I vibe coded time-saving tools for boomers like my parents. They picked up on AI fast, and it's made their lives less lonely and easier.

• Bill Atienza is helping older adults become more comfortable with AI and vibe coding tech.
• Atienza's startup, Hailo, provided tech support, which later led to AI education for older people.
• Atienza helped an older man with vision problems set up various AI technologies on his computer.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Bill Atienza, 29, who is a startup founder in California, and one of his former clients, Phil Hargrove, 80. Atienza founded an AI-powered on-demand technology support platform that operated until 2023. He continued working with clients to improve technology and become more familiar with AI. Hargrove shared more about his relationship with Atienza. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

In the past, it took months or years to create software, but now it takes me, or another person my age, less than an hour to create a vibe-coded app. For many older people, AI has been doing tasks for them with a single click or conversation.

After two years of college, I got a job at the Apple Store. On the side, older people would ask me if I could come over to their house and pay me $20 to fix something. It got to the point where I was actually making more money doing that than working at the Apple Store, so I quit my job there.

I started to recruit all my friends who I used to work with to found Hailo, a technology support platform. I encountered so many baby boomers whose problems were so simple to Gen Zers like me. One of the most common problems among the older generation is that, if they want to log into their Facebook, they don't know how to reset the password and will usually just call their kids. But many are empty nesters, and at that point, they will just hire anyone, usually people my age.

In some cases, I would start off with a simple MacBook cleanup, and by the time I was done, I was doing so many other things around their house. I led the development of AI diagnostic tools and worked with many clients. After I moved on from Hailo, I started Athena, which is an AI for kids in special education programs.

I've always been good with older people.

I've always been introverted, but when it comes to educating people, I felt more appreciated when I was helping people older than me. I enjoyed solving computer problems and didn't even care much if I got paid. Even though I'm not at Hailo anymore, I'm still helping out the older people whom I used to serve years ago because they're so comfortable with me doing their tech support. When I first started with Hailo, I gathered over 200 to 300 people under my belt, but when I started to walk away, I kept over 50 people I helped out. I attended two funerals in the past three years of people I helped.

Many had no idea what AI is, but I started showing them some simple content generation. Some of them weren't too impressed by that, but when I showed them what OpenClaw could do, they were blown away by it.

The first wave of AI, from what I noticed, wasn't really helpful for them.

But when I started to show them how agents worked, they were much more interested. I introduced some of them to Perplexity and other agentic AI platforms.

Many of their uses were typical — reminders for taking medicine or handling paperwork. For a few of them, I helped OpenClaw control their computers with the mouse moving on its own. They wanted to know if it was safe, which it was. Some of them still don't know if they can trust the technology yet and contact me after I leave to ask what to do. Some have been watching YouTube videos to know how to use things.

One of my past clients is a landlord, and from what he told me, he had been curious about AI before I came along. He wanted me to teach him how to use AI to create legal paperwork for his property, so I helped him develop OpenClaw skills. He has his agent who is basically his own lawyer, creating terms for him and his tenants.

Some of my work has been specifically for helping with aging.

A lot of the people I help out are widows or live alone. This basic vibe coding has been helping them feel more connected and less lonely. It didn't take them that long to figure out the technology, especially compared to other problems that I figured out for them that were not AI-related. If they don't know something, they'll pull up ChatGPT and talk and talk and talk.

It's their own tech support. They're catching up with AI so fast. If I stayed in tech support, I would've been out of a job because why would you need someone like me? I also tell them that the more you use ChatGPT, the smarter it gets. It knows who you are. It knows your patterns.

One woman was blown away when I created a photo of her and her husband, who died, with Nano Banana Pro. She's been calling and texting me, asking what kinds of prompts to use. She created an app with my help in which she uploaded her late husband's voice into Perplexity, and she's talking to her dead husband. That's one of the most mind-blowing use cases that I've heard so far.

One of my past clients needed someone to always remind him to make sure his dog gets his seizure medication. All I did was set up OpenClaw on his laptop and told him that it's his assistant now. He's essentially talking to Claude, which was the API I chose for him, and it's doing everything for him, from setting up appointments to researching cancer treatments.

Vibe coding also helped me become closer to my parents. My dad and I were never that close, but when I started to ask what went wrong with our relationship, AI helped me know how to talk to my dad, know what to avoid and focus on, and give us back some time that we lost together by not talking. He will use ChatGPT to self-reflect, too.

Former client, 80: 'He's a very bright young man, and I was astounded by him.'

Phil Hargrove, 80, was one of Atienza's clients, and still relies on him for tech help.

Bill helped me with technology in my 70s and now at 80.

Besides just being old, I have limited vision. Bill has been very helpful in using technologies that are accessible and useful for me.

I met Bill a few years ago, probably in 2021. I used to be in technology as a CIO. I pioneered the use of PCs for business functions in the 1980s, but it's gotten too complicated for me to handle. I can't see well enough to really be self-sufficient anymore, so I needed some help with my PC and called Bill. He came by, worked on it, and he's been my go-to guy for computer problems ever since.

He's been helping me get a Ring system working, and he's helped me with AirPods' hearing aid features. He's also been showing me how to take advantage of AI.

He showed me some AI features early on, but I just didn't quite grasp them. Most recently, he's helped me get Copilot working on my computer that can read messages for me. It can help me with some of the chores I'm trying to do, like working in spreadsheets. I was putting all my tax information into a spreadsheet, and going forward, it would be useful to have it help me take bank statements, sort through them, and find tax deductions.

I've been trying to stick with some of the more common tools, like ChatGPT and Gemini, which I'm getting better at using. He recently showed me how AI can read emails out loud, which is very helpful.

I got a pair of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. If I go to a restaurant, it can read the menu for me and tell me how much each dish costs. If I'm walking, I can ask if there are any obstacles I need to be aware of. They can take pictures, and I can talk on the phone or listen to podcasts through them. I've been listening to a lot of tech podcasts, especially ones about technology for the blind.

My wife is not technologically savvy, so I try to help her, but when I can't anymore, that's when I call Bill. He came over on a recent Sunday to help her access her email, as one of her accounts wasn't working the way she wanted. I understand the principle of what to do, but I can't see the screen well enough.