Avni Patel Thompson at Fortune’s MPW Next Gen Stuart Eyeset—Fortune
Everyone wants more time for themselves, especially working moms. Generative AI might be able to help with that.
“I look around and there’s a generation of women who grew up being taught that they could be anything they wanted to be, they could be in the boardroom, they could be the captain of their industry,” says founder Maya Mikhailov. The CEO of his SAVVI AI, which helps companies build and launch AI apps, said: luck‘s most powerful next-gen conference takes place on Wednesday. “But it is also a generation of women who have grown up within the traditional framework of who is in charge.”
So far, generative AI has been used primarily in enterprises to measure productivity. But no one measures productivity at home. Mikhailov said AI has “great potential” to reduce women’s cognitive and time burdens associated with work and household chores. “We are still doing invisible labor,” Mikhailov said.
More women are working than ever before, with more women than men in the U.S. college-educated workforce, making up nearly half of the total workforce. But they still bear the brunt of household chores like laundry, cooking and childcare, both of which are exacerbated in the age of remote work.
“We really need a force field around us to protect our time and space,” Avni Patel-Thompson said at the debate.
She has good reason to say this. She founded her AI app, Milo, designed to help her parents. Her goal, she said, is to understand the information she receives and act as a personal assistant that can simplify her family’s life. For example, texting Milo a birthday party invitation not only adds the invitation to her calendar, but also sends her a reminder to pick up a birthday present, or if her schedule coincides with the party time. You can send an alert if not.
It is clear from the chorus of non-panelists participating in the discussion that such an application is needed to help them carry the burden of motherhood. One mother said she sat with her daughter to attend a conference and wondered who would pick her up from class while she and her husband were out and who would take her to the ballet. I had to create a spreadsheet every hour, she said. Another woman created a similar handwritten schedule, but she noted that she continued to answer calls while she was away to clarify details.
As Patel Thompson explains, being a working mother is four different jobs rolled into one. So in addition to her 9 to 5 job in real life, she acts as a human database to tell the family where to be, and the main problem solver of deciding which stroller to buy. act as a person. , and memory-making to create experiences for children. “We’re stressed at 3am because we’re trying to figure out how to make the most of this time,” she said.
That’s why an AI assistant for the home doesn’t just make her more productive. There is also a meaningful side to it, she said.
All panelists, including Nasrin Mostafazadeh, co-founder of AI startup Verneek, and Nicole Johnson, partner at venture capital firm Forerunner Ventures, believe AI will continue to advance toward making homes and communities more efficient Was. Mikhailov said there are many other language applications that can connect to the internet and perform tasks, and Patel Thomson said he believes technology and functionality will get there.
“I was forced to go to the best school, do the best thing, get married, have kids and do everything else,” she said. “And I don’t know how to do all of that or how to make it all happen without someone taking on the burden of doing all the operations.”
