Originally published on LinkedIn on March 30, 2026
A hundred years ago. Okay. Not that long ago. I used an early model Macintosh at work. It was portable with a tiny screen; three cables for power, keyboard, and mouse; and fit into a canvas bag, so I could take it home on weekends.
And I did take it home on weekends because I didn’t want it to be lonely.
I knew every app, extension, program file, and more on that machine. Within a few years, I knew nothing, I just crossed my fingers that my Windows PC would boot up. With each passing year, I knew less-and-less about the hundreds of folders on my laptop from drivers and diagnostics to DumpStack, SWSetup, tracing, WinSxS, and WUModels.
For the most part, I haven’t the foggiest idea how my PC operates. I just open, type, design, save, print, and share what I produce, using my intuition. My technique for solving issues is to click and curse.
This weekend, I dove into doing my husband’s and my taxes, using TurboTax. It kept popping up ads, asking if I wanted to purchase expert support and advice. I declined and forged ahead. It was ridiculously easy considering I had to deal with investments, IRA distributions, healthcare deductions, required minimum distributions, and much more.
No doubt, its simplicity was tied to AI. The program would ask me questions, contemplate my selections, and then make recommendations. When I entered something that needed more explanation, it would politely ask for additional information via “yes/no” or checkboxes.
The best part, I hardly had to enter anything because it snatched information from our financial and investment organizations and when I did type in a wrong number, it would immediately prompt me, “Not so fast. We think you goofed” (Okay, those weren’t the exact words).
According to Forbes Advisor, 72% of businesses have adopted AI for at least one business function and 50% of U.S. mobile users use voice search every day. At the top of the list for AI adoption is customer relations with 65% of consumers trusting businesses that use AI.
I love the idea that AI allows me to remain ignorant yet pretend I know what I’m doing. Now it could only give me a tax refund instead of an IOU, I’d be elated!
All incomplete sentences, grammatical mishaps, and bizarre though patterns are made by a human. The image was created by AI and doesn’t look like the author. If it did, the ginger cat—Agent Orange—would be gnawing on the papers and throwing them on the floor.
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