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Opinion

AI Is Not the Enemy. Apathy Is.

By Rachel, Co-Founder, SimplifAi — March 4, 2026

I have a confession: I use AI every single day.

I use it to draft proposals, build automations for my clients, think through strategy, and yes, to help me write faster. If that makes you uncomfortable, I understand. But before you write me off, hear me out.

The Fear Is Real. The Conclusions Feel Wrong.

I hear the concerns often. AI is going to take our jobs. It is destroying the environment. The data centers are putting real pressure on our power grid. Big tech cannot be trusted with this much influence.

And here is the thing: I do not dismiss any of that. These are legitimate concerns that deserve a serious conversation. What I push back on is the leap from "this technology has risks" to "therefore I refuse to use it at all."

That is like saying the internet has misinformation, so you are never going online. Or that cars cause accidents, so you will only travel by horse. The tool is not the problem. How we build, regulate, and use it is what matters.

What I See AI Doing

I run a small AI consultancy called SimplifAi. We work with local businesses whose small teams are often overwhelmed by manual processes, incomplete spreadsheets, and information scattered across multiple platforms. These are not Fortune 500 companies with innovation labs. These are real people running real businesses.

I do not believe AI should be viewed as an existential threat to small businesses. It is a tool that can get their financial reporting out of a shoebox and into a dashboard. It is an automation that can save them from spending four hours a week on data entry. It is the system that can amplify output and help a two-person team operate like a ten-person team.

For the clients we serve, I don't see AI coming in and wiping out entire teams of employees, nor is that something that we promote. Having spent years in small business operations, I see clearly how AI can help under-resourced teams tackle their ever-growing to-do lists.

In our business, we want to teach AI in a way that boosts fluency and confidence, as well as helps employees focus less on the repetition and more on the aspects of their roles that require critical thinking and human relationships. Every small business employee knows the "all hands on deck" nature of the role. I think AI can be the relief that can give these employees some time back and room to breathe.

The Internet Analogy

When the internet first arrived, many people swore they would never use it. It was a fad. It was dangerous. It was going to rot our brains. Some of those concerns turned out to be valid. We do have misinformation problems. We do have privacy issues. And we certainly have screen addiction. However, the internet is now an integral part of many, many aspects of our lives, and we are continuing to learn how to manage and advocate for its risks.

I was just a kid in the 90s, but I was not sitting out on the internet. I was in an AOL chatroom talking to strangers or playing non-stop games of Doom. But here is the wild thing: over 79,000 homes and businesses right here in Arkansas still do not have reliable high-speed internet. The state just got federal approval for over $300 million to start fixing that, with construction expected to begin this year. The internet revolution happened thirty years ago, and not everyone got to come along.

AI is on that same trajectory. It is not going away. The question now is not whether it will reshape how we work and live. It is whether we can advocate in a way that prioritizes an equitable rollout that reduces harm and maximizes its benefits for everyone.

Accountability Over Avoidance

Here is where I stand. I do not believe fully opting out of AI is the right approach if you want to be part of the solution. If your fears surrounding AI are big enough to sit this one out, I would encourage you to challenge that mindset. Educate yourself. Learn which policymakers want democratic regulations and which ones want to let it rip as a free-for-all that pads the pockets of a few. The information is out there. You just have to care enough to look.

And while we are at it, let's get creative about what we demand in return. What if, in exchange for data centers coming in and extracting from both our environments and our IP, we required them to pay it forward? Upgrade community infrastructure. Donate to organizations that build up the towns they operate in. What if for every job they handed over to AI, they had to fund free upskilling to keep people employed? We have the ability to get strategic in how we trade our resources and our data. But only if we show up at the table.

I will never judge someone for choosing not to use AI personally. That is your call. But I will be honest: avoiding the technology entirely while complaining about its direction doesn't feel like a strategy.

The people who will regulate AI, who will decide what guardrails exist, and who will determine whether this technology serves the many or the few are elected officials. If you are fired up about AI risks but you are sitting out elections, you may have your priorities backwards. The ballot box is where the real power lives, and we all have a responsibility to become informed, active voters.

A Better Conversation

This is not a time for all-or-nothing thinking. Are you an AI evangelist who thinks it can do no wrong, or are you someone who wants to burn it all down? Most of us live somewhere in the middle, and that is exactly where the productive work happens.

I believe AI should be simple, ethical, and human-centered. I believe small businesses deserve access to the same tools that big companies have been using for years. I believe the people closest to the work should have a say in how AI gets implemented. And I believe two things can be true at the same time: this technology is powerful, and it needs to be handled with care.

But that requires something uncomfortable. It requires us to dig deep and understand what we really want, and what we are actually voting for. Are we willing to vote against our own short-term interests? Are we willing to support regulations for an industry we actively work in, even if it slows down our own progress, to ensure the safe, fair, and ethical rollout of this technology? Are we willing to prioritize people over profits?

I know I am. Because it is important to me to stand on my values, regardless.

So no, I will not be mean to you if you are skeptical of AI. I will not talk down to you if you are new to it. And I will not shame you if you decide it is not for you.

But I will keep showing up, building responsible systems, having honest conversations, and voting for people who take governance seriously.

I hope you will consider doing the same.