The bots are coming! They’re coming for our jobs! They’re learning fast! They’re going to evolve into a super race and wipe us out of existence! Enough with the exclamations. Nvidia’s chief executive officer Jensen Huang says that the peak of artificial intelligence advancements may come in five years. We’ve got time. Why not make AI work for us until then? Here’s how bots can make everyday life better.
Rustle up a meal. A recipe generator such as DishGen or ChefGPT goes where Google doesn’t. Feed it (see what we did there?) the names of the ingredients in the fridge, ask it for ideas, mention dietary preferences, and it responds with a recipe. Bangalore-based firm Upliance also has an AI cooking-assistant device. It has a touch-screen, in-built weighing scale and chatbot. And it can rinse, knead, chop, sauté and stir. “If you aspire to cook, you can cook,” says Mahek Mody, co-founder.
Pretend you have a secretary. One thing AI understands well is scheduling: Alarms, deadlines, reminders, syncing with another calendar, striking a task off a list. It’s built to take on the boring stuff. Try Clockwise for syncing team calendars, Motion for project management, Clara for an almost human-like AI virtual assistant. There’s also Trevor, a simple, free task manager; and Scheduler AI to manage those endless team meetings. Just pick one that your colleagues are using too.
Follow the money. Finance professionals are already using AI to detect fraud and assess risk. Many algorithms can now identify suspicious transactions in real time. Us real folks need simpler tech. Cleo can analyse monthly spending and offer budgeting tips better than those dashboard pie-charts on apps ever did. It also uses emojis, memes and gifs. Siddharth Sarvanakar, 26, an MBA student in London, has been using it for the past few months. “It’s not just an organiser or tracker,” he says. “It’s designed to help you save money. It even hypes you up, sending you messages like, ‘You’re a legend’ when you do. If you choose the Roast Me option, it will literally scold you when you overspend. It’s so fun.” Indian brand Fintoo does the same job, without the fun bits.
{{/usCountry}}Follow the money. Finance professionals are already using AI to detect fraud and assess risk. Many algorithms can now identify suspicious transactions in real time. Us real folks need simpler tech. Cleo can analyse monthly spending and offer budgeting tips better than those dashboard pie-charts on apps ever did. It also uses emojis, memes and gifs. Siddharth Sarvanakar, 26, an MBA student in London, has been using it for the past few months. “It’s not just an organiser or tracker,” he says. “It’s designed to help you save money. It even hypes you up, sending you messages like, ‘You’re a legend’ when you do. If you choose the Roast Me option, it will literally scold you when you overspend. It’s so fun.” Indian brand Fintoo does the same job, without the fun bits.
{{/usCountry}}Start tripping. Trip Planner, BuildAI , WanderLog and Roam Around are all purpose-built vacation planners that track flight prices, look for good hotels near a Metro station, avoid too many cobblestoned staircases, filter out the tourist traps, and figure out which day the museum has free entry. Hopper is another AI-powered travel tool that shares the ideal time to book flights or hotels and how particular bookings have been priced in the past, so you can see whether the deal’s for real.
Sleep on it. AI is going where the Fitbit stopped. Sleep.ai uses your phone’s audio to filter and detect snoring and teeth-grinding while you sleep. A separate optional wearable can also send out a vibration when the app detects snoring sounds, so the user can adjust to a better sleeping position. Internationally, brands have started rolling out AI-powered mattresses, pillows and beds that can adjust their own firmness levels, angles and heights. Take our money, already.
Take every shortcut. Above all else, AI is great for the little stuff. Upgrade from Gmail/Outlook auto-replies with Lavender, which offers tips on being more polite or persuasive (and cleans up grammar) and gets better the more you use it. Need to TL;DR an article or video? Wordtune, a Chrome extension, uses AI to summarise what’s on the page instantly. Blinkist and Shortform use AI (and human editors) to summarise and narrate popular books. Beautiful.ai can convert data into bells-and-whistles slideshows. WatchThis is for when work’s done. It helps users decide what movie or show to watch, based on what they’ve liked before. And it doesn’t judge.