The Death of “Human Expertise”
Why we need to democratize "human expertise"
At Layerup, our ‘basecamp’, under the umbrella of our mission, is to replace every single “human expertise” with AI.
Let me explain.
What we stand for
The first time I came to the valley, I was mindblown!
It felt like I’d been searching for a place I could call “home” my entire life and I had finally found it.
And no, it’s not because it’s a magnificent city (homelessness says otherwise).
It’s because of the people: high energy, high optimism, insane ambition, and the ability to put a dent in the universe is what this city is about.
But, there’s something horribly wrong: Incredibly talented people working on the wrong things.
On one hand, we have outdated on-prem software in construction delaying projects by months, untouched industries like legal, and a shortage of talent in deep tech. On the other hand, brilliant minds are pouring their efforts into yet another dev tool with a marginally better UI.
This really bothers me.
Being born and raised in a 3rd world country, I have seen the crippling effects of a lack of innovation in certain sectors of society.
Young and smart people working on yet another social consumer app or a dev tool is disastrous for society.
I started Layerup to set an example and bring cutting-edge technologies to areas that otherwise wouldn’t see it.
At Layerup, we believe the brightest minds should NOT be wasting their talents on the 200th dev tool or the 1000th social consumer app. The world doesn’t need more of the same.
We believe bringing cutting-edge technologies to laggard industries is how you can have the BIGGEST impact on the world as a human being.
We believe true innovation lies in bringing cutting-edge technologies to "boring" yet vital industries that impact us every day.
We believe the brightest minds should push beyond the known and venture into the unknown to disrupt crucial, yet lagging, sectors.
This belief is what defines our mission: Boost Innovation in areas that lack it.
This is what we stand for. This is what we are about.
“Human expertise” is a barrier to innovation
“Human expertise”, by traditional standards, has been about how much information we hold in our heads.
Let me tell you a story:
As a child of doctors growing up in suburban India, I saw my incredible mother provide care to many patients, often for free.
I remember one day outside my mother's clinic when she had to turn away a woman with a sick child because we couldn't afford to keep providing free care.
Imagine being a mother seeking help for your sick child, only to find out you can't afford it.
That moment, looking into that woman's eyes, I felt a deep, ineffable sorrow.
Even thinking about that moment gives me goosebumps.
No mother should experience that.
Unfortunately, such situations are common in India.
This is why “human expertise,” if not democratized, is disastrous for society.
This results in many issues such as:
Slower progress in critical sectors where human expertise is scarce or outdated.
Inefficiency in problem-solving and decision-making processes due to the reliance on limited human bandwidth. This results in higher costs in critical areas such as healthcare, legal, finance, and more.
Bottlenecks in innovation, as human expertise, cannot scale at the pace required to meet global challenges. An example might be the lack of talent in critical areas such as quantum computing for category-defining companies.
Imagine a world where specialized knowledge is no longer a bottleneck. By democratizing access to this expertise through AI, we can:
Accelerate Innovation: With AI handling complex “human expertise”-dependent tasks, human ingenuity can be directed towards strategy, critical-thinking, and presence of mind to iterate.
Increase Efficiency: AI can process vast amounts of data at incredible speeds, offering insights and solutions that would take humans significantly longer to achieve.
Expand Accessibility: Expertise will no longer be confined to a select few. AI can deliver expert-level guidance and solutions to anyone, anywhere, leveling the playing field. Hence, no mother in any 3rd world country should ever have to go through a second of powerlessness simply because she wasn’t able to afford healthcare for her child.
Drive Economic Growth: By boosting productivity and innovation across industries, AI can drive substantial economic growth, creating new opportunities and improving quality of life globally.
Our vision, under the umbrella of our mission, at Layerup is to lead this transformation. I want Layerup to be a company that stays here, not just for decades, but for centuries to come.
Hence, the goal to replace every human expertise with AI is a ‘basecamp’ on our way to Mount Everest.
The Death of “Human Expertise”
When the C programming language was introduced, it provided an abstraction layer that made coding more accessible and powerful, transforming the landscape of software development.
Fast forward to today.
Just as C was an abstraction layer over binary code, AI assistants will be the new abstraction layer over “human expertise”. What we call "human expertise" today will be abstracted away with AI assistants.
Here's a glimpse into this future:
Meet Sarah: Sarah, like my mother, is a doctor. She didn’t have enough time to provide care to every single patient. With her AI assistants, she can now provide the same care to 10x more patients. Her AI replaces "human expertise" required to scribe, handle medical coding, understand the right treatment, and more, so Sarah can focus on meeting 10x more patients.
Imagine John: John is a General Counsel at a public company who used to spend days reviewing and redlining contracts as well as answering legal questions. Now, using an AI assistant, he’s able to use AI to do the same tasks in seconds while focusing on strategy and higher-level work. AI has abstracted away his low-level tasks that require “human expertise.”
Consider Lisa: Lisa runs a small business. She was overwhelmed by managing customer requests, inventory, and marketing. Her AI assistants now handle customer service, track inventory, and even craft personalized marketing campaigns. Lisa's business is thriving, and she has time to envision new growth strategies.
Our perception of "human expertise" will be redefined. Just like C was an abstraction to assembly language, AI Assistants will be an abstraction layer to what we call "human expertise" today.
Everyone will have multiple AI Assistants that abstract what we call "human expertise" today and usher in a new era of "human expertise".
Those who don't adopt AI Assistants will eventually be the equivalent of developers who refused to learn C.
This will apply to every type of human expertise: finance, legal, programming, marketing, and more.
One of the best ways we believe we can boost innovation in areas that lack it is by replacing every “human expertise” in every enterprise in every department.
That’s our first goal for the next 5-10 years of Layerup’s life: replace every single “human expertise” in every single business in every single industry with AI, powered by Layerup software.
Note that replacing “human expertise” is VERY different from replacing humans. Human expertise is simply datasets trapped inside human brains that will now be abundantly accessible via software at ANY time.
Join us in redefining what it means to be an expert in the 21st century. Join us in Boosting Innovation in Areas that lack it. And most importantly, join us in tackling problems that, when you look back on your deathbed, you'll say, "Wow, that was hard, but it was worth it.”
Finally, I’d like to end by asking you, the reader, the real question: do you want a future where human expertise is trapped inside the heads of a few select people or do you want a future where human expertise is accessible to every mother in every city in every country on the planet?
A future where no child suffers for lack of access to “human expertise”, and no potential goes unrealized. Will you join us in building that world?