Is the Subject Matter Expert really dead…?

In a recent conversation with Joe Mullen, CEO of SNP Communications, the focus sharpened around a single leadership challenge he’s seeing: how leaders can leverage AI in their work, without becoming victims of AI in their career.

“People are operating from fear.”

“I’m having the same conversation with many executives right now,” Joe says. “How do they confidently communicate to their people the impact that AI is having…while inspiring their people to shift their mindset and not become victims of AI?”

That fear is especially present in roles that have traditionally rewarded the smartest person in the room. University pedigree. Unique skills. For decades, expertise has been the currency. Now, AI can surface information faster, structure it better, and make it widely accessible.

“You can’t outsmart AI,” Joe says plainly. “If a leader uses the right prompts, they can get accurate information, in the format they want, with the data they need – quickly.”

The result? Many highly accomplished professionals, those used to being the individual confidently supplying the information and data, are facing a new challenge: to reinvent themselves.

The end of the “subject matter expert?”

A customer recently asked Joe to deliver a talk titled “The Subject Matter Expert Is Dead.” The idea is provocative, but intentional.

“There are no more subject matter experts,” he says. “It’s only people who can take the content from AI and connect it in a way that makes sense to business decision-makers.”

This is the real shift. Expertise alone is no longer the differentiator. Translation, connection, and judgment are.

For leaders, that means redefining what “high performance” looks like on their teams. It’s no longer about who can go deepest into the weeds, it’s about who can help others understand what matters, why it matters, and what decision it enables.

From intelligence to impact

For some, this shift is deeply uncomfortable.

“There are people who have been paid very well to be the smartest in the room,” Joe says. “They thought people skills were salesy, cheesy, and inauthentic.”

Now, those same people are being asked to lead differently: to become more human-oriented, not less.

“They have to genuinely change their mindset,” Joe explains. “Not wrapping-paper humility. Real humility.” 

Wrapping-paper humility, Joe explains, is performative. Nodding your head to appear interested in other perspectives. Saying you value collaboration, but not changing how you run a meeting. It’s approaching humility as a check-the-box activity, without any actual change.

What leaders must do is fundamentally shift their mindset. Recognize that expertise is no longer the value. “What got you here won’t get you there”: true always, truest now. Influence, connection, collaboration, communication. Leaders must have the skills, and must fundamentally live the skills.

This is where leadership matters most. Because people don’t just need new tools, they need help letting go of old identities.

An AI-sponsored midlife crisis

Joe describes what he’s seeing as “almost an AI-sponsored midlife crisis.”

Highly successful professionals—many in their mid-to-late 30s—are confronting a reality they never expected. “I hear a version of this often: ‘I was the number one sought-after student coming out of my university…and 20 years later, I can’t get a job.’”

It’s not laziness. It’s not entitlement. It’s a system that rewarded a narrow definition of value, and then changed overnight.

“People only change out of great fear or great opportunity,” Joe says. “You have to look at this as an opportunity you can’t afford to turn down.”

What leaders can do now

So how does Joe coach leaders through this moment?

He starts with identity, channeling Maureen Taylor, SNP’s co-founder and Chairwoman: “What are their scoops?” he asks. “Scoops” refers to Socrates’ belief that each person has a purpose, and unique gifts that relate to that purpose, unrelated to upbringing, money, education, job, gender. So the first step in the transformation from subject matter expert to leader: define your scoops. 

Then comes the harder work: mindset.

“You can’t do this out of spite. You can’t do it just to check the box,” Joe says. “They have to inherently believe it’s important.”

That belief shift – from intelligence as status to communication as service – is the unlock. Because in an AI-enabled world, the leaders who thrive won’t be the ones who know the most.

They’ll be the ones who can connect the dots, bring others with them, and help their people see possibility instead of threat.

And that, Joe shares, is leadership work that matters right now.