Carrol Chang, CEO of Andela, a company that connects businesses with technical talent to help them implement AI, has found a way to reduce the time she spends managing household responsibilities. The New York-based mother of three has created AI agents to organise her family’s schedules, track school emails and plan meals, according to a report by Business Insider.
Chang said managing work and family responsibilities became particularly difficult during the first year of her second child’s life, despite having a supportive husband and a stable senior position at work.
AI agents help manage children's schedules
Chang said the responsibility of managing family calendars, collecting sick children from school or daycare, organising holiday gifts and booking family trips had become overwhelming.
With three children involved in different school and sports activities, coordinating their schedules often required considerable planning. She previously had to check Google Maps, calculate travel times and decide whether to take the subway, bus, walk or use a taxi service to reach each sporting event.
She also had to account for travel time and make sure there was enough of a buffer to arrive before a game. When the children's schedules clashed, she and her husband had to decide who would attend each event.
Her AI agent now handles much of this work, including planning journeys and adding events to the family calendar.
'Talk to me like I'm a seventh grader'
Chang said she is not an engineer and needed guidance to set up the AI tools. She asked AI to explain the process in simple terms and provide instructions one step at a time.
“Talk to me like I'm a seventh grader and teach me step-by-step what I should do in order to accomplish this task,” Chang was quoted as saying by Business Insider.
By following the instructions in two open browser windows, she was able to set up the agent to manage her children's sports schedules.
The tool created around 60 calendar invites for their football matches and the associated journeys. These included details such as travel time and the mode of transport needed to reach the venue.
Chang said parents often spend late nights and early mornings completing household administrative tasks, leaving them with less time to spend with their families.
Household work reduced from eight hours to two
Before using AI agents, Chang estimated that she spent around five to eight hours every week on household administration. This included managing calendars, planning meals, paying the nanny, confirming arrival times with people and ordering and unpacking groceries.
She now spends approximately two hours a week on these responsibilities, including checking the work done by her AI agents.
However, Chang cautioned that people should not expect AI to work without making mistakes. She said users could become frustrated and abandon the technology if they expected perfect results.
She believes it is important to have a system for checking the information produced by AI, as the technology can make errors.
AI agent filters school emails and updates calendar
Chang has also created an AI agent to manage emails from her children's school. The tool identifies important information from messages and adds relevant events to the family calendar.
One of its main responsibilities is to flag school closures so the family can plan accordingly.
The school offers separate Spanish and Mandarin language tracks. Since her children are enrolled in the Spanish track, Chang has instructed the agent to ignore events meant only for students in the Mandarin programme.
The agent also distinguishes between emails sent to the school's mailing list and messages sent directly by an individual. Emails from teachers addressed personally to Chang and her husband are flagged for their attention.
AI helps the family plan meals around food allergies
Meal planning is another area where the family has started using AI. Chang said they need to account for food allergies when deciding what to cook.
Previously, she maintained a list of 15 dishes that the family would rotate over three weeks. This helped them avoid spending too much time deciding what to eat.
The AI agent now suggests new menus that meet the family's dietary requirements and provides a shopping list of the ingredients needed. Chang said AI features integrated into grocery shopping apps have made the process even more convenient.