The gap is closing but it can't touch the part that matters.
I write these posts with AI and I've been open about why — a neurological condition took a lot of my typing away, but (unfortunately for you) AI gave me back the ability to put my thoughts into the world. AI has also given me coding, research, presentation, excel, and other capabilities and speed that's hard to fathom.
The cost of sounding competent has collapsed and the computable part of expertise is getting commoditized fast. And not just the junior work. The top of the ladder too.
When everyone can produce a sharp answer, the answer stops being the differentiator. What's left is older and simpler: do people trust you? Do they like you and want you in the room? Do they believe you actually mean the thing you just said?
For years, a certain kind of person got away with being a jerk because they had a rare skill that made them worth the cost. The rare skill is becoming common. The jerk part isn't going anywhere. And now there's nothing underneath it.
Great mentors/bosses/partners and 15+ years building across Greenleaf Capital Partners, ATIS, and Centered Partners taught me what actually compounds: someone trusting you enough to hand you the deal, follow you through a hard year, or tell you the truth when a nod would've been easier.
That's presence, trust and judgment. It's the one layer no model can reproduce.
The machine gave me back my output. It can't give me the part that made any of it matter — and it can't fake yours either.
That's the good news. The thing that's hardest to fake is worth the most.