In the future, Al fluency will be currency. Experience alone won't be enough.

My business partner, Michelle, recently asked: Which will be more important in five years, AI skills or industry experience?

At first, it feels like one of those classic either/or debates. But like most meaningful questions, the value lies in how you unpack it.

There’s no doubt that experience matters. It always has, and it always will. But what happens when the rules we know begin to shift? Or when the industry itself is redefined by technology?

The real insight might be this: the value of industry experience is changing, not disappearing. And AI skills may become the new foundation upon which future expertise is built.

Experience will still be a portion of the pie, but the proportion is evolving. AI skills are more transferable, as they enable professionals to transition across roles, departments, and even industries with greater agility. For example, the same AI fluency that helps a compliance officer flag risk anomalies in financial services could be applied to legal document review or healthcare policy analysis. The ability to utilize AI to interpret data, automate workflows, or generate insights is becoming a meta-skill, a capability that amplifies every other skill.

Technology has continually reshaped what we value. Most, if not all, technological revolutions from candles to lightbulbs, carriages to cars, film to digital, direct mail to email, and assembly lines to robotics have dramatically altered professionals' skill sets. Each shift redefined how humans interact, perform, and create value. We’re simply at another one of those moments.

What was once considered irreplaceable knowledge may soon become systematized, automated, or less essential to achieving a competitive advantage. I’ve spoken with CEOs who have 30 years in their industry, and they’re now asking junior analysts for help using AI tools. This shift signals that traditional knowledge hierarchies are flattening, favoring those who can learn, not just those with longevity. Meanwhile, those who can effectively collaborate with AI will have more leverage, regardless of the field.

For our clients in regulated industries, such as law firms, insurers, and financial institutions, the impact is already visible. Research is faster. The ability to source cases, precedents, and obscure references is no longer a laborious task. Any role heavily reliant on quantitative research or data entry is shrinking or evolving, forcing professionals to adapt their toolkit. Workers will need to adopt AI and ML not just as optional tools, but as essential infrastructure to accomplish tasks that were once done manually.

The real question isn’t whether AI skills will replace industry experience; in my eyes, it's whether experience retains value without AI fluency. Only those who adapt and integrate both will remain competitive.

The powers are shifting. What once looked like an immovable advantage may be reduced to a smaller slice of a much larger, more dynamic pie.