From Screen Time to Family Time
March 10, 2026 Your almost daily guide to navigating AI as a family.
Hey friends,
This weekend, my daughter and I were building a ridiculously complex Lego set during our Global Day of Unplugging on Saturday, and it hit me—we were basically debugging a program. Find the error, test a fix, and see if the whole thing holds together. It’s not that different from what’s happening with AI right now. We’re all getting these new, powerful “bricks” of technology dropped on us, and we have to figure out how to build something useful without the whole thing collapsing.
This week’s news is a masterclass in this. We’re seeing AI get integrated into the most boring, everyday tools (spreadsheets!) and at the same time, it’s forcing us to ask huge questions about our kids’ future jobs. It’s a lot, but like that Lego set, we just have to take it one brick at a time.
Your Excel Sheet is Now an AI Playground
The Story: Last week, OpenAI dropped GPT-5.4, and its biggest trick is that it now works inside Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. This isn't just about asking a chatbot a question; it's about telling your spreadsheet to build a forecast, analyze sales data, or create a complex budget for you, and then watching it happen.
What This Means for You: If you’re an entrepreneur, this is like hiring a data analyst who never sleeps. For parents managing a household budget or a side hustle, you can now ask your spreadsheet questions in plain English. It’s a massive step toward making powerful data analysis accessible to everyone, not just the pros.
Try This Week: Open a Google Sheet of your monthly expenses. Instead of writing formulas, imagine you could just ask it: “What’s our average weekly grocery spend?” or “Show me a chart of our top 3 spending categories.” That’s the future that just arrived.
Source: Axios
The “AI Job Apocalypse” Isn’t Here, But Something Bigger Is
The Story: A new Gartner report is making waves, predicting that AI will significantly transform 32 million jobs every year. But here’s the twist: they also project that AI will start creating more jobs than it replaces by 2028. The real change isn’t mass layoffs; it’s “hiring avoidance” for entry-level roles and a complete redesign of existing jobs.
What This Means for You: The career ladder your kids are about to climb is being rebuilt in real-time. The skills that matter now are not just about doing a task, but about knowing how to manage an AI to do the task better. This is the dinner-table conversation we all need to be having. Is your kid’s future career path teaching them to be the manager of AI, or the one being managed?
Try This Week: Ask your kids what they think an “AI” does at a job. Their answers will be incredibly revealing. Start a conversation about how a doctor, an artist, or a builder might use an AI assistant to make their work better and faster.
Source: CIO.com
Your Kid’s Next Reading Tutor Might Be a Bot
The Story: In San Francisco, first and second graders are learning to read with an AI tutor named Amira. The app listens to kids read, helps them sound out words, and gives teachers incredibly detailed reports on exactly where each student is struggling. It’s a peek into the future of personalized education.
What This Means for You: AI is no longer a far-off concept; it’s in our kids’ classrooms today. As parents, we need to be asking our schools how these tools are being used, how our kids’ data is being protected, and how we can use the same principles at home. If a teacher can get a daily report on reading progress, why can’t a parent?
Try This Week: Use a free AI tool like the text-to-speech reader in Microsoft Edge or the voice typing in Google Docs. Have your child read a paragraph from a book, then have the AI read it back. It’s a simple way to show them how AI can be a learning partner.
Source: KALW Public Radio
Microsoft Just Gave Its AI a Serious Upgrade
The Story: Microsoft has officially partnered with Anthropic, another major AI company, to integrate its model, Claude, into the Microsoft 365 Copilot. This means the AI in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is getting even smarter. The focus is shifting from just chatting with AI to giving it a to-do list—create a presentation, schedule three meetings, and draft a follow-up email—and letting it run multiple tasks for you in the background.
What This Means for You: If your company uses Microsoft Office, you have an AI agent waiting for you. For entrepreneurs, this is your new administrative assistant. The line between “doing the work” and “directing the AI to do the work” is blurring faster than ever. Understanding this is key to staying relevant and valuable in any role.
Try This Week: The next time you’re writing a work email, open Copilot in Outlook or Word and ask it to “suggest three alternative subject lines” or “make this sound more professional.” Start using it for small, simple tasks to build the habit.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Family AI Activity
This week, let’s move beyond just talking to AI and actually build something. We’re going to create a simple “Dad Joke” chatbot.
- Get the Tool: Go to a no-code chatbot builder like Voiceflow or Botsonic (many have free tiers).
- Give it a Brain: In the chatbot’s knowledge base, give it a list of 10-15 of your family’s favorite (or most groan-worthy) dad jokes.
- Set the Rules: Create a simple rule: When a user says “tell me a joke,” the bot should respond with one of the jokes from its list.
- Test and Share: Test it out as a family. Then, share the link with grandparents or cousins and see if they can get a laugh (or a groan) out of your family’s creation.
This teaches the core concept of how AI models are trained on specific data and given instructions to follow. It’s a mini-lesson in building, not just using.
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Join the Community
Looking for a place to connect with other parents who are navigating the world of AI? Join our free Facebook group, AI-Powered Super Parents.
Pick just one thing from this newsletter to try this week. Don't get overwhelmed. The goal is small, consistent steps.
Talk soon,
The AI Dad - Warren Schuitema
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