Specialists, Generalists, and AI… everything?
AI is the ultimate research assistant who never sleeps and has read everything. Like having a super-powered intern who can crunch patterns faster than my ADHD brain on its most caffeinated day. But it can't feel the weight of a character's choices or know when to break the rules for emotional impact. That's still our gig. For now.
We're the human voice in the room saying, "Yeah, that's clever, but let's make it hurt more," or "Cool twist, but the audience will spot that from space."
Specialists bring the deep craft knowledge, generalists connect the dots nobody else sees, and AI handles the heavy lifting on research and iteration. That chemistry can turn algorithmic sparks into fire.
Specialist vs. Generalist
Back in the day, we used to debate whether you needed to go deep or go wide. Specialists would drill down into their craft like they were mining for diamonds, mastering tiny details most people never notice. Generalists bounced between worlds, spotting connections deep-dive folks miss. Both approaches had their moments. Both had true believers. But AI walked into the room and flipped the game board.
AI: The New Kid Who Read Everything
The latest LLMs have insane breadth. They've absorbed every Wikipedia article, every script database, every story structure guide ever written. They spot patterns across massive datasets and make connections at gigabit speeds.
AI can stitch ideas together like a quilting bee champion, but it doesn't get nuance. It doesn't understand why that moment in The Empire Strikes Back hits each of us differently, or why sometimes the wrong choice is actually the right choice for your character.
Specialists: The Keepers of "Why That Actually Works"
When AI spits out fifteen different ways to structure a time-travel plot, you need someone who's lived in that storytelling space to say, "This one works, this one's been done to death, and this one will make the audience throw things at their screens, so maybe life’s too short and we shouldn’t do a time-travel plot."
Specialists are the ones who:
- Know what's actually true versus what just sounds smart
- Can spot when something feels authentic versus when it's just checking boxes
- Make those creative choices that separate memorable storytelling from content filler
Deep knowledge isn't competing with AI, it's steering the ship.
Generalists: The Connective Tissue
Some of my best creative breakthroughs happened when I was bouncing between different projects, scribbling TV, consulting on games, and thinking about transmedia. Cross-pollination sorcery was my secret to scribbling success!
Generalists are crucial because they:
- Translate between AI output and what specialists actually need
- See weird connections between different creative spaces
- Point folks in the same direction when things get chaotic
Generalists can look at a sci-fi concept, a gaming mechanic, and a character relationship and somehow see how they all fit together.
The Real Creative Team-Up
What I'm seeing is a scribble room where everyone has different superpowers. AI does the grunt work, like research, pattern recognition, and rapid iteration on ideas. Specialists bring the craft depth and quality control. Generalists keep everything connected and spot opportunities for crafting a recipe that’s genuinely original.
When that clicks, you get more than any piece could create alone. It's not a competition, it's about finding the right creative chemistry.
Where We Fit: Being Human in the AI Age
So what's our move?
- Trust what you know, and use it to guide AI toward good ideas
- Stay curious about connections between different creative spaces
- Treat AI like a smart research assistant, not a creative director
I've spent twenty-plus years in rooms where people argued about story choices, and the best decisions almost always came from someone saying, "Here's why that won't work," or "What if we tried something this instead?" That human judgment, that ability to feel when something's right or wrong.
In a future where AI is ubiquitous, we’ll need our humanity, talents, and hard-earned skillsets more than ever.
