My husband and I aren't hiding our AI use from our kids. We are helping them learn how to use it.

The author (not pictured) said that she and her husband often use AI to make life and work easier and faster. Now, they're helping their kids learn to do the same.

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AI chatbots have been tremendously helpful in running our workflows for quite a while now. As a freelance copywriter working from home, and with my husband working as an IT configuration engineer, our laptops have always been fixtures of daily life. Our three children, aged 12, 9, and 5, are used to seeing us focused on screens. They knew we both worked hard, but they didn't really understand how, until we started using the voice assistant feature of Claude.A few months ago, my husband started a voice chat with Claude in our living room. We were simply trying to choose an accent setting, but the moment a warm voice answered back, the kids' faces lit up. What started as an experiment quickly turned into a fun family experience, with everyone trying to come up with questions to ask. That conversation literally ended with my son asking for tips on how to make the perfect chocolate mug cake in the microwave.That afternoon, we had great fun, but it actually helped start something unexpected.Of course, we still use AI for work. I use it to brainstorm ideas, organize research, and speed up editing. My husband uses it to troubleshoot technical issues and make sense of coding problems more quickly. But AI has also found its way into our everyday family life, too. After work, we keep using it for things like meal planning, researching products, organizing trips, settling random debates, and answering the endless stream of questions that my curious kids have.Our kids are listening to us problem-solve out loudUsing the live, spoken conversation feature with AI apps is helping our children learn it well. Initially, switching to voice chat was just a matter of convenience. But over time, I realized our children were watching us think, question, verify information, and solve problems in real time. They weren't just seeing technology in action; they were actually learning how to interact with it.Thankfully, our kids understand the difference between work time and family time. They know not to interrupt when we are deep in concentration. But when we are using the voice assistant for collaborative tasks, they love to join in. They are fascinated by the technology, but more importantly, they are learning how to direct it.