You have an IQ score. You probably don't know what it is, and it probably doesn't matter much in your daily life.
That's about to change. Not with IQ specifically, but with something similar. A score that measures your value in the AI economy. And unlike IQ, this one won't stay hidden.
This is Part 3 of a 4-part series on AI and the future of work. Read Part 1 | Part 2.
The K Is Getting Sharper
The K-shaped economy isn't new. After 2020, we watched the economy split into two trajectories: one group recovering and thriving, another falling further behind.
What's new is how sharp that split is becoming.
The Gini coefficient, a key measure of wealth concentration, sits at 60-year highs. The net worth of America's top 1% hit a record share of nearly 32% in the third quarter of 2025. The bottom 50%? They hold just 2.5% of total wealth.
The portion of U.S. GDP going to workers in the form of compensation just hit its lowest level in over 75 years.
And when Oxford Economics was asked if the AI boom will reinforce this K-shape for decades to come, they answered: "Absolutely."
Your New Score
Here's what I see coming: a combination of your AI skill score and your niche domain score will become your new professional GPA. And unlike school grades, this one will rise and fall throughout your career.
We're already seeing early versions. Johnson & Johnson used machine learning to score employees' skill proficiencies from their HR data. The AI engine rated employees' capabilities, then those scores were validated by managers.
That's happening quietly inside companies right now. Soon it won't be quiet.
Need a certain person for a job? You won't necessarily want the highest score. You'll want the score that aligns to the specific need, for a calculated amount of time adequate for the job.
This sounds efficient. It sounds optimized. It also sounds terrifying when you think about what happens to people who don't score well on either dimension.
The Valuable and the Non-Valuable
This is the part I struggle with.
Gartner estimates that 120 million workers are at medium-term risk of redundancy because they're unlikely to receive the reskilling they need. That's not a small number.
If you can't demonstrate AI proficiency, and you don't have a niche domain expertise that can't be easily replicated, where do you fit?
The K economy creates two categories: valuable and non-valuable. AI scoring might make that categorization explicit and measurable.
There will be situations where people don't effectively fill either score. No meaningful AI skill. No irreplaceable domain expertise. This creates an environment where a significant portion of the population falls into a category of minimal economic value.
That's not a labor market prediction. That's a societal question.
The Critical Thinking Paradox
Here's something that gives me hope, or at least pause.
Companies are demanding AI skills, AI certifications, AI proficiency. But when you ask talent leaders what skill they actually need most in 2026, 73% say critical thinking and problem-solving.
Gartner's strategic predictions warn that atrophy of critical-thinking skills due to GenAI use will push 50% of organizations to require "AI-free" skills assessments by 2026.
Read that again. Half of organizations requiring assessments specifically without AI, to verify that employees can still think independently.
The most AI-forward companies are realizing that pure AI dependence creates fragility. They need people who can think when the AI is wrong, unavailable, or inappropriate for the situation.
This suggests the scoring system might be more nuanced than "AI skills + domain expertise." It might need a third dimension: the ability to function without AI. The ability to think critically. The ability to know when to trust the machine and when to trust yourself.
Advice for the Next Generation
If I had to distill this down to advice, it would be: get skills. Learn niche topics. Become the expert in something that matters.
This will weight heavier than your ability to use AI. Because everyone will have AI ability. It's becoming table stakes.
The AI-skilled generalist will compete with millions of other AI-skilled generalists. The person who combines AI skill with deep, irreplaceable domain expertise? That's a much smaller pool.
The future belongs to people who know things that are hard to know. Who have judgment that takes time to develop. Who can do what AI can't: be accountable, make tradeoffs, exercise wisdom.
AI-skilled people working alongside niche experts will solve problems. But the niche expert will always be harder to replace.
Next in this series: Part 4 explores the future of expert work when robots, AR, and remote presence converge. Plus: who takes the liability when things go wrong?
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