I have been around technology long enough to remember when the internet was new. At the beginning, nobody really knew where it was going.
Some people saw it as email and websites. Others wondered whether ordinary businesses even needed it. Then people started building businesses on it, creating services, teaching, selling, making music, producing videos, and eventually building careers that had never existed before.
I think we are standing at another moment like that. This time, it is AI. And what excites me most is that, in many ways, we are all beginners again.
Why being a beginner matters
AI has been researched for decades, but the tools now available to ordinary people are still incredibly new. Everyone is figuring out what to do with them.
A 25-year-old may understand one part. A 40-year-old may understand another. Someone in their 60s may bring decades of business, creative or industry experience that suddenly becomes far more valuable when combined with AI.
Am I too old to learn AI?
I do not think age matters nearly as much as people think. These tools do not ask you to learn a programming language. You talk to them in plain language, and you judge the answer.
That second part is where experience counts. Someone who has spent years in an industry can spot a weak answer, ask a better follow-up and know what a good result looks like. Experience plus AI can be a very powerful combination.
What has changed
- A filmmaker can experiment with ideas that once required a large crew.
- A designer can create work that previously needed a team.
- A small business can automate tasks that once consumed hours every week.
- Someone with a strong idea but little technical knowledge can now prototype websites, applications, workflows and even software.
The cost of experimenting has dropped dramatically.
Access alone is not enough
AI does not make the playing field perfectly equal, but it does make it much flatter. That creates opportunity.
Of course, access alone does not guarantee success. Millions of people had access to the internet, and not everyone built a successful business. The advantage will go to people who combine AI with knowledge, judgement, curiosity and experience.
How to get started this week
You do not need a course or a big plan to begin. Try this:
- Use a free account. Open Claude or ChatGPT. The free plans are enough to start.
- Bring real work. Pick one task you did this week, such as an email, a proposal or a set of messy notes.
- Treat it like a new assistant. Explain the background, say what you want and tell it what a good result looks like.
- Check everything. AI can be confident and wrong. Your judgement is still the safety net.
- Do it again tomorrow. Small daily use will teach you more than reading about AI.
Not sure which task to choose first? Here are the 5 business tasks I would start with. Ready to make something of your own? Read about building personal software with AI.
A better question to ask
This is one of the reasons I am beginning a new chapter in my own work. I want to spend more time helping people understand AI in a practical way, especially those who feel they are too old, too late or not technical enough.
I think that is exactly the wrong way to look at it. AI is still new enough for everyone to learn, experiment and find their own use for it.
So instead of asking "Am I too old for AI?", ask "What can I do now that I could not do before?"
Maybe it is a new business. Maybe it is a film. Maybe it is a better way of working. Maybe it is an entirely new direction.
The starting line has moved closer to all of us. The question is what we choose to build from it.
