Did AI Take a Job, or Did It Give Someone a Chance?
How AI is reshaping expertise and the value of professional knowledge in an age of accessible information.
A woman came up to me after one of my recent author talks and told me a story about her sprinklers.
She said she had been asking her husband to fix them for months. Every time she brought it up, he said he would get to it. Eventually, she got tired of waiting.
Instead of calling a contractor, she pulled out her phone.
She took a few pictures, opened ChatGPT, and started asking questions. Then she took more pictures. Then more.
One question led to another. One answer led to another. Before long, she had figured out the problem and fixed the sprinklers herself.
She was thrilled.
But the story stayed with me for a different reason.
The next day, I found myself wondering whether she had just saved herself a few hundred dollars or whether she had taken work away from someone else.
That question seems to come up everywhere I go these days.
When someone uses artificial intelligence to build a website instead of hiring a designer, is that innovation or lost income for a creative professional?
When an author uses synthetic narration instead of hiring a voice actor, is that efficiency or displacement?
When someone uses artificial intelligence to troubleshoot a household problem instead of calling a handyman, is that empowerment or lost business?
The more I think about it, the more I realize that most of our conversations about artificial intelligence focus on creators. Most seem to center on writers, artists, voice actors, and designers. Those conversations matter, but they may also be incomplete.
What about tutors? What about consultants? What about travel agents? What about career coaches? What about the countless professionals whose value has historically come from knowing something other people did not know?
What makes the sprinkler story interesting to me
What makes the sprinkler story interesting to me is that it sits outside the creator economy. Nobody was creating art. Nobody was producing content. A woman simply had a problem she wanted solved.
Before artificial intelligence, she had a few options:
- She could learn how to fix it herself.
- She could wait for someone else to fix it.
- Or she could hire a professional.
Artificial intelligence didn't create a new problem. It simply made the first option easier.
That distinction feels important.
Artificial Intelligence Can Reduce Barriers
For the past year, one of my central beliefs about artificial intelligence has been that it can reduce barriers. It can help people get unstuck. It can give someone access to information, guidance, and confidence they might not have had before.
- I've seen this happen with women returning to the workforce.
- I've seen it happen with people who don't have technical backgrounds.
- I've seen it happen with entrepreneurs who can't afford a full team.
- I've seen it happen with authors, speakers, and creators trying to bring an idea to life.
But there is another side to that story.
Every time we lower a barrier, we also change the value of expertise.
That doesn't necessarily mean expertise disappears. Website designers, voice actors, consultants, and handymen are still here. The question is whether what people are paying for is changing.
The Work Evolved
Twenty years ago, hiring someone to build a website meant hiring someone who knew how to build a website. Today, the technical construction of a website is often the easiest part. The value has shifted toward strategy, branding, customer experience, messaging, and growth.
The work has evolved.
Perhaps that is the real story unfolding around artificial intelligence.
Maybe artificial intelligence is not replacing jobs as much as it is replacing reasons to hire someone. Those are not the same thing.
If information becomes abundant, expertise has to become something more than access to information.
The Conversation Is Larger Than the Creator Economy
I don't know exactly where all of this lands. In fact, I think anyone who claims to know exactly what happens next is probably oversimplifying a very complicated moment.
What I do know is that the conversation is larger than the creator economy. The woman with the sprinklers reminded me of that.
Artificial intelligence is changing who can solve problems for themselves. For some people, that represents opportunity. For others, it represents disruption. Most likely, it represents both.
And maybe that is the tension we should be talking about:
- Not whether artificial intelligence is good or bad.
- Not whether it helps people or hurts people.
- But what happens when knowledge becomes easier to access than at any other point in human history.
Who gains freedom? Who loses leverage? And what new forms of value emerge in the process?
