In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, host Rachael Van Pelt dives into the Age of Intelligence and how it will revolutionize your retirement and beyond. Whether you're nearing retirement or gearing up for an encore career, AI and cutting-edge tech advancements are creating game-changing opportunities for your health, wealth, and lifestyle.
In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, host Rachael Van Pelt dives into the Age of Intelligence and how it will revolutionize your retirement and beyond. Whether you're nearing retirement or gearing up for an encore career, AI and cutting-edge tech advancements are creating game-changing opportunities for your health, wealth, and lifestyle.
Explore how artificial intelligence is more than automation—it's your personal assistant for a longer, healthier, wealthier life. Rachael breaks down how AI will transform healthcare, detect diseases earlier, personalize your healthspan strategies, and optimize your retirement savings. From AI-powered financial tools that protect your wealth to AI wellness platforms that will keep you in top shape, the future is here, and it's smarter than ever.
If you're in your 50s or 60s and ready to take advantage of next-gen technology, this episode will show you how to use AI to live better longer, manage your finances effortlessly, and keep growing in your next act. The Age of Intelligence isn’t just for the tech-savvy—it’s for all of us looking to thrive in this new era.
Chapters
00:00 Introducing the Age of Intelligence
00:56 Technology Has Reached an Exponential Rate of Change
03:23 Leveraging the Age of Intelligence to Improve your Next Act
05:31 Differentiating Between Automation and AI
07:10 From Large Language Models to AI Agents that Learn
08:37 Your AI Health Agent
10:32 Your AI Wealth Agent
12:23 Your AI Lifestyle Agent
14:19 Think Like an Early Adopter and Play with the New AI Tools
15:50 Leveraging New AI Tech to Improve Healthspan and Wealthspan
18:11 Use AI to Boost Creativity and Lifelong Learning
19:45 Co-Create your Next Act with AI
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Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the #1 podcast for mastering your lifestyle longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt. Today, we're discussing the Age of Intelligence and how it's going to be a game changer when it comes to our long game. Whether you are on the brink of retirement or you are gearing up for an encore career, you might be asking yourself, "What next? How are technological advances going to impact me"? If so, congrats, I think you're asking the right questions and I think it's worth taking the time to wrap our minds around the new era that's unfolding just as we're transitioning our own lives.
But first, let me ask you a question. Do you think you've fully grasped the idea that technology is now advancing at an exponential rate? I mean, we recently went from seeing a doubling in the complexity and functionality of tech every couple of years to now where it's only taking a matter of months for it to double.
Think about that. If I gave you a penny today and it doubled that every day, you would have $5.3 million in just 30 days. At first, the doubling wouldn't seem very impressive, would it? You'd go from two cents to four cents to eight cents and so on. You won't even break $50,000 until day 23. But where it gets really interesting is when you get to around the 27th doubling. That's when you jump from $671,000 to $1.3 million. Just a couple more doublings take you to $2.6 million and then $5.3 million. It's truly mind-boggling when you stop to think about what happens when that J-shaped curve shoots straight up. And this is exactly what's happening with technology. We are hitting that exponential part of the curve that even mathematicians have trouble fully grasping. Does that rapid rate of change scare you or does it excite you?
I think even for the most excited of us, there's a dash of uncertainty, isn't there? With everything moving so fast in artificial intelligence, deep learning, robotics, quantum computing, it's natural to feel uneasy with the pace of tech. And so what do we do? I think we tend to put ourselves in one of two camps. The first camp thinks something along the lines of, I'm not even going to bother to keep up with technology. I'm going to leave that to the next generation. Maybe I'll even go off the grid and become a Luddite. Who knows, who needs all of this?
The second camp thinks something more along the lines of, well, I'm not dead yet, why not embrace what's coming? Enjoy the ride. What if there's new technology that helps me live better longer or helps my family in a meaningful way? And hey, I get it, depending on the day, I could easily fall into either of those two camps. But today's episode is for the latter camp, the I'm-not-dead-yet club.
We're going to unpack the buzz about this new so-called Age of Intelligence that's unfolding. I'm going to show you how to leverage it to make your Next Act healthier, wealthier, and more fulfilling than you've ever imagined. Because this new era is not just for young tech wizards. I think it is just as much for those of us in, shall we say, a more seasoned prime of life.
But before I dive in to all the good stuff, let me first define what the Age of Intelligence even is. To put it in context, think back to when we shifted from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Do you remember that? Suddenly everything was connected, wasn't it? We had more knowledge at our fingertips than we knew what to do with. We gained 24/7 easy access to the world via the internet. We gained powerful search engines to help us quickly find answers to all of our questions. It was a huge leap forward.
But right now, the Age of Intelligence is promising to be an even bigger leap forward. It's taking us from using machines to get work done faster to having those machines learn and adapt and make better decisions every single day. Machine learning is a game changer. And whether it's AI or biotech or smart gadgets, these tools are becoming as much a part of our lives as electricity or running water. And it isn't some futuristic sci-fi dream either, is it? It's happening right now. AI is already improving how we manage our health, our finances, our daily routines. And it's not just for the younger generation. It's for us. It's for us Boomers and Gen Xers who want to thrive in this new world, not just coast through it.
But let's take a minute to clarify a really important distinction, the difference between automation and artificial intelligence, because it's easy to get these things confused. Automation, of course, is machines or software following pre-programmed instructions to carry out tasks. You can think of a smart thermostat that automatically adjusts room temperature or an online platform like Airbnb that automatically schedules rental bookings. Automation is very efficient. It makes our life easier, but it's not thinking. It's not making decisions. It's simply doing what you programmed it to do with your settings. Automation is great for handling repetitive tasks, but it doesn't adapt or learn.
AI, on the other hand, is a whole different ballgame. AI, especially in the form of large language models or machine learning, has the ability to learn from massive amounts of data. And it improves over time. And even better, it makes predictions about what's going to happen based on those data. AI doesn't just follow instructions, it adapts, it personalizes, and it anticipates your needs. That's the distinction. In short, automation helps with basic repetitive tasks, but AI offers adaptation, personalization, and continuous learning. It gets smarter and smarter every day.
You've probably already used large language models like ChatGPT to get answers to complex questions or help you do simple tasks. The speed at which it works is astounding. And every few weeks, these models are getting better and better. They're learning at an exponential rate. But what's even more remarkable, they are learning your preferences and providing answers that are increasingly tailored to your needs. And the companies training these large models say that we're going to eventually even have our own specialized smaller models, so-called AI Agents, that will be even more personalized to our specific needs. Eventually, you'll probably even have multiple Agents. You'll have one for managing your business and/or your personal life, one for managing your health, one for managing your wealth, and so on.
What does that mean? It means within the next five years or so, these AI models will massively transform your health span and your wealth span. When it comes to health, AI is set to completely revolutionize how we stay healthy as we age. We're no longer just talking about tracking steps on a smartwatch. We're talking about a new level of personalized healthcare.
Imagine an AI-powered Health Assistant that takes into account your entire medical history, your past and present daily habits, even your genetic predisposition. This assistant is going to be able to provide you with personalized real-time health advice, help you make decisions that improve your long-term well-being. Instead of just Googling symptoms and getting overwhelmed with information, you're going to be able to ask your AI Health Agent for advice tailored specifically to you in your unique situation. Your assistant will provide nuanced health recommendations, and that's going to help you navigate decisions much better. You won't just be relying on generic WebMD advice, right?
These tools are also going to be able to detect health problems long before you have any kind of symptoms. Many of us already have experienced using wearable devices to continuously monitor vitals like heart rate and sleep patterns and physical activity. But when you combine with AI and machine learning, these devices will be able to flag unusual changes. They're going to be able to catch conditions like diabetes, heart disease, even cancer much earlier. This is going to give you more early treatment options that are far less invasive and probably yield better outcomes.
AI Agents will eventually even replace what I do as a healthspan coach. They'll teach you how to optimize lifestyle to prevent age-related decline. In other words, within the next five to 10 years, AI is going to empower you to take much better control of your health than you ever have been able to before.
Similarly, AI wealth Agents will massively transform how we build and manage our wealth. Up to this point, managing wealth span has taken a lot of guesswork and constant monitoring. But AI is challenging all that. It can already analyze market data in real-time, automatically adjust investments, and minimize your risks while at the same time optimize for your personal financial goals. Having your own AI Wealth Agent is going to be like having a personal financial advisor, an accountant, and a tax strategist all in one. And they'll be continuously monitoring your portfolio 24/7, running sophisticated simulations that factor in things like inflation and healthcare costs and life expectancy.
With all of these data, your AI agent will be able to offer you personalized strategies, so you never have to worry about whether your savings will last through retirement. And they'll keep track of your spending habits real-time and find ways to save money. This will help you make smarter financial decisions with much less stress. Managing your finances will no longer be a daily worry for you because you'll have more confidence that your money's being managed efficiently and effectively. It'll free up lots of mental bandwidth and give you peace of mind. I don't know about you, but I love the idea of having an agent that can let me know when I have sufficient funds to splurge on that nice vacation or to pay off my kids' college tuition. I love that it'll be able to crunch the numbers on a wide variety of scenarios so that I'm more empowered to spend wisely and worry less about outliving my retirement savings.
In addition to your specialized Health Agent and your Wealth Agent, there's a good chance you'll also have an AI Lifestyle Agent, one that learns your life goals, your habits, your preferences. It'll work 24/7 to make sure you keep growing and learning and connecting with people and living comfortably. AI-powered tools will help you learn a new language, start a new hobby, maybe even embark on a second career. Your Lifestyle Agent will be something like a personal assistant, tutor, maybe a life coach all rolled into one. It'll adapt to the pace at which you learn and figure out how to balance your comfort with a bit of challenge. It may even help you improve your relationships with loved ones. In short, AI will actively be learning how to make your life easier, more comfortable, more enjoyable.
Now, if you've ever used smart home devices, then you know that they need to be pre-programmed to follow your commands, but within the next few years, they're going to do more than that. They'll learn your habits and preferences so they can find a way to improve your comfort. For instance, your home might adjust the temperature, the lighting, even suggest a music playlist based on what it learns about your morning and evening routine or what helps you sleep better. Your coffee machine, it's not going to just make your morning espresso. It might suggest a pumpkin spice latte in the fall because it learns your seasonal preferences. Now you might have to initiate your shopping AI to add pumpkin spice to your grocery list, but you get the idea. With AI Agents, there will be many new ways to improve your lifestyle.
Now I know some of you might be thinking, "Okay, Rachael, I get it, the Age of Intelligence is a huge deal, but where do I start? There's just so much going on that's moving too fast". Which I totally get. The speed of change can be enough to make me want to run for the hills, so I get it. And yet, it's also an incredibly exciting time for those of us who are thinking long game, if we have a longevity mindset. That's why I want to take us beyond the basics of fitness trackers, budgeting apps, and smart home devices. I think they're a good starting point, but why don't we take it up a notch? Let's start thinking about how we can truly be at the forefront of this technological wave. Learn to use AI in ways that will keep you not just up-to-date, but on the cutting-edge. After all, we're not dead yet, are we? So instead of leaving it to our grandkids to figure out how about we think like early adopters and exercise our brains while we're at it.
To get started, I'm going to share just a few advanced ways you might get comfortable with what's coming. I should mention that I don't have any vested interest in any of these companies or platforms I mentioned today. I'm not getting paid in any way to share them. And for that matter, by the time you listen to this podcast, there may be new and better tools to use. The space is just evolving at warp speed and new companies, they're leading the pack every single day. Just think of these suggestions as a starting point. Pick one or two that you're most interested in and dive in and have a little bit of fun.
First and foremost, you have to start looking into AI tools that can help you boost your physical and mental health. Remember, we're not just talking about counting steps anymore. AI can integrate all the data from your wearable devices, your medical history, your blood work, and offer tailored health advice. When you're ready to experiment with this, try a platform like InsideTracker or Viome. These tools use AI to analyze your blood work and other biomarkers. Then they offer customized diets and supplements based on comprehensive scans. You might also want to try an AI-powered mental health platform like Wysa or Woebot. These platforms use cognitive behavioral therapy techniques in real-time to help you manage stress and anxiety and so forth. And when you're ready to start pulling all of those things together, try tapping into an AI-driven telemedicine platform like K-Health. Very soon, I think you're going to find that you have an AI doctor in your pocket who knows your complete health history better than anyone.
Second, experiment with AI tools that boost your wealth. Remember, AI can do more than just keep an eye on your investments. It can actually learn how you spend, how you save, and how you invest. It can adjust your portfolio in real-time, based on market trends and your specific goals. So find an AI-savvy financial advisor or a tax strategist that's already using cutting-edge platforms. People who are using tools like Betterment or Wealthfront. Because these use advanced algorithms that help your advisor adjust investments as the market shifts. They don't replace the advisor, they just augment what they do. Similarly, a tool like Holistiplan can help your CPA really optimize your tax strategy and retirement. Or dive even deeper with personalized AI advisors like Vise. These tools, they don't just follow the market, they learn from it. They're constantly adjusting and rebalancing your investments to optimize wealth span.
Third, leverage AI to boost your creativity and make lifelong learning easier. If you want to pick up new skills or new hobbies, or you just want to stay mentally sharp, you're going to be able to easily find AI tools that can accelerate your progress in these areas. Try a platform like Sana AI or Khan Academy's Khanmigo. These platforms learn how you learn. They adjust course content to fit you perfectly. They can actually converse with you. They can help you practice new skills and languages in a more natural conversational way. AI can also help you create art and write stories and compose music. Whether you're a seasoned artist or you just like to explore new hobbies, think of AI as your creative partner. Experiment with tools like Runway ML or OpenAI's Dall-E. They'll help you generate stunning images or videos with just a few clicks. Or you can try Jasper AI to help you write articles or blog posts or even create some stories. Or try a platform like Suno AI or Staccato. Those can allow you to compose your own music. These tools are especially good at giving you a jumping off point when your inspiration is low. They don't just follow instructions. They learn your style, they adapt, make suggestions. And that's really good for keeping your creativity flowing.
I just challenge you to explore and have some fun. Use some of these cutting-edge tools to improve various aspects of your life. Take a deep breath, embrace this new era, leverage AI to create a Next Act that's more personalized, makes your life more efficient, maybe even more exciting. Bottom line, the Age of Intelligence isn't just for next gen tech enthusiasts. It's here to augment your life, not just through automation, but think of it as an assistant or a co-creator of your life. Utilize it to improve your health span and your wealth span, or to simply age-in-place more comfortably. I think the future is bright and your Next Act is going to be incredible.
Thank you for joining me for another episode of Next Act Ninjas. Please be sure to share, like, and subscribe so we can reach more of our longevity-minded tribe. Until next time, live well, love more, age less my friends.