I'm a fan of AI. We use it extensively in our business and help clients implement it. Now for my concern ...

We keep talking about AI in terms of AI "freeing up staff to do higher level work." And I agree with that.

But how will we train new people ... fresh grads, career switchers, etc.? Entry level jobs have traditionally served to teach people the building-blocks of the work, so they could gradually develop the judgment, context, and pattern recognition required for higher-level decision-making.

If AI takes over the building-block tasks, we risk raising a generation of professionals who are fluent in theory but lack the grounding to apply it effectively (or worse, know how to look up an answer but have no judgement to evaluate it).

How might this show up in real life?

Marketing Strategy Without Campaign Execution: If someone skips ever writing an email sequence, running A/B tests, or optimizing a landing page, they may not understand what makes messaging convert—or how execution timelines, tech constraints, or buyer psychology actually impact strategy.

Financial Analysis Without Bookkeeping Experience: A strategist who’s never reconciled accounts or managed real budgets may misread cash flow dynamics or propose ideas that look good on a spreadsheet but break down in real life.

Without the “lower level” work, professionals won't build the mental models that make higher-level work accurate, nuanced, or actionable. This doesn’t mean we have to cling to outdated workflows. But it does mean we need to be intentional about how we’re building foundational skills if the traditional pathways to expertise disappear.

We can't afford to skip the messy middle. If AI replaces the work that builds judgment, we'll need new ways that help people earn that judgment—not just simulate it. Because high-level thinking without grounded experience is ultimately just guesswork.