The only way to win in the AI era 🦾
The generalist advantage
I met Mansoor Soomro at Sustainability Week in London back in March, where he was speaking on a panel about leadership in the age of AI. As Future of Work lead at Teesside University, he shared one of the smartest insights I heard that day. It wasn’t a tech point, it was a people one.
“If AI can take specialist roles,” Mansoor said, “then there’s a new demand: generalists over specialists.”
He backed it up with research. AI-led decision-making beat human CEOs by 2.5x. But the best-performing setup? Human-AI augmentation had a 7x productivity lift. “The key here is augmentation,” he said, not replacement.
That stuck because I’ve seen it myself. I run Millennial Masters solo, but I lean on AI tools daily for editing, research, writing. They save time, yes. But they also go off track, fast. If you don’t keep the whole picture in your head, they’ll lead you off track. That’s where being a generalist helps most.
So when I found out Mansoor had written a book called The Generalist Advantage, I wanted to dig deeper. What I found was a sharp take on the future of work and a full-on takedown of an old myth I’ve always hated: “Jack of all trades, master of none.”
According to Mansoor, that phrase is holding us back. And in the AI era, being a generalist is the sharpest edge you’ve got.
Mansoor also shares practical ways to stretch beyond your niche: how to shift your mindset, pick up new skills, and work across different functions without needing to start from scratch. It’s a framework for becoming more adaptive, more useful, and harder to replace.
I read The Generalist Advantage the same way I run Millennial Masters: fast, focused, and looking for what actually works when things get messy. Here’s what stood out 👇🏻
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How to think like a generalist (and why it matters)
1️⃣ Generalists thrive where AI fails
AI is excellent at precision, but when things get complex, messy, or unpredictable, it breaks. Generalists are built for that chaos: they can zoom out, make connections across disciplines, and shift gears without losing the plot.
In Mansoor’s research, the most effective outcomes came not from humans or AI alone, but from pairing them. Augmented decision-making outperformed AI-only by 3x. The future isn’t full automation, it’s smart humans working with smart tools.
💡 Use AI to go faster, but train yourself to see wider. That’s where your edge is.
2️⃣ Adaptability is your real edge
Specialists go deep, while generalists move across. And in the AI age, where entire skill sets can be automated quickly, transferable skills matter more than technical mastery.
Communication, strategic thinking, pattern recognition are what Mansoor calls “portable skills,” and generalists tend to carry more of them. Not being average at everything, but knowing enough to adapt, collaborate, and build when the rules keep changing.
💡 Don’t chase depth for the sake of it. Build skills you can take anywhere.
3️⃣ “Jack of all trades” was never an insult
Mansoor calls this out early: the full quote isn’t an insult, it’s a compliment. The original line? “Jack of all trades, master of none… but oftentimes better than master of one.” Somewhere along the way, the ending got dropped.
But the idea behind it is more relevant than ever. In a world flooded with specialists and machines, generalists are the ones who spot the gaps, connect ideas, and step up when the usual answers stop working.
💡 Generalists win when the rules stop working.
4️⃣ Specialists are vulnerable unless they evolve
Mansoor argues that in an AI-dominated world, mastery in one niche is no longer enough. Specialists risk becoming obsolete if their expertise is too narrow or rigid. They often struggle outside their lane, or fail to notice what’s changing in the industry around them.
Yet many specialists already have the main skills to become powerful generalists, if they zoom out. Look for overlapping skills, cross-functional projects, or adjacent industries to explore. You don’t have to ditch your depth, just add breadth.
💡 Those who combine deep knowledge with curiosity and pattern recognition across fields will lead the next wave of innovation.
What makes you valuable now
Specialists follow patterns while generalists write new ones. If you’re building anything that needs to last, you need range more than speed or depth. It’s the kind of breadth that makes you harder to replace, and even harder to out-think.
Reading The Generalist Advantage didn’t push me to reinvent myself or stack five new skill sets. It just reminded me how powerful it is to stay curious, scan wider, and let those overlaps compound.
I’ve built Millennial Masters solo by wearing different hats and learning fast, but it only works because I know when to zoom out, when to ask better questions, and when to push tools like AI without letting them think for me.
What Mansoor Soomro makes clear in The Generalist Advantage is this: what leaders need is shifting fast. People who can learn across fields, connect ideas, and move between contexts will stay valuable, especially as work gets more unpredictable.
Stay useful. That’s it. That’s the whole game.
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I like the practical advice for staying adaptable!