I do not want AI to make me more available to everyone

"And he said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.'" (Mark 6:31, ESV)

There's a version of the AI future that sounds efficient and feels exhausting. Every message gets answered. Every client request gets processed instantly. Every gap in the calendar fills with another task because the tools have finally made it possible. The person becomes faster. The person also becomes permanently available.

I don't want that future, even though almost everything about my life right now is set up to tempt me toward it.

Why this is a real temptation for me

Between a full-time job, an AI consulting company with my business partner Brendan, a web and software shop with active clients, an accessibility SaaS product, and a handful of other ventures, there is always, always more work available. One of my clients does emergency-support development work, which means "urgent" isn't hypothetical, it's a real category I have to manage. AI makes it genuinely easier to answer everyone, faster, all the time.

It's easy to confuse instant response with care. Sometimes a fast answer really is helpful. But constant availability can also become a way of avoiding the harder work of setting priorities and naming limits. I can become very efficient at responding to everyone and less capable of actually listening to the people closest to me.

Family belongs in this conversation, not just business

Wes and Wyatt are usually in bed by seven. William sometimes stays up until eight or eight-thirty. That's the real window I have with my boys most nights, and it's smaller than any calendar makes it look. I protect a daily family block because I don't want Elizabeth or the three of them to receive whatever leftover attention survives after every other system in my life has taken its share.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33, ESV)

My actual priority order, on the days I get it right, is God first, then Elizabeth, then William, Wes, and Wyatt, then extended family, then work, then me. That order was true before AI existed. What's changed is how much easier it's become to quietly override it without ever deciding to, one answered message at a time.

Presence is not a productivity failure

Grounding Scripture: "One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41–42, ESV)

Jesus didn't tell Martha she was wrong to serve. He told her she was anxious and troubled about many things when one thing mattered more in that moment. That's the tension I live in constantly. A child asking a question isn't a queue item. A conversation that can't be summarized into a measurable output might still be the most important thing that happens that day. If a tool gives me time back but trains me to resent the people who need it, it hasn't made me wise. It's just made me fast.

Four boundaries I want my technology to respect

A stopping boundary. There has to be a point where the workday ends, even when the system could keep generating tasks forever.

A presence boundary. When I'm with Elizabeth, with the boys, or with someone in front of me, the tool doesn't automatically outrank the relationship.

A privacy boundary. Not every personal or client detail belongs in a productivity tool, a chatbot, or an AI model.

A responsibility boundary. If a task needs my judgment, I shouldn't hand it off just because handing it off is possible.

Boundaries aren't anti-technology. They're how technology stays a servant instead of becoming the thing I serve.

A practical exercise

Write down the main ways AI is supposed to help you, then finish these sentences. AI may help me with . AI may not decide for me. I will not put into the tool. When I am with , I will protect my attention by . The time recovered from will be directed toward .

The answers don't need to sound impressive. They need to be specific enough to actually change what I do the next time a client pings me at seven while I'm reading with William.

Frequently asked questions

Can AI improve work-life balance?

AI can improve work-life balance when it reduces unnecessary work and the recovered capacity gets protected for rest, family, or meaningful responsibilities. It can worsen balance when the efficiency just creates more availability and more demand.

How should Christians set technology boundaries?

By naming the people and responsibilities that need protected attention, limiting what information enters a tool, deciding when the workday ends, and refusing to treat constant availability as the same thing as love or faithfulness.

Is it selfish to limit availability?

No. Reasonable limits protect existing responsibilities and improve the quality of attention a person can actually give.

Start here: the free F.A.I.T.H. AI Stewardship Audit is twenty questions about your week, not about technology. About five minutes, no cost, and your answers stay on your device.

I'm Dave, a husband to Elizabeth and father to three boys, and I also run a full-time job and several ventures at once.