Going home for the holidays isn’t all turkey, holiday decorations, and political arguments discussions. It also comes with requests for tech support and questions like “Why does my computer do this?” and “I read about this AI — what is that?”
Artificial Intelligence
How to help your parents with their tech over the holidays
Think of it as an opportunity rather than a burden. If you’re like many people, you get tech support calls from frustrated parents or grandparents all year long. This is your chance to make sure things are set up so that, when you do get that call in a month or two, you can more easily fix things — or help your parents fix it themselves.
Make sure everything is updated
It’s important to keep computers, phones, and apps updated — but your parents may not have automatic updates turned on, or they may distrust the pleas from their tech to install an update. Here’s how to make sure that their computers and phones are set for automatic updates so that you, and they, don’t have to worry about it.
- Go to System Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates
- Select either Install macOS updates or Install Security Responses and system files to have those install automatically
- If you’d prefer to give your parents the choice, you can also select Download new updates when available.
- Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates.
- If you toggle on Automatically Install, it will install software and system updates as they’re available. Toggle it off, and software updates and system files will Automatically Download but need to be installed manually. You can also choose Automatically Install for just system files.
For a Windows 11 computer
- Select the Start menu and choose Settings.
- If you don’t immediately see Windows Update, type it in the search box.
- Toggle the box on that reads Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available.
- You can also go to Advanced options if you want your parents to get updates for any other Microsoft products, have the system notify them when a restart is required, or choose the hours when the computer is active (so they won’t be surprised by a sudden restart).
- Most system updates will occur automatically — but not always. To check to see if the system has updated on a Pixel (or many other Android phones), go to Settings > System > Software updates. You can also check for App updates here.
- If you want your parents’ apps to update automatically, open the Play Store app, select the personal icon in the upper right corner, then go to Settings > Network preferences > Auto-update apps. You may want to stick with Update over Wi-Fi only.
- The process is similar for Samsung phones. If you’re using the Galaxy Store, go to Settings > Auto update apps and select Using Wi-Fi only.
One of the most frightening things for many adult children is the thought that their elderly relatives may be vulnerable to the many scams circulating. Calls from “Microsoft” about a virus that was “detected,” or from the “IRS” about a tax debt that is about to trigger an arrest, or from a bank that needs their help foiling a con game — they are still out there. (Just the other day, a friend told me that her mother got a call that she believed was from her bank and that instructed her to withdraw her entire account and put it on a gift card. Luckily, an alert bank teller prevented a disaster.)
There are a variety of resources available to educate yourself and your parents about avoiding becoming a victim of fraud — and what to do if it happens. One resource for older adults is the AARP Scams & Fraud page, which has a number of resources for older adults and their children, such as a weekday phone helpline, an article about holiday-related scams, and specific examples of people who were hit by various types of cons.
You should be prepared to act if your parents have already become victims (or if you have!). Tasks include putting a fraud alert or security freeze on credit reports, contacting banks and credit card companies, and changing passwords.
It helps to have on hand the contact information for the three main credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), and a list of all your parents’ bank and credit card accounts. If your parents are okay with it, you can contact those companies and have them grant you access to your parents’ accounts (some let you do it online; most require you to do it on the phone with your parent present). That way, you won’t have to talk your panicked parents through the process; you can do it yourself.
Finally, install a password manager and make sure that your parents aren’t using a single password for all of their accounts. That’s just asking for trouble.
Teach them how to reboot and/or disconnect
When I was helping my 90-something-year-old mother with her tech, I found that one of the easiest ways to fix many problems was to simply teach her how to disconnect and reconnect her computer, her router, and other devices. While there may be other ways to fix, say, a misbehaving app or hardware, a soft reset like this can fix many bugs. I can’t tell you how often I got a proud call from my mom saying she had fixed her computer that way.
Set them up for remote control
Sometimes, especially if things get really complex, it’s better to fix things yourself. While you’re home, set up your parents for remote control so you can take over when necessary. That includes installing the apps and ensuring your parents understand how they work.
Remote control on Windows 11
Windows comes with a Quick Assist app that lets you take over somebody else’s screen.
- On your computer, hold down Windows key + Ctrl + Q. Over the phone, instruct your parents to do the same.
- On both ends, you’ll see a pop-out window with Get help and Help someone on it. On your end, select Help someone.
- You’ll get a security code. Have your parents type in the code where it says Get help. and select Submit.
The simplest way to help your parents remotely is to use Apple’s Screen Sharing app.
- On your parents’ Mac, go to Settings > General > Screen Sharing. (If you have trouble enabling Screen Sharing, make sure Remote Management is disabled.)
- Under Allow access for select Only these users, and make sure your ID (and anyone else’s you want them to be able to call on) is selected.
- On your end, make sure you have your parents’ Apple ID (you can find it when you turn their Screen Sharing on, listed just under the Screen Sharing On heading).
- If your parents need help, open your Screen Sharing app, select the plus button, and add your parents’ ID. Note that they must grant permission before you can access their screen.
If you need more sophisticated access, you can use Remote Management instead. You can find instructions here.
Remote control via Chrome Remote Desktop
If you and your parents use the Chrome browser, you can use Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop app to help troubleshoot their computer. You can either install the app on both computers or you can run it directly from the browsers.
- Go to https://remotedesktop.google.com/support/.
- You’ll see two boxes: Share this screen and Connect to another computer. Have your parents select the button in the top box that says Generate Code.
- They’ll get a 12-digit code that they should read to you. Enter it in the Connect to another computer field.
Set them up for emergency contact
If you don’t live near your parents — or even if you do — at some point, you may want to set them up so that you’ll be automatically contacted in an emergency.
You can set up your parents’ iPhones so that if they need to call 911 or other emergency services, you will automatically be notified.
- Open the Health app and select Medical ID. (You can put in any necessary medical information here.)
- Look for Emergency Contacts and select Add (or Edit). Put in your contact info.
- You can also set up your parents’ phones to call emergency services if they simultaneously press the side and volume buttons, or if they press the side button five times. However, keep in mind that if your parents are not comfortable with phones, it may be easier to have them simply call 911.
To add emergency contact information:
- Go to Settings > Safety & emergency > Emergency contacts.
- Add your contact information.
- Use the Change settings link at the bottom of the page to open the Emergency info access page. Here, you can allow the emergency contacts to be visible without unlocking the device or share the info with first responders when an emergency call is made.
- From there, select the Emergency Location Service link to enable the phone to automatically send out its location when emergency services are contacted.
- Go back to the Safety & emergency page to use features such as Emergency SOS (which will contact emergency responders after pressing the Power button five times) and to register medical information.
If your parents wear an Apple Watch, a Pixel Watch, or another smartwatch, you may be able to set up emergency contacts there as well, depending on the device and its OS.
Many smart home devices will let you configure them so parents and others can quickly contact emergency services or emergency contacts. For example, I set up two Echo devices in my mother’s apartment so that she could say “Call Barbara!” anywhere she was, and it would automatically call my phone.
To arrange for that sort of setup you’ll need the Alexa app on both yours and your parents’ phones:
- Open your parents’ Alexa app and select the More icon (the three parallel lines on the bottom of the Home screen).
- Select Communicate > Call.
- Add yourself as a contact if you’re not there already.
- Now your parents should be able to say “Alexa, call [your name]” to their Echo device and it will call your phone. (Note: It’s a good idea to test it to make sure it’s working — sometimes, setup doesn’t go quite as smoothly as it should.)
Naturally, different smart home devices will have other setups, so it’s a good idea to do a little research.
- Be respectful and keep in mind that the latest isn’t necessarily the greatest as far as your parents are concerned. Remember that they didn’t grow up in the 19th century — there have been personal computers around since the 1970s, and the first Windows system came out in the mid-1980s. But they may not have kept up with the latest tech. Some may welcome advice on using new devices and software, but for others, sometimes it’s better to leave well enough alone. For example, if they would rather not deal with AI, but what they are doing works for them, don’t force it.
- Speaking of AI — if you’re tired of dealing with their tech issues, don’t just throw them a bot and assume that will solve all your problems. To begin with, the bot may get something wrong — and if your parent follows those directions, it could make things worse. Second, remember that part of the point of calling you and asking “How do you do this?” may be an excuse just to stay in touch.
- Motion smoothing has been a bane of cinephiles for years now. If you’re unfamiliar with this term, it’s a way that TVs reduce motion blur — and while it may help with fast-moving sports, it can really do unfortunate things to your favorite movie. We ran an article back in 2018 on how to turn motion smoothing off, and while naturally the software has changed since then, you should still be able to find the settings. Just be aware that some TV operating systems may have made it impossible to correct this feature.
- Teach, don’t do. Grabbing the phone from your parents and just fixing something may seem easier, but it means you’re going to get a call within a month when things go wonky again. If you show them how to do something — and better yet, give them written instructions or point them at a useful video — they may be able to do it themselves next time.
- Finally, try to be patient. It can be hard work getting older. And if you’re lucky enough, you may be in the same situation someday.
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
Continue Reading
Artificial Intelligence
Ronnie Sheth, CEO, SENEN Group: Why now is the time for enterprise AI to ‘get practical'
Before you set sail on your AI journey, always check the state of your data – because if there is one thing likely to sink your ship, it is data quality.
Gartner estimates that poor data quality costs organisations an average of $12.9 million each year in wasted resources and lost opportunities. That’s the bad news. The good news is that organisations are increasingly understanding the importance of their data quality – and less likely to fall into this trap.
That’s the view of Ronnie Sheth, CEO of AI strategy, execution and governance firm SENEN Group. The company focuses on data and AI advisory, operationalisation and literacy, and Sheth notes she has been in the data and AI space ‘ever since [she] was a corporate baby’, so there is plenty of real-world experience behind the viewpoint. There is also plenty of success; Sheth notes that her company has a 99.99% client repeat rate.
“If I were to be very practical, the one thing I’ve noticed is companies jump into adopting AI before they’re ready,” says Sheth. Companies, she notes, will have an executive direction insisting they adopt AI, but without a blueprint or roadmap to accompany it. The result may be impressive user numbers, but with no measurable outcome to back anything up.
Even as recently as 2024, Sheth saw many organisations struggling because their data was ‘nowhere where it needed to be.’ “Not even close,” she adds. Now, the conversation has turned more practical and strategic. Companies are realising this, and coming to SENEN Group initially to get help with their data, rather than wanting to adopt AI immediately.
“When companies like that come to us, the first course of order is really fixing their data,” says Sheth. “The next course of order is getting to their AI model. They are building a strong foundation for any AI initiative that comes after that.
“Once they fix their data, they can build as many AI models as they want, and they can have as many AI solutions as they want, and they will get accurate outputs because now they have a strong foundation,” Sheth adds.
With breadth and depth in expertise, SENEN Group allows organisations to right their course. Sheth notes the example of one customer who came to them wanting a data governance initiative. Ultimately, it was the data strategy which was needed – the why and how, the outcomes of what they were trying to do with their data – before adding in governance and providing a roadmap for an operating model. “They’ve moved from raw data to descriptive analytics, moving into predictive analytics, and now we’re actually setting up an AI strategy for them,” says Sheth.
It is this attitude and requirement for practical initiatives which will be the cornerstone of Sheth’s discussion at AI & Big Data Expo Global in London this week. “Now would be the time to get practical with AI, especially enterprise AI adoption, and not think about ‘look, we’re going to innovate, we’re going to do pilots, we’re going to experiment,’” says Sheth. “Now is not the time to do that. Now is the time to get practical, to get AI to value. This is the year to do that in the enterprise.”
Watch the full video conversation with Ronnie Sheth below:
Greg Holmes, Field CTO for EMEA at Apptio, an IBM company, argues that successfully scaling intelligent automation requires financial rigour.
The “build it and they will come” model of technology adoption often leaves a hole in the budget when applied to automation. Executives frequently find that successful pilot programmes do not translate into sustainable enterprise-wide deployments because initial financial modelling ignored the realities of production scaling.
“When we integrate FinOps capabilities with automation, we’re looking at a change from being very reactive on cost management to being very proactive around value engineering,” says Holmes.
This shifts the assessment criteria for technical leaders. Rather than waiting “months or years to assess whether things are getting value,” engineering teams can track resource consumption – such as cost per transaction or API call – “straight from the beginning.”
The unit economics of scaling intelligent automation
Innovation projects face a high mortality rate. Holmes notes that around 80 percent of new innovation projects fail, often because financial opacity during the pilot phase masks future liabilities.
“If a pilot demonstrates that automating a process saves, say, 100 hours a month, leadership thinks that’s really successful,” says Holmes. “But what it fails to track is that the pilot sometimes is running on over-provisioned infrastructure, so it looks like it performs really well. But you wouldn’t over-provision to that degree during a real production rollout.”
Moving that workload to production changes the calculus. The requirements for compute, storage, and data transfer increase. “API calls can multiply, exceptions and edge cases appear at volume that might have been out of scope for the pilot phase, and then support overheads just grow as well,” he adds.
To prevent this, organisations must track the marginal cost at scale. This involves monitoring unit economics, such as the cost per customer served or cost per transaction. If the cost per customer increases as the customer base grows, the business model is flawed.
Conversely, effective scaling should see these unit costs decrease. Holmes cites a case study from Liberty Mutual where the insurer was able to find around $2.5 million of savings by bringing in consumption metrics and “not just looking at labour hours that they were saving.”
However, financial accountability cannot sit solely with the finance department. Holmes advocates for putting governance “back in the hands of the developers into their development tools and workloads.”
Integration with infrastructure-as-code tools like HashiCorp Terraform and GitHub allows organisations to enforce policies during deployment. Teams can spin up resources programmatically with immediate cost estimates.
“Rather than deploying things and then fixing them up, which gets into the whole whack-a-mole kind of problem,” Holmes explains, companies can verify they are “deploying the right things at the right time.”
When scaling intelligent automation, tension often simmers between the CFO, who focuses on return on investment, and the Head of Automation, who tracks operational metrics like hours saved.
“This translation challenge is precisely what TBM (Technology Business Management) and Apptio are designed to solve,” says Holmes. “It’s having a common language between technology and finance and with the business.”
The TBM taxonomy provides a standardised framework to reconcile these views. It maps technical resources (such as compute, storage, and labour) into IT towers and further up to business capabilities. This structure translates technical inputs into business outputs.
“I don’t necessarily know what goes into all the IT layers underneath it,” Holmes says, describing the business user’s perspective. “But because we’ve got this taxonomy, I can get a detailed bill that tells me about my service consumption and precisely which costs are driving it to be more expensive as I consume more.”
Addressing legacy debt and budgeting for the long-term
Organisations burdened by legacy ERP systems face a binary choice: automation as a patch, or as a bridge to modernisation. Holmes warns that if a company is “just trying to mask inefficient processes and not redesign them,” they are merely “building up more technical debt.”
A total cost of ownership (TCO) approach helps determine the correct strategy. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia utilised a TCO model across 2,000 different applications – of various maturity stages – to assess their full lifecycle costs. This analysis included hidden costs such as infrastructure, labour, and the engineering time required to keep automation running.
“Just because of something’s legacy doesn’t mean you have to retire it,” says Holmes. “Some of those legacy systems are worth maintaining just because the value is so good.”
In other cases, calculating the cost of the automation wrappers required to keep an old system functional reveals a different reality. “Sometimes when you add up the TCO approach, and you’re including all these automation layers around it, you suddenly realise, the real cost of keeping that old system alive is not just the old system, it’s those extra layers,” Holmes argues.
Avoiding sticker shock requires a budgeting strategy that balances variable costs with long-term commitments. While variable costs (OPEX) offer flexibility, they can fluctuate wildly based on demand and engineering efficiency.
Holmes advises that longer-term visibility enables better investment decisions. Committing to specific technologies or platforms over a multi-year horizon allows organisations to negotiate economies of scale and standardise architecture.
“Because you’ve made those longer term commitments and you’ve standardised on different platforms and things like that, it makes it easier to build the right thing out for the long term,” Holmes says.
Combining tight management of variable costs with strategic commitments supports enterprises in scaling intelligent automation without the volatility that often derails transformation.
IBM is a key sponsor of this year’s Intelligent Automation Conference Global in London on 4-5 February 2026. Greg Holmes and other experts will be sharing their insights during the event. Be sure to check out the day one panel session, Scaling Intelligent Automation Successfully: Frameworks, Risks, and Real-World Lessons, to hear more from Holmes and swing by IBM’s booth at stand #362.
See also: Klarna backs Google UCP to power AI agent payments
Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is part of TechEx and is co-located with other leading technology events including the Cyber Security & Cloud Expo. Click here for more information.
AI News is powered by TechForge Media. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars here.
FedEx is using AI to change how package tracking and returns work for large enterprise shippers. For companies moving high volumes of goods, tracking no longer ends when a package leaves the warehouse. Customers expect real-time updates, flexible delivery options, and returns that do not turn into support tickets or delays.
That pressure is pushing logistics firms to rethink how tracking and returns operate at scale, especially across complex supply chains.
This is where artificial intelligence is starting to move from pilot projects into daily operations.
FedEx plans to roll out AI-powered tracking and returns tools designed for enterprise shippers, according to a report by PYMNTS. The tools are aimed at automating routine customer service tasks, improving visibility into shipments, and reducing friction when packages need to be rerouted or sent back.
Rather than focusing on consumer-facing chatbots, the effort centres on operational workflows that sit behind the scenes. These are the systems enterprise customers rely on to manage exceptions, returns, and delivery changes without manual intervention.
How FedEx is applying AI to package tracking
Traditional tracking systems tell customers where a package is and when it might arrive. AI-powered tracking takes a step further by utilising historical delivery data, traffic patterns, weather conditions, and network constraints to flag potential delays before they happen.
According to the PYMNTS report, FedEx’s AI tools are designed to help enterprise shippers anticipate issues earlier in the delivery process. Instead of reacting to missed delivery windows, shippers may be able to reroute packages or notify customers ahead of time.
For businesses that ship thousands of parcels per day, that shift matters. Small improvements in prediction accuracy can reduce support calls, lower refund rates, and improve customer trust, particularly in retail, healthcare, and manufacturing supply chains.
This approach also reflects a broader trend in enterprise software, in which AI is being embedded into existing systems rather than introduced as standalone tools. The goal is not to replace logistics teams, but to minimise the number of manual decisions they need to make.
Returns as an operational problem, not a customer issue
Returns are one of the most expensive parts of logistics. For enterprise shippers, particularly those in e-commerce, returns affect warehouse capacity, inventory planning, and transportation costs.
According to PYMNTS, FedEx’s AI-enabled returns tools aim to automate parts of the returns process, including label generation, routing decisions, and status updates. Companies that use AI to determine the most efficient return path may be able to reduce delays and avoid returning things to the wrong facility.
This is less about convenience and more about operational discipline. Returns that sit idle or move through the wrong channel create cost and uncertainty across the supply chain. AI systems trained on past return patterns can help standardise decisions that were previously handled case by case.
For enterprise customers, this type of automation supports scale. As return volumes fluctuate, especially during peak seasons, systems that adjust automatically reduce the need for temporary staffing or manual overrides.
What FedEx’s AI tracking approach says about enterprise adoption
What stands out in FedEx’s approach is how narrowly focused the AI use case is. There are no broad claims about transformation or reinvention. The emphasis is on reducing friction in processes that already exist.
This mirrors how other large organisations are adopting AI internally. In a separate context, Microsoft described a similar pattern in its article. The company outlined how AI tools were rolled out gradually, with clear limits, governance rules, and feedback loops.
While Microsoft’s case focused on knowledge work and FedEx’s on logistics operations, the underlying lesson is the same. AI adoption tends to work best when applied to specific activities with measurable results rather than broad promises of efficiency.
For logistics firms, those advantages include fewer delivery exceptions, lower return handling costs, and better coordination between shipping partners and enterprise clients.
What this signals for enterprise customers
For end-user companies, FedEx’s move signals that logistics providers are investing in AI as a way to support more complex shipping demands. As supply chains become more distributed, visibility and predictability become harder to maintain without automation.
AI-driven tracking and returns could also change how businesses measure logistics performance. Companies may focus less on delivery speed and more on how quickly issues are recognised and resolved.
That shift could influence procurement decisions, contract structures, and service-level agreements. Enterprise customers may start asking not just where a shipment is, but how well a provider anticipates problems.
FedEx’s plans reflect a quieter phase of enterprise AI adoption. The focus is less on experimentation and more on integration. These systems are not designed to draw attention but to reduce noise in operations that customers only notice when something goes wrong.
(Photo by Liam Kevan)
See also: PepsiCo is using AI to rethink how factories are designed and updated
Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is part of TechEx and is co-located with other leading technology events, click here for more information.
AI News is powered by TechForge Media. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars here.
-
Fintech6 months agoRace to Instant Onboarding Accelerates as FDIC OKs Pre‑filled Forms | PYMNTS.com
-
Cyber Security7 months agoHackers Use GitHub Repositories to Host Amadey Malware and Data Stealers, Bypassing Filters
-
Fintech6 months ago
DAT to Acquire Convoy Platform to Expand Freight-Matching Network’s Capabilities | PYMNTS.com
-
Fintech5 months agoID.me Raises $340 Million to Expand Digital Identity Solutions | PYMNTS.com
-
Artificial Intelligence7 months agoNothing Phone 3 review: flagship-ish
-
Fintech4 months agoTracking the Convergence of Payments and Digital Identity | PYMNTS.com
-
Artificial Intelligence7 months agoThe best Android phones
-
Fintech7 months agoIntuit Adds Agentic AI to Its Enterprise Suite | PYMNTS.com