AI and Your Mom

Every Mother’s Day, we pause—however briefly—to acknowledge the one person who’s been there through every awkward phase, questionable decision, and “figuring-it-out” life chapter: Mom. The original multitasker. The unpaid therapist. The gut-check oracle who always seemed to know what you were up to, even before you did.

But this year, as we celebrate the women who ran our homes like operation centers and dispensed wisdom with frightening accuracy, there’s another type of “intelligence” quietly reshaping our world—artificial intelligence.

Oddly enough, the more time you spend around both, the more you realize: 

AI and Mom have a lot in common. Not in the sense that your mother is secretly a machine-learning engineer, but in the way both of them prompt the same human responses: skepticism, awe, occasional annoyance, and a grudging realization that maybe, just maybe, they were right all along.

This article is not about your mom. It is about the bizarre, hilarious, and – dare I say – profound parallels between mothers and artificial intelligence and how we interact with them. 

Let me explain.

They Misunderstand You—and It’s Your Fault

If you’ve ever told your mom, “I’m in finance strategy, not financial stress” and she heard you are “stressed about money,” you already understand how conversational AI works.

You think you’re being clear. They think you’re saying something else entirely.

Ask AI to “pull the latest QBR deck” and you might get a recipe for quinoa bread. AI isn’t broken—it’s just literal. Just like Mom, who heard what she thought you meant, not necessarily what you said.

It’s easy to laugh, but there’s a deeper lesson here: AI and mothers are not mind readers; neither is your team. Vagueness costs time. Clarity, whether with people or machines, is still undefeated.

They Ask Too Many Questions—and They’re Always Onto Something

Remember when your mom would ask a barrage of questions before you left the house?

“Where are you going?” “Who’s driving?”“Have you eaten?”  “Do they know you’re allergic to nuts?”

Annoying? Sure. But also… she wasn’t wrong. AI does the same thing. 

Why are margins down this quarter? Why is this vendor still active? Why are your forecasts off by 12%? It’s easy to dismiss these questions as micromanagement from a machine—but often, they’re exactly the questions you should be asking yourself.

If your AI is nagging, GOOD. It means it’s working.

They Want to Help—Even When You Didn’t Ask

Your mom sends unsolicited health articles. She still buys you socks. She forwards real estate listings in your hometown. Is any of this helpful? Sometimes. Is it overwhelming? Frequently.

AI is no different. It will gleefully summarize meeting notes, draft 10 versions of an email, and suggest automations for workflows you haven’t even designed yet.

This enthusiasm is endearing—and occasionally dangerous. Because without boundaries and context, both Mom and AI can quickly go from helpful to chaotic. You don’t have to accept every suggestion. But you do need to give them direction.

They Remember Everything (Whether You Want Them To or Not)

Tell you mom once in 2004 that you like pineapple and it becomes a permanent feature of family pizza night. Train your AI model on a typo or flawed dataset, and that error will echo forever in every output. AI doesn’t forget, neither does Mom. 

Training and feedback matter. Whether it’s gently reminding your mom you’re lactose intolerant now, or retraining a model to stop recommending broken vendors, the principle is the same: what they learn sticks.

You Ignore Them at Your Own Risk

You can ignore your mom’s advice for a while. Eventually, she shows up to remind you she was right.Same with AI.If you’re not actively engaging with AI—training it, integrating it, scaling, it—rest assured: your competitors are. They’re already using it to reduce overhead, improve forecasting, and personalize customer experiences at scale. Ignoring AI does not protect you from disruption; it ensures you will not see it coming 

So… What’s the Point?

Your mom isn’t perfect. Neither is AI. But both have superpowers when respected, informed, and included early.

Don’t wait for AI to become flawless.Don’t assume it’ll magically “figure it out.”And don’t delegate it to one overworked team with a ChatGPT login and a spreadsheet full of dreams.

Real value happens when teams treat AI like Mom: with trust, boundaries, and appreciation.

In Closing: Call Your Mom. Train Your AI.

This Mother’s Day, recognize the original intelligence system that could juggle logistics, emotions, strategy, and crisis management — without a data lake.

Call your mom. Then go back to work and get your AI roadmap in order.