable of producing much of the same work.
The first company may have more experience. But the second may be able to produce similar results faster, at a lower cost and on a much larger scale.
Being exceptionally good at something doesn't necessarily protect your position when technology makes that work easier and cheaper to reproduce.
And if access to powerful AI increasingly depends on who can afford it, the advantage may shift towards those who control the technology rather than those who have spent years developing the expertise.
The question is no longer simply who knows the most.
It's who has the resources to turn that knowledge into value.
The Difference Between Expertise and Ownership
Over the years, I've worked with executives, entrepreneurs and business owners who have spent decades developing their expertise. And one thing I've noticed is that being exceptionally good at what you do doesn't always mean you're in control of the value you create.
Consider two consultants with similar experience and ability. One earns a living producing reports and selling their time. The other has built a trusted advisory business, developed their own methods and established relationships that continue to bring opportunities.
Both may possess excellent expertise. But they do not control the same assets.
The same applies to professional speakers. One is paid for each appearance. Another has built books, programmes, intellectual property and long-term relationships around their experience.
Their knowledge may be equally valuable, but the way that value works for them is very different.
And that brings us to a question that becomes increasingly important as AI changes how professional work is produced.
If technology can reproduce much of what you know, who will benefit financially from the value your knowledge creates?
