When expertise stops being the advantage

Expertise has always carried weight at work. It builds credibility, solves problems and often shows why someone was promoted in the first place.

AI is not making expertise irrelevant. But it is changing how much advantage expertise alone provides.

When information can be found quickly and more technical tasks can be analysed, drafted or completed with AI, being the person who knows the most is no longer enough to set someone apart.

The more interesting question is what becomes more valuable instead.

In their book Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI, Ryan Roslansky and Aneesh Raman identify five human capabilities they believe will matter increasingly as work changes: curiosity, courage, creativity, compassion and communication.

These capabilities have often been described as soft skills, a term that understates both how difficult they are to develop and how much they affect performance.

• Curiosity allows us to question assumptions, notice what is changing and stay open when the answer is not immediately obvious.

• Courage helps us speak honestly, make decisions with incomplete information and take action without knowing exactly how things will turn out.

• Creativity allows us to connect ideas, imagine different possibilities and find another route when the existing one no longer works.

• Compassion helps us understand what may be happening for other people, rather than treating every problem as purely technical.

• Communication turns thinking into something other people can understand, contribute to and act upon.

These are not qualities that people either possess or lack. They can all be developed. Usually through practice, reflection and a willingness to tolerate some discomfort.

A different basis for value

I spent most of my career in technology, where technical credibility mattered. It still does.

I now coach women in technology who are moving from expert roles into leadership. I see how difficult it can be to change the basis on which they judge their own value.

They are used to being useful by knowing the detail, preparing thoroughly and solving difficult problems. Those qualities have helped them build strong careers.

Then the role begins to ask for something different.

They need to set direction without having every detail. They need to influence people they do not manage. They need to delegate work they could probably complete themselves.

They need to communicate clearly, exercise judgement and remain steady when there is no obviously correct answer.

This work can feel less tangible than producing something or solving a technical problem. It may also feel more exposing.

The challenge is not to put expertise aside. It is to use it differently.

Expertise gives someone something valuable to contribute. Curiosity, courage, creativity, compassion and communication determine how effectively they can apply it, how well they can involve other people and how much impact they can have beyond their own individual output.

Taking greater ownership

There is another important argument in the book. As jobs, organisational structures and career paths become less predictable, waiting for a manager or employer to create the next step becomes increasingly risky.

Being capable and dependable can encourage a degree of passivity. Work hard, perform well and trust that someone will notice when you are ready for more.

That approach may have worked when career paths were clearer. It is less reliable when roles are changing quickly and the next opportunity may not sit directly above the current one.

Taking ownership does not mean constantly chasing promotion or turning every interaction into an exercise in personal branding.

It means staying alert to how your work is changing. It means understanding which parts of your contribution are becoming more valuable, where you need to grow and what experiences or relationships could prepare you for what comes next.

This is closely connected to coaching.

Coaching creates space to slow down and become curious rather than immediately solving.

It allows people to examine the decisions they are avoiding, the conversations they need to have and the assumptions shaping how they see themselves and others.

It can help someone find the courage to act, consider possibilities they had dismissed, understand another perspective and communicate with greater clarity.

The coach does not supply these capabilities. The person already has them. The work is to notice where they are being constrained and create opportunities to use them more deliberately.

The human work

AI may take on more of the tasks that previously rewarded speed, knowledge and technical production.

That does not reduce the value of capable people. It changes where they need to place their attention.

For experts moving into leadership, the work is not to know less. It is to make more deliberate use of what they know while developing the human capabilities that allow other people to trust them, think with them and move with them.

That contribution is harder to measure than output. It is also harder to replace.

Source: Ryan Roslansky and Aneesh Raman, Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI, HarperCollins, 2026.