When we talk about artificial intelligence, we usually start in the wrong place.
We talk about jobs before homes. Productivity before parenting. Regulation before relationships. We debate how AI will reshape companies, schools and states, while missing the most important unit it is already transforming: the family.
This matters deeply as we start 2026, the UAE’s Year of the Family. Not because of a perception about AI threatening family values, but because it is quietly reorganising family life itself – how parents work, how children learn, how care is delivered and, most importantly, how time is experienced inside the home.
For two centuries, industrial society organised families around external institutions. Work happened in factories and offices. Learning happened in schools. Care happened at home, largely invisible.
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