For most of us, AI brings to mind tools that help us write emails, answer homework questions, or generate written content. And, when it comes to those tasks, it works perfectly well. But that’s only a sliver of what the technology has grown into – a helpful learning companion that teaches people valuable everyday skills that very few were ever taught in school or on the job.

Whether it’s sorting through your pay stub, preparing for that next salary discussion, or troubleshooting a minor home repair and avoiding the cost of a serviceman, there’s an AI that can make complex things easier to understand in plain English and, based on your situation, offer personalized suggestions. Rather than surfing the web, you’ll be able to simply ask one question and get step-by-step guidance.

Here are 10 common areas where Americans were in the dark that now you know what AI has the ability to teach you:

1. How to Negotiate Anything

Negotiation is definitely not an executive skill – Americans do it all the time. From job offers, and raises, to haggling for a used car, renting an apartment, and paying for a medical procedure.

An AI can help by advising you of effective negotiation strategies, pointing out what makes your case strong, highlighting what potential objections will be raised, even doing a role-playing negotiation with you before you engage in the actual discussion. Practicing in advance will give you a big confidence boost.

2. Basic Home Repairs

While there are plenty of reasons you’d call a pro, you might not realize a bunch of the “oh crap, this isn’t working” incidents don’t require it at all. Did a faucet start to drip relentlessly or a toilet start running for minutes on end? A clogged drain or a failed switch could also be DIY fixes.

AI can provide you with step-by-step guidance through a troubleshooting process, explain how systems within your house work, and help you ascertain if this is a repair you can safely perform yourself or if this is truly a job for a professional tradesman. Learning what you can handle yourself gives you power, time and ultimately helps save money.

3. How to Read a Wine List at a Restaurant

For many, deciphering a restaurant wine list can be the source of major anxiety. It’s likely to include regions, grapes and a glossary of descriptive terms that many are completely unfamiliar with.

An AI can help you understand common grape profiles, suggest food-and-wine pairings or explain terms such as “full-bodied,” “tannic,” and “dry,” which can drastically alter your wine-drinking experience.

4. Understanding Your Pay Stub and Taxes

Even as we make more money each pay period, very few Americans truly understand where it’s all going on their pay stub, or tax liability. Deductions for taxes, Social Security, Medicare, 401k plans and health insurance are deducted before you even receive the funds.

A well-posed query or two to an AI can deconstruct what each line item means and may help explain concepts of marginal tax brackets, which affect how much you’re assessed. Of course, AI will not replace the help of a trained professional when it comes to your taxes.

5. How to Read Body Language

The biggest part of our communication happens not with our words but our bodies. Understanding how these signals communicate meaning, such as micro-expressions, posture changes, gestures, body movements and more can have a major impact.

What body language signifies is rarely absolute but An AI can help you recognize that a particular gesture or expression at a specific time in a conversation is significant, and can help you not just be a better listener and empathizer, but also make you a more self-aware person, as well.

6. Meal Planning with What’s in Your Fridge

Don’t worry about that half-eaten container of yogurt and wilting head of lettuce sitting in your fridge another second. Instead of buying more food, have your AI brainstorm some meal ideas with just what’s already in your kitchen pantry or refrigerator.

AI can help tailor recipes that utilize your available ingredients while respecting any dietary preferences, offer healthier alternatives, estimate cooking time, and even generate a full week’s meal plan in advance.

7. Basic Car Maintenance

It might not be realistic for most drivers to become mechanics, but understanding some of the fundamental aspects of car care can help prevent costly future issues.

You can get step-by-step instructions about checking tire pressure or filling up the windshield wiper fluid, understanding what warning lights illuminate the dashboard and knowing what those symbols mean, and becoming familiar with basic preventative maintenance schedules.

8. Identifying Manipulation Tactics in Sales and Advertising

The advertising you’re exposed to on the internet and TV daily is carefully designed to convince you to spend your cash – a LOT. Every day you encounter marketing relying on psychology, in everything from email subject lines to flashy advertisements.

An AI can demystify the psychology of advertising tactics like scarcity, social proof, and urgencies so you can be less prone to impulsive buys. When you realize these tricks are being used on you, it is liberating!

9. How to Interpret Legal Documents with Real Human English

Lawyer-speak is an incredibly inaccessible, alien language. Whether it’s a lease agreement, an insurance policy, or a subscription that asks you to “click and agree,” much of what they contain leaves most of us bewildered.

While an AI can never replace professional legal counsel, it can help clarify jargon, provide a high-level summary of an entire contract in easy-to- understand terms, and even explain specific, critical clauses with language you’ll comprehend.

10. Building More Powerful Arguments

It’s hard to get what you want and what you deserve from people if you can’t properly build your argument. This could be anything from asking for that long overdue promotion, writing a complaint, persuading your landlord to fix something, or arguing against something being proposed for your workplace.

An AI can help to organize thoughts in an argument structure, strengthen facts that support your point of view, improve sentence phrasing or offer more professional ways to get your message across and even find gaps in what could be better logical points to make your stance more compelling without coming off as demanding.

Why This is Even More Important Than You Think

While traditional schooling has its focus, practical life skills get overlooked time and time again. Things like your taxes and your personal finances, learning to communicate effectively to avoid being ripped off, and understanding some of the basic mechanics of how the world around you works is rarely emphasized in conventional educational settings.

And because it does not come from a teacher who will tell “that’s not a stupid question, now what exactly do you think?”, many of us fear asking for help on these matters, as we have not all grown up in families who shared these experiences…Until now. The biggest advantage may not be that these lessons now have answers, but that with your smart AI it’s available whenever it’s appropriate for you to seek assistance… even when you are by yourself with no other recourse.

How to Get Even More from AI

So how can you get even more from what your artificial intelligence learning tool can teach you? First, do not merely ask for answers but do ask for the explanation of how such a situation may have developed or why it actually works like that, then one can replicate that response in future circumstances.

And finally, be absolutely cautious: Although it may be helpful to ask any such A.I. To help teach any topic – whether that’s about investing in stocks and bonds, writing down your last will, or buying an automobile for the best price- never do something substantial based solely on A.I. Consultation… Unless you consult other resources, especially after it.

A.I.’s Final Takeaway

No tool is a good replacement for having the knowledge in “head.” It appears that the primary lesson AI can give us is how we can get better educated; how, even now we have begun to become proficient ourselves, there remain many, and varied things to learn and with practice this knowledge will empower our lives.