For generations, schools measured value by knowledge: who could deliver the right answers, earn the highest marks and secure the most prestigious university places.
In the pre-AI era, knowing more by accumulating facts, credentials and skills promised security and social standing.
But as 2025 unfolds, the definition of value-creation is changing rapidly. The world is beginning to reward not just what you know, but who you are, how you see and how you show up.
AI models can absorb entire industries’ worth of information overnight, leading Dario Amodei, the CEO of AI firm Anthropic, to [claim](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/07/will-your-job-survive-ai/#:~:text=Dario Amodei%2C chief executive of,replaced or eliminated by AI.) that nearly half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in tech, finance, law and consulting could soon be replaced or eliminated by AI.
Yet what isn’t irreplaceable is wisdom and the ability to pause, sense, discern, relate and respond with depth.
In this new landscape, wisdom workers — the new knowledge workers according to Harvard Business Review — who combine expertise with lived experience, emotional intelligence and nuanced presence will become indispensable.
Before AI: