The book — described on Stern’s website as an “instant NYT bestseller” — inspired me to succeed in out on LinkedIn and Featured.com to see if retirees may benefit from a few of these ideas, each financially to retire in the primary place and to explore how AI might be used to reap the benefits of the resulting free time available to retirees. I do know many retired or semi-retired friends who write books, mess around with AI music or art, and pursue other creative pursuits supported by AI tools like Chat GPT, Grok, or Claude.
While my members of the family are looking into a few of these tools, I even have to confess that I have never looked into it yet, although I feel AI is an interesting topic to take a position in, even when only through an exchange-traded fund like this one AISthe VistaShares Artificial Intelligence Supercycle ETF. (The biggest holdings are the same old tech/semiconductor suspects: Nvidia, Micron, Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor, AMD, SK Hynix, GE Vernova, and about 50 other names.)
I became aware of Stern’s book through an interview with Jim Cramer Podcast. Cramer himself appears to be immersed in every AI tool from Claude to Google’s Gemini.
Stern actually doesn’t think every AI app is well worth the effort or cost (they are not necessarily free, even when, as within the drug world, the primary hit is free). If you’re still working or an adolescent just starting out, you should have little selection but to make use of this technology. As Jensen Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia, said, employees don’t necessarily need to fear losing their jobs to AI, but they do fear losing their jobs to other employees who know tips on how to use AI.
Certainly, AI has a huge effect on those just starting out of their careers, and doubtless those in mid-career as well. As Stern points out, nearly 80% of firms said they plan to make use of AI in a minimum of a part of their business by early 2025. As an creator, she is brutally honest and sometimes quite funny. Early on, she admits that she is “genuinely optimistic about technology and how it can improve our lives.” But as she tried to integrate AI into every aspect of her life, she discovered that “a lot of these tools suck.”
We put chatbots, robots, wearables and self-driving cars to the test
In total, Stern has tested greater than 100 AI tools, from chatbots to wearables to self-driving cars and residential robots. Her self-imposed rule was to proceed using something if it was useful; if not, she dropped it. She also tracked costs: “Many of these AI tools cost something, although some of them started with a free trial that quickly turned into a monthly subscription.”
In some places she is sort of critical of how some experts use AI against consumers. One example is dentistry: “Some dentists are using AI to sell the crap out of us.” Or as she says, “Dentistry is part science, part art and part business.” Still, she’s a bit more encouraging in regards to the role of AI across the medical occupation. Within two years, she predicts, “you should never be sitting and talking to a doctor without an LLM.” [Large Language Model] attending the meeting… AI is a very good second opinion… It is obvious that ‘doctor alone’ just isn’t nearly as good as ‘AI alone’ or ‘doctor plus AI’.”
While Chat GPT and Claude or other LLMs might be used to help with investment advice, Stern also tested more targeted AI tools, reminiscent of Arta, a wealth management startup that tests AI financial planners, and Cleo, an AI financial assistant app.
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Retirees even have the time to mess around with AI
Retirement or semi-retirement is different from the world of labor, which is why I used to be curious to see how AI could help retirees with their leisure and inventive pursuits, travel, and even senior dating. Ironically, and because the first source chosen below points out, “Retirees have an advantage that most working people don’t have: time to actually learn the tools.”
Stern also touches on the creative aspect of AI and has evaluated AI music tools reminiscent of Suno or Udio, which use generative AI to create songs. She gave up on it after two weeks and concluded that AI music is best when paired with people and their creative input. She also tried Otter.ai, an AI transcription company that provides tools to make it easier to attend, record, and summarize meetings (something I briefly experimented with myself). In the video space, Stern tried out Sora, OpenAI’s video model and app for creating short videos or deepfake videos of themselves called “cameos.”
She concludes her book with six rules for living in an AI world, starting with “Work AI, not them.” Use them to maneuver faster, stimulate ideas, and automate the boring parts. But keep your weird, wonderful human judgment sharp.”
When I posted an invite to share ideas on Featured.com, I used to be surprised at what number of sources responded with their thoughts on AI and retirement: greater than 50. I’ve chosen 17 of them, which you’ll read in full on my website. Finddependence Hub.
Sell assets? Read our guide to capital gains
In the conventional space allotted to this Retired Money column, I can only address among the headlines of those quotes, knowing that interested readers can obtain the complete version online. Most respondents cited health, finance, travel, senior dating and inventive activities facilitated by AI. More than one joked that while it may well be time-consuming to familiarize yourself with AI, retirees must have enough free time to reap the benefits of it, unlike those still occupied by on a regular basis work.
Wayne Lowry, CEO of Scale By web optimization, put it best: “Retirees finally have something working people don’t: time to actually learn the tool, rather than just tacking it on to a busy day. That’s the key. AI rewards curiosity and iteration, and retirement is the perfect starting point for both.”
Neill David Watson, founding father of APMZEE, noted: “The pattern I see is that individuals in later life don’t lack interests; they lack the patience for the friction, the research, the logistics, the educational curve that lies between ‘I’d like’ and ‘I’ve began.’ These tools eliminate exactly this friction.” Whether it’s learning to play a musical instrument, devising a plan for starting a small business, or writing the nice American novel, “AI can condense the daunting preparation into a first step you actually take.”
Retirement is the final word free kick for AI
Retirement is the final word opportunity for AI, says Runbo Li, CEO of Magic Hour AI: “Most people over 60 don’t realize they’re relying on the best possible use case for these tools. Here’s why: AI eliminates the learning curve. What used to stand between ‘I want to paint’ and actually painting was years of skill building. That barrier is gone.”
