In days gone by, experts were people who were generally more mature in years – they had taken many years to research and become knowledgeable in a particular subject, learn much about it and have views and opinions that others did not have.

Most of that is still relevant, except that, thanks to the accessibility of knowledge and information in our digitally connected world, people become experts at a much younger age as they don’t have to spend as much time in order to acquire the knowledge they seek.

Building on this, therefore, experts can be described as people who know things others don’t’ know.

Of course, there is another kind of expert – the self-styled expert – who sets themselves up as an “expert” in some or other field simply because, well, they think they know it all!

Many of these self-styled experts fall into the “social media influencer” category and are full of their own importance as they proudly proclaim their expertise to the world. There will always be someone who knows less than them so these less knowledgeable people are suitably impressed by their chosen self-styled experts.

But there is more to expertise than mere knowledge. Genuine experts have and apply something else that others don’t when making critical decisions. Real experts have experience, insights, judgement intuition and gut instinct that they apply when making key decisions. And the decisions they make using their expertise – also referred to as their tacit knowledge – are usually spot on.

And THAT’s what sets genuine experts apart from the wannabe experts!

With expertise rapidly becoming the new global currency, we need to make a mindset shift. You’ve heard it said many times that people are a company’s greatest asset. Well, that’s no longer the case. EXPERTS are actually your greatest asset – those people who have the insight, judgement, intuition and experience to make smart and astute decisions.

As you take a good, honest look at yourself, do you see someone who is an expert? If not, there’s nothing wrong with that – you may well be on your way to acquiring a particular expertise and I encourage you to continue in that direction.

If you are already an expert, be prepared to make the decisions that will take your company forward because your value to your company lies in the quality of the decisions you make.

Now why am I making such a big fuss about expertise and tacit knowledge? And why is expertise the new global currency?

Simple, but significant … despite the flood of information, the future consists of increasing uncertainty which, simply put, is a lack of data – or a lack of information or knowledge. And when you have no, or very little, data, information and knowledge on which to base a decision, you have to base your decisions on something else – your expertise (yep, the aforementioned insight, intuition, experience and gut instinct).

If this all sounds a bit otherworldly, fasten your seat belt. There now exists a one-of-a-kind AI technology that digitises expertise. While conventional AI mines data, this “new” AI (it’s been around for quite a number of years already) mines the expertise (tacit knowledge) of a human expert and can digitise and deploy that expertise to monitor and assess all transactions in an organisation on a 24/7/365 basis – something that’s humanly impossible.

So, why is this so significant?

This will change the game regarding how people or, more specifically, experts are employed. Experts can now have their expertise digitised and their Digital Twins can work – and earn – anywhere in the world. This changes the employment model that’s been in place for centuries.

My advice to you? If you want to have your Digital Twin working around the globe, start working at increasing and improving your expertise!

Alan Hosking is the Publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net and @HRFuturemag. He is an internationally recognised authority on leadership competencies for the future and teaches experienced and younger business leaders how to lead with empathy, compassion, integrity, purpose and agility. He has been an Age Management Coach for two decades.

In 2018, he was named by US-based web site Disruptordaily.com as one of the “Top 25 Future of Work Influencers to Follow on Twitter“. In 2020, he was named one of the “Top 200 Global Power Thought Leaders to watch in 2021” by peopleHum in India. In 2022, he has been named on the Power List of the “Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2022” by LeaderHum.