Accountants, lawyers, management consultants and other professionals are information processors. So as the Internet and broadband networks slash the cost of distributing information, their work will inevitably transformed. For a glimpse of that transformation, look back a century or so to a time when the cost of distributing goods was plummeting, and the jobs of goods-processors were changed beyond all recognition.
At the turn of the last century, the corner shop bought its sacks of cornflour in bulk, and packaged up each measure for the customer when asked. Slow, high-priced distribution helped to keep retailing a personal, customised service; the distribution systems simply could not cope with sending lots of little pre-packed boxes to lots of little stores.
But as distribution and packaging costs fell, packaged goods became increasingly common. Instead of packaging cornflour, the retailer created displays of packets of cornflour.
So, will the communications revolution turn professionals from creators of hand-crafted advice into mere dealers in packets of information ? Probably not to the extent that retailers have been transformed by the transportation revolution. But the pressures - and opportunities - will be too large to ignore. Interactivity is the key.
If all that was available on the Internet was the equivalent of an electronic book, then not much would change. A book is still a bulk shipment of knowledge, too cumbersome for mass use. But computerised interactivity opens up new prospects for packaging information.
Web sites create virtual shopfronts for dispensing anonymous advice. Send in an email, or click on a Web browser, and the Net can deliver pre-packaged advice suited to common enquiries: tax advice for a high earner, or legal advice for a driver with too many speeding violations.
The Net also raises the possibility of assembly-line professional advice: email queries handled by whichever professional happens to be on the spot. Or professionals might start to use the technology of expert systems to clone themselves. Instead of dispensing advice directly to clients, they could teach a computer the rules that govern their decision-making and, at least for simple problems, the computer could then answer questions itself.
Like packaged goods, packaged professional advice can create mass markets where only niche markets existed before. They can make professional advice available to people who could not otherwise afford it. Along the way, they will also make fortunes for the professionals who are most successful in packaging their ideas. But packaged advice will still lack one crucial aspect of customised advice: a body to stand behind it. Computers will make it possible for layfolk to digest the information they need in order to make decisions for themselves. But when they take decisions for themselves, people also accept responsibility for themselves. They'll have no lawyer to go into court beside them, no tax accountant to help them through their audit. Although professionals worry increasingly about liability, computers will force them to take more responsibility for their judgements if they wish to continue to earn a living from them. That is the real challenge of the machine: stand by your judgements, or move and allow someone else to do so.
Graham Smith is a partner in London law firm Bird & Bird ( www.twobirds.com). He is editor and a co-author of the book Internet Law and Regulation, published in April 1996 by FT Law & Tax.