By Alice Damgaard Sprotte, AAU Communication and Public Affairs. Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

The established experts – the professor, the experienced footballer, the publisher's travel guide – now have competition. Today, we do not just see professional individuals as experts in a given field. We also listen to influencers and digital platforms such as Trustpilot and Tripadvisor when we seek knowledge on a particular topic, and we consult algorithms and digital systems when planning or performing certain tasks.

This is shown by a major new literature study on the role of experts co-authored by Kasper Trolle Elmholdt, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University.

"Put simply, we can talk about two main ways to call yourself an expert. You can spend 10,000 hours improving your skills as a chess player, classical pianist or 100-meter runner through practice. Or, through your position in terms of your education and your professional career, you can call yourself an expert in your field, for example as a doctor or researcher. But now we also see that social media and new technology create new ways of being an expert," he says.

Influencers are the experts of social media

Kasper Trolle Elmholdt points to influencers who promote themselves as experts on social media where they give advice on everything from health and diet to finances. This applies, for example, to 'finfluencers' – financial advisors on social media who are not necessarily trained economists, but who self-stage with their knowledge and find an audience that considers them experts.

It’s not just influencers who are experts on digital platforms. The platforms themselves become experts of sorts. Good examples are Trustpilot and Tripadvisor that through user reviews, knowledge sharing and star ratings appear as experts on everything from electronics to food and travel, and replace the traditional travel guide. People research what the digital platforms recommend.

When the algorithm knows best

The researchers also examined another study that was on the police in the Netherlands and discovered another trend. Officers, also called frontline workers, have traditionally been the ones who knew most about patrolling and were seen as the authority. This role is moving to the IT department that collects and analyzes data and through algorithms recommends new ways of patrolling, thus becoming the new policing expert. The data experts in the IT department thus gain greater authority and become kind of 'meta-experts' who convey expert knowledge that others have traditionally had.

"We may well see more of this," Kasper Trolle Elmholdt believes and mentions that algorithms are already being used in Danish organizations, for example to support radiologists' work with X-rays, in emergency calls and for control in the public administration.

"These technologies particularly challenge the way we have historically understood the role of experts. The studies we mapped show on a small scale what may lie ahead. Some of these technologies we use in everyday and working life are so hard to see through that it can be difficult to pinpoint who is actually the expert. So new expert roles emerge among those who can handle the algorithms and who can understand and process data, explains Kasper Trolle Elmholdt.

Democratization or a crisis of expertise?

The trends in the study paint an overall picture of the expert role changing. On the one hand, the researchers believe that this creates uncertainty and crisis because traditional experts are under pressure from multiple sides. The new technologies are helping to reinforce this trend. On the other hand, there is a democratization of the role of expert.

"Many believe that there is an increasing democratization of the role of expert. This means that more people can get involved. We also see this on social media and digital platforms where more people have the opportunity to share their experiences and reviews. At the same time, not everyone necessarily becomes an expert for that reason, and there can also be a downside in terms of different professional standards compared to those that we have traditionally viewed as experts. This also applies to social media," explains Kasper Trolle Elmholdt.

He also believes that there is a need to examine the disciplines that increasingly use artificial intelligence; this can tell us something about where the expert role is moving as artificial intelligence has become such a big part of our everyday lives.

Kasper Trolle Elmholdt, Associate Professor continues to investigate the role of experts, algorithms and artificial intelligence in a new research project supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark:

Professional Expertise in the Age of the Learning Algorithm (PEAL) (In Danish)