Getty Images Facebook Twitter LinkedIn In this story Free software help • Get some advice • Go in depth • Draft a letter • Change your tone • Practice and strategize • Summarize, simplify •

Assign a role • Avoid the pitfalls • Sample letters

Dealing with an uncooperative customer service agent? Struggling to understand a wordy insurance document? Looking to compare one retirement investment plan to another?

You may find help by using free software.

Recent AARP surveys reveal that 85 percent of Americans 50 and older have heard of generative AI and just less than a third are excited about the benefits. However, only 2 in 5 claim they

are knowledgeable.

A primer: AI comes in several flavors, some that have been around for years and are baked into tech products people regularly use. Generative AI is the kind sopping up recent headlines.

These chatbots and services churn out texts, audio, pictures and videos in seconds, based on voice prompts from a user. Content is drawn from the ginormous databases these AIs were trained

on — the internet at large or a smaller data set — what tech geeks call large language models or LLMs.

Start with the basics. Some examples: “What is the best way to save money on landline telephone charges?” Or “Is a nursing home appropriate for my aging mother who has dementia and issues

with mobility?”

But here’s where AI can beat a standard web search: You can follow up to drill down further.

AARP’s new guide to artificial intelligence was published in November 2024 and designed for those who want to learn about AI in depth from the ground up. It’s more than 300 pages.

In the nursing home example, after that first piece of advice, you might ask, “How much is this going to cost in the state of Florida? or What is the likelihood that insurance will cover

this?” says industry analyst Laurie M. Orlov, founder of the Aging and Health Technology market trends website.

“I don’t think you want to look at AI as beating the system [so much] as trying to cope with the system,” she says.

Another tip: Ask the AI bot to suggest questions you hadn’t thought of or for help finding other resources. “Just have a free-flowing, friendly chat and see where your curiosity takes you,”

says Jenny Blackburn, Google vice president of UX, Gemini experiences.

Having trouble crafting that email to a company’s customer service center?

Maybe you’re seeking compensation for lost luggage or asking an insurance company to reconsider your denied claim. But you don’t know how to write it to get results.

Ask AI to get you started with a prompt such as, “Draft a letter to ...” and then add the details.

What comes back can be a useful first draft, says Michael L. Miller, author of Using Artificial Intelligence: Absolute Beginner’s Guide from AARP. After that, you need to think about

massaging the missive to make it your own.