AI Made Easy: From Cabbage and Eggs to Your Next Vacation

Part 2 of a new series: How AI can help protect you, delight you, and make everyday life just a little (or a lot) easier.

If you read the first article in this series, you already know about the night I had barely any food in my refrigerator. So, I told AI that I had cabbage, onions, eggs, and needed suggestions for how to make a meal. I ended up with the best baked cabbage I’ve ever tasted. That small, low-stakes moment is what convinced me that AI wasn’t just for engineers. It was for anyone with a question and a little patience to keep asking it.

The AI I used that night, and the one I’ll be talking about most in this series, is ChatGPT. It’s one of several AI assistants you may have heard of, alongside others like Alexa, Gemini, and Claude. And it happens to be the one I reach for most, whether I’m solving dinner or something bigger, like where to go on vacation.

Today I want to show you what that same back-and-forth approach looks like when the stakes go up a little: planning an actual trip.

The Secret Isn’t the First Answer

The best part of that cabbage conversation wasn’t the first response AI gave me. It was that I could keep talking until the meal actually fit what I wanted.

If the first idea hadn’t appealed to me, I could have said, “give me something different,” or “what about using rice instead.” You can ask as many questions as you like. AI never tires of giving us answers.

This is really the whole secret to using AI effectively, whether you’re solving dinner or something bigger. Tell it what you want. Add a little detail about your situation. Then adjust until it fits.

Once you’ve done this with something as low-stake as dinner, it becomes second nature everywhere else.

Planning a Trip, One Question at a Time

Trip planning is where this same habit really shines. And it’s where a lot of people make it harder on themselves than it needs to be.

Picture two friends in their 70s planning a week in Santa Fe. They like art, scenery, and good food. They don’t want a rushed schedule.

Instead of typing one giant request and hoping for the best, they built the plan the same way I built dinner. One question at a time.

They asked about the best time of year to visit, and why. They asked which neighborhood might suit them. They asked for a slower itinerary, transportation options, and what to consider about walking distances. They even asked for a packing list.

By the end, they had a real, personalized plan, built through conversation rather than handed to them all at once. And at every step, AI reminded them to verify current prices, schedules, and availability before booking anything. Because that information changes constantly and AI can’t always keep up in real time.

That last part matters more than it might seem.

The Places Scammers Love Best

Trip planning is also, unfortunately, one of the more popular hunting grounds for scammers. So, it’s worth pausing here for a few minutes. Fake listings aren’t the only trap. A couple of others are worth knowing too.

Fake Vacation Rentals

Scammers often steal real photos and descriptions from legitimate listings. Then they repost them at a lower price to create urgency. Some scammers even buy sponsored search ads that take priority over genuine airline and hotel websites on your search page. These ads may look identical to the real thing.

Phony Airline “Customer Service” Numbers

If you search for an airline’s number instead of going straight to the airline’s website, you may land on a fake listing designed to look official. Someone answers, sounds perfectly professional, and asks for a credit card to “process” a refund or rebooking fee. No legitimate airline would process a refund or fee this way.

Taxi and Rideshare Schemes

Someone approaches you before you’ve reached the official taxi stand or rideshare pickup spot. This person offers you a suspiciously convenient ride. Then they might overcharge dramatically or take an unfamiliar route. If you feel tempted by an offer like this, get their name and license number and pop it into your phone’s AI app. You’ll be able to tell very quickly if it’s legitimate.

The good news is that AI is genuinely useful for spotting all three of these red flags before you pay, not just the vacation rental one.

Before booking anything, you can paste in a listing description, a phone number, or a message and ask something like:

“Does this listing (or phone number, or message) have any red flags? What should I check before I pay?”

A good answer will remind you of things like: insisting on seeing a property through a video call, searching for a phone number to see if it actually appears on an airline’s real site, and never sending money through a wire transfer, gift card, or cryptocurrency, since those payments are nearly impossible to get back.

AI can’t guarantee any of this is legitimate. What it can do is slow you down long enough to check the things that matter, before your credit card number is entered.

Try It Yourself

Next time you’re staring into the refrigerator wondering what to make, try this:

“I have [whatever you actually see]. Give me a few easy dinner ideas that take less than 30 minutes.”

Then keep going. Ask it to adjust for your taste. Ask it to scale for how many people you’re feeding. Ask it to turn the result into a shopping list.

The same approach works for a trip. Start small; ask one question, then build from there, one decision at a time, the way you’d plan with a friend.

Coming Up Next

In my next article, I’m tackling something a little different: using AI as your personal troubleshooter around the house.

I’ll show you how something as simple as a photo of an appliance’s label, the one with the model and serial numbers, can turn into a clear diagnosis of what’s wrong, the exact part you need, and where to find it. I’ll also touch on getting step-by-step instructions for smaller tech tasks, like pulling photos off a phone without syncing everything to the cloud.

It’s one of the most satisfying, practical uses I teach, and it comes with its own small safety habit worth knowing.

Want more? I put together a free guide, “10 Fun (and Safe!) Ways Seniors Are Already Using AI,” with 10 more everyday examples like these, plus a few extra scam-safety tips to protect you and your bank account. Grab your free copy at easy4seniors.ai/free-guide.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

How do you use AI in your life? Which AI is your favorite? Have you used it to spot possible scams?