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This end-of-year episode wasn’t planned — it unfolded naturally around my family’s Christmas table.

As we gathered early this year, missing family members, reflecting on work and life, and celebrating a small but significant personal milestone — recovering from back surgery after six months of pain — the conversation drifted to AI. What surprised me wasn’t how advanced the technology has become, but how differently every person around the table was experiencing it.

From a developer using ChatGPT daily to pull together complex technical reports and save enormous amounts of time, to creative experiments with AI-generated video, imagery, and even transforming travel photos into physical Christmas cards. From organisations feeling pressure to “use AI” without knowing why, to my mum quietly replacing Google with ChatGPT because she can simply ask questions and keep asking. And finally, a group of Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids who were completely unimpressed — calling AI aesthetics lazy and expressing frustration with how AI has taken over platforms like Pinterest.

This episode explores what that one conversation revealed about AI adoption, AI readiness, creativity, and the very real gap between hype and usefulness. I reflect on six months spent working deeply in AI readiness in the workplace, why preparation and structure matter more than clever prompts, how tools like Copilot work best when your information is ready first, and why AI doesn’t fix messy systems — it exposes them.

More than anything, this is a human episode. It’s about how AI shows up differently depending on where you sit, what you do, and what you need. It’s about curiosity, resistance, creativity, confusion, and quiet everyday use — all existing at the same table.

If you’re feeling pressure to “use AI” without a clear purpose, experimenting creatively without wanting to lose your voice, questioning where this technology really fits, or simply curious about how others are navigating it, this conversation will resonate.

Because the future of AI won’t be defined by hype or age — it will be defined by relevance, readiness, and how well it fits into real human lives.