Ask most parents if they want a way to make their day-to-day life a little bit easier, and there’s a strong chance they’d give you a long, exasperated eye-roll that makes you feel silly for even asking. However, if that meant implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into their daily life, the response might be a little more hesitant. After all, we've all seen I Robot, right?
As we all know by now, AI is rearing its head in more areas of our lives than we could have ever anticipated – and in ways most of us are yet to fully comprehend. Despite the unknown, there are myriad ways in which these tools can be used for our benefit, especially for parents juggling an inconceivable number of tasks at once: the endless shopping lists, kids’ homework that feels way more difficult than we remember doing ourselves and what seems like weekly birthday party plans and playdates.
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One such tool is Google Gemini, which is an AI-powered assistant capable of setting timers, summarising information and generating images. Eric Lehman, senior manager on Google's Gemini team, says it has the capacity to save parents’ precious time. ‘Whether it’s finding inspiration for healthy meals, planning memorable family outings, or discovering engaging activities for kids, Gemini is there to lend a helping hand,' Lehman explains. ‘Early feedback suggests that parents appreciate Gemini’s ability to streamline tasks, spark creativity, and provide tailored information, ultimately making their lives that little bit easier.’
But are parents actually using it? And, more importantly, does it work to save any time at all? Aghogho Oluese, who runs a food blog called Baby-led Weaning for Busy Moms, is a stay-at-home mum who has embraced AI to help her simplify her workload. She says it's become a regular assistant with domestic tasks, helping with meal planning, teaching activities and play-based activities.
‘I use AI to create meal plans for the family when I have leftovers and random ingredients to use up for the week,’ Oluese explains. ‘In an attempt to reduce our food waste, I also ask Chat GPT to help create a meal plan and it does a pretty good job. If I don’t know how to make an item in the plan, I’ll ask it to give me the cooking directions, but you do have to double check what’s provided because sometimes things don’t make sense.’
Oluese also uses AI to create colouring pages for her kids – saving money in the process. ‘Right now, my oldest is into fire trucks and dogs, so a lot of colouring pages I create had them in it. It makes teaching them more engaging. Midjourney or Leonardo AI are great for this, or you can also use the built in AI on Canva.’
What are the best AI tools for parents?
There are countless AI tools that can help in everyday family life, from Chat GPT, meal planning apps like Mealime and Paprika, scheduling apps like Cozi, Coexist and Todoist and software that keeps an eye on what kids are up to online like Oustodio, Net Nanny and Bark. That’s before you consider the more common AI-generated gadgets like Alexa or Google Assistant, or even Duolingo, all of which use AI to help streamline learning and various household tasks.
Silvia de Denaro Vieira co-founded the Coexist app for this very reason. When she and her husband first moved in together, they were determined to avoid the ‘all-too-common dynamic’ where women shoulder most of the housework, even when they outearn their partners, while men are often ‘left out of caregiving roles that create deeper connections’.
In response, she co-founded an AI-powered app with the simple goal of helping families reduce stress, balance responsibilities and spend more quality time together. ‘Our advice is to create a system that works for your family,' Vieira says. 'A useful approach we’ve seen is dividing household responsibilities into "departments", so each person has clear ownership over specific areas. [AI] helps outsource the mental burden of remembering tasks. Instead of relying on memory, let technology handle reminders and notifications, freeing up valuable brain space for more important things.’
It sounds ideal, but some parents are still apprehensive; it’s still unknown territory after all. According to research by Barna Group, 72% of parents are concerned about the potential negative effects of AI on their children, citing data and privacy and security risks as major concerns. Nevertheless, 45% are somewhat interested in exploring AI-powered tools for learning and household management.
‘Parents do have some worries about using AI at home, especially with their kids,’ explains Dr Matt Hasan, CEO of AI Results. ‘Privacy is a big issue since many AI devices collect data. There’s also concern about kids becoming too dependent on technology, which might affect their social skills or learning. Plus, there’s the fear that AI might not always understand or meet their child’s unique needs.’
Those who have successfully managed to incorporate AI into their daily lives suggest that it is best deployed as a time-saving assistant rather than a substitute parent. As head of AI and research at Bordo AI, Jigyasa Grover puts it, ‘AI is set to change how we care for and support our kids in some pretty cool ways, but we should be careful about privacy and not rely too much on tech.’
The i’s parenting columnist, Genevieve Roberts, seems to have struck the right balance. As a mum-of-three, she has learned to use AI to help automate tasks that would have otherwise taken hours or days. ‘Our eldest two have birthdays at a really similar time and I love putting on parties for them, but I found AI hugely helpful for coming up with nice little ideas which you could Google and spend a lot longer.’
She asked Chat GPT to come up with games for a dinosaur themed party for a five-year-old boy. ‘It came up with things like hiding eggs in a sandpit and pretending they were dinosaur eggs, so they were quite imaginative ideas. It made the event really special. I didn’t have to put as much time into it, but I don’t think it came off as less thoughtful.’
The same goes for meal planning. ‘Meals are sometimes rejected in our house and it gets hard just thinking of ideas. It’s lovely to keep bringing in the odd new thing because our children have favourites, and if we can get them off noodle soup that’s always a winner.’
The consensus, for now, is to proceed with care, rather than caution. ‘Imagine going back in time to the 90s and exploring the formative version of the internet,’ suggests the head of AI and educational publisher Twinkl. ‘It would have been hard to predict, then, the largely beneficial impact it would go on to have on everything we do. We’re at a similar stage now with AI and are only scratching the surface in terms of its capabilities and how it can be applied to improve our lives.’
If that means coming up with dinner alternatives to noodle soup, automating household tasks to improve equal parenting or suggesting party games and worksheets without having to trawl through pages of online suggestions, it’s easy to see why some parents are embracing AI with open arms. Arms that are juggling enough as it is.
Nikki Peach is news and entertainment writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and current affairs. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).