Majority of millennial parents wouldn't mind having an AI tutor for their kids

BANGALORE, INDIA: To keep kids engaged, millennial parents are using apps, interactive screens and intelligent devices. Born in 2010 and through 2025, these Generation Alpha is considered by many to be the most tech-infused demographic, and Artificial Intelligence(AI) technologies are expected to infiltrate nearly every aspect of their lives.

So how exactly AI technologies will impact the lives of the kids and the parents in future?

From childcare to healthcare and pet adoption, millennial parents see AI technology enmeshed throughout the lives of their tech-infused offspring.

The trust and dependence level is also likely to grow.

Almost half (46 percent) have some trust on AI tech. For example, two in five millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids (39 percent) have either complete or a great deal of trust in AI to help diagnose and treat their children if they become sick. About two-thirds of millennial parents (63 percent) think they would rather rely on AI help them live independently in their golden years. Only 37 percent would prefer to rely on their own children, said an IEEE study of millennial parents with Generation Alpha children.

AI Tutors?

In the future, “smart” toys and AI apps currently in development have the potential to respond to human language and a child’s behavior or enable real-time monitoring and enhancement of vocabulary learning. According to the IEEE survey, a majority of millennial parents (80 percent) say AI technology increases their expectations that their Generation Alpha babies will learn faster and more than they did, while for 20 percent, expectations are the same or less. In addition, three quarters (74 percent) of millennial parents say they would consider an AI-powered tutor for their child.

The IEEE survey also found that millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids are slightly more nervous about their child driving for the first time alone (31 percent) than their child riding in a self-driving car alone for the first time (25 percent). However, 44 percent of parents are equally worried about both scenarios.

AI Pets?

AI is powering pet robots that can identify, greet, obey and entertain the family. Nearly half (48 percent) of millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids say they would be likely to get a robot pet instead of real pet if their child asked for one, according to the survey. In addition, fathers (55 percent) are more likely than mothers (42 percent) to get a pet robot for their kids.

AI Nannies?

Because AI is giving life to walking and talking robots that are becoming more adept at human behavior, 40 percent of millennial parents of Generation Alpha kids say they would be likely to supplement or replace a human nanny with a stay-at-home robo-nanny to help take care of their children.