I Didn’t Think I Needed AI

How curiosity, business, and motherhood pulled me into a tool I can’t ignore

(GUEST POST BY: Katherine Clay)

Just 14 months ago, my brother told me I needed to start using AI. He loved ChatGPT at the time and even offered to pay for my first month so I would try the Plus version.

My response?

“I just don’t understand what I would ever use it for?”

I’m a baby of the ’80s. I still remember when the most exciting thing you could do on a computer was play The Oregon Trail and try to survive cholera in a slow, pixelated wagon.

Oregon Trail, the game we all wanted to play in school. Photo created by Canva AI

But eventually, I jumped on the proverbial AI wagon.

Like most people I started by asking simple prompts and questions. Chat GPT helped me plan a nine month trip with my family through the Western US and South America. It mapped out bus routes, compared transportation options, and gave the pros and cons of stopping in specific cities. After my husband started a coaching business it became a constant companion: in clarifying marketing ideas, and learning new terms. Suddenly, I had another brainstorming buddy.

Most of the time; however, I only knew how to use AI as a glorified search engine. I knew I needed to start learning more, so I subscribed to SmartOwner to sharpen my understanding.

My go to platform right now is ChatGPT, I recently started building projects inside ChatGPT. My favorite is a project that allows me to track progress towards my quarterly goals on a weekly basis. Slowly, I am expanding how I use AI. After reading One Claude, Three Jobs I opened up Claude and started testing it out. I like it.

Why I love AI

Like many people I maintain a love/hate relationship with AI. What do I love?

Building a business plan: Whether creating goals, an action plan, or researching my business ecosystem; Claude and ChatGPT provided great insight and ideas.

Homeschool Lessons: Chat GPT has helped me numerous times to figure out how to integrate Kpop music trivia and problems into our homeschool agenda.

Favorite person inspiration: SmartOwner suggested this one. I learned you can start conversations in the tone of your favorite people. Intrigued, I asked Maya Angelou to provide me some inspiration for solopreneurs. My daughter and I also talked to different members of the Kpop band, Stray Kids.

What Scares Me About AI

In other ways I am not completely comfortable with how fast AI is moving. As a mom with young kids we constantly fight the epic battle of screen time overload. My middle child loves to talk about whatever her current passion is (currently Kpop), and talk……. and talk. When we found that Amazon rolled out Amazon Plus, the new AI assistant, both my children found it endlessly amusing to carry on conversations with Alexa. I considered it a welcome respite that Alexa could uphold a conversation about my child’s favorite Kpop band for an hour.

Alexa Plus is a master at mirroring; an active listening technique where the listener repeats what the speaker said to ensure they heard what was said correctly. Alexa continually mirrors, but does so without providing additional context or challenging assumptions (at least not without asking for the challenge). Often, people don’t like challenging questions. Instead, they prefer confirmation that their thoughts are valid and impressive.

In certain situations AI will reinforce our self imposed echo chambers. As much as AI makes a great companion it can’t fix the loneliness epidemic.

A New Frontier

My oldest son, now 19 and out on his own, called us recently worried that AI is going to take all the jobs. I gently reminded him that the world has always moved through waves of transformation. We shifted from rural life to growing cities, from handcraft to mechanized production during the Industrial Revolution, and later into the tech world of the 1990s. Each era brought disruption, including fear and uncertainty, but also new opportunities.

AI will be no different. It will reshape how we work, how we build businesses, and how we define value.

Where does that leave me as a parent, wife, woman, community member, and entrepreneur? Honestly, I don’t know. I am in the process of learning how I want to use AI as a tool, and how to navigate its growing influence in the life of my children.

One family, but we will all utilize and navigate AI in our own ways.

I like the idea that even though I feel like a novice in the AI stratosphere that just by continually learning I am ahead. AI will continue to integrate into everyday life and I am okay not knowing exactly what that looks like yet.

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Huge thanks to our guest author Katherine Clay: Katherine writes the Substack Solopreneur Strategy with the aim of connecting solopreneurs to navigate the unfamiliar world of entrepreneurship.