5 questions with Austin's Sarah Dooley
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Sarah Dooley, founder of AI-Empowered Mom. Photo: Courtesy of Sarah Dooley
Austin's Sarah Dooley turned a pandemic-era parenting strategy into a business.
What's happening: Dooley, a mother of three, left her job at Visa over a year ago to start a platform that helps families and organizations use artificial intelligence safely and effectively.
Zoom in: Through her company, AI-Empowered Mom, Dooley teaches families how to reduce the invisible mental load that often falls on mothers.
- Dooley is also developing an AI family assistant called Em and hosts a podcast and newsletter focused on helping parents adapt to the rapidly changing technology.
- And her book, "AI Empowered Family," will be published next April.
We chatted with Dooley about raising children in our AI world, outsourcing household tasks to technology and what she'd never hand over to AI.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.
1. How did you first start using AI as a parent?
"Having three kids in 18 months is what started me on my journey with AI because once we had three babies — and my twins were just six months old when COVID hit — my husband and I needed all the help we could to keep this household running."
2. How do you talk to your kids about AI? Are you thinking about lessons or guardrails when it comes to this technology?
"Yes, we talk about AI all the time with the girls. ... Even just yesterday, we were talking about our family safe word. I was trying to describe to them what a deep fake was — that AI can be used to create videos or recordings that sound and look even just like me, and that if they ever heard something or saw something that sounded like me but didn't feel right, they could ask for that safe word.
- Probably since 2024, I've been talking to my daughters about artificial intelligence as a thinking machine. It's a computer that can help us in our lives, but it's not a human. It's not a friend."
3. What's one of the most useful ways AI helps your family?
"I've been using AI for meal planning for a few years now. I've built up a little AI assistant who understands not only our family's dietary requirements, but also our ever-changing preferences. ...
- AI helps me prioritize those things and keep track of my to-do list, so it doesn't live in my head anymore. Instead, I have a system that's taking care of it for me."
4. What's one parenting challenge AI is surprisingly good at solving?
"We have got Claude set up now for, at the drop of a hat, we can open up a Claude project and ask for a trivia game. ... We've got this trained so that it's like a race, but everybody wins at the end.
- AI has solved the bickering in the car on short rides for me with these fun trivia games."
5. What's one thing you'd never hand over to AI?
"Something I never hand over to AI anymore is parenting. When it comes to my kids and their development, I'm still the mom here. Whether it's teaching my kids life lessons, or providing consequences and giving those hugs and encouragement — that comes from me.
- I use AI to take on administrative tasks for me, so that I have more time to do the work and the love that comes with my family."