Is Artificial Intelligence Only Saving Time?
My wife and I were finally able to get out of the house a little today. For a long time, I've been working at home day and night for a project that needed to be finished. Because of that, we haven't really been able to go out. After things eased up a bit in the project, we went out to get some air and clear my head.
While we were on the way, we were talking about whether to leave the car with valet parking or park in the regular lot, and my wife said, "Valet is too expensive." I said, "I'm buying you time and comfort." Regular parking is 100 - 150 TL, and valet parking is 550 TL. While my wife shops, our daughter and I sit in the car, and at least we are out in the open air.
To be honest, I'm paying money, parking the car myself, and also waiting for my wife inside the car. When you think about it that way, it does feel expensive. But then I thought about it in another way. I would have to wait in line to park in the regular lot. Today is a discount day, so there is a very high chance that the line will be longer than usual. I would leave the car in a narrow, dark place two or three floors underground, and again sit in the car with our daughter.
No open air, just a tight and dark place. The ventilation is not very good either, and while the child is sleeping, she would be breathing exhaust fumes.
See how I showed the worst option and made valet sound like the better alternative, right? But the strange part is this: if I were in a different situation, I would still choose the open parking area, meaning valet parking. Because when I think about the time I would lose parking the car, finding a spot, shopping, and then coming back, and on top of that, the stress level that would build up, I get tense. So when I told my wife, "I'm buying you time and comfort," I was actually thinking a little about myself too. In a way, I'm also buying "comfort" for myself.
After that conversation ended, I started thinking about the things I use and describe as "buying time." At that moment, I realized this was not only about valet or parking choice. Sometimes we pay for a service to speed up a physical process, and sometimes we use a tool to reduce our mental load. Right at that point, that question came to mind: Could we also be buying time by using artificial intelligence?
What Does It Mean to Buy Time?
Before getting to the question, it would be useful to explain what I mean by "buying time." I use this expression for situations where I could actually do a task myself with my own experience and knowledge, but with the help of a paid service or a tool, I can do it in less time.
Artificial intelligence sits in a similar place for me. It helps me move faster with the knowledge and experience I already have. Sometimes it compresses months of exploration into days. Sometimes it helps me get just far enough in a subject I do not yet know well.
What I try to avoid is using AI-generated code directly without reviewing it first. Because even in a subject I know nothing about, I don't think it is possible to produce something both safe and truly fit for the need without doing some reasoning based on certain basic knowledge.
How Does Artificial Intelligence Save Time?
For example, I have never built an Android application, but I have worked on Web Client and Windows Forms applications. That means I can take a problem I already understand and ask AI how a similar or more secure solution might look on Android. In that sense, the time I spend learning and applying does not disappear, but it becomes more focused and shorter. What disappears is not the need to learn, but some of the wandering that usually comes before a workable solution. The critical point is that I am not starting from nothing; I am building on the experience I already have.
As another example, the leaves on the bamboo and orchids in our home often turn yellow, or the orchids never bloom. So I ask artificial intelligence what I can do about it. In a subject I know nothing about, I learn the basic things I need to know, but that still does not make me an expert.
When I use artificial intelligence in a subject I do not know, I still try to use the basic knowledge or tactics I learned.
Artificial intelligence can help me "buy time", too. That gained time shows up in different ways: time to implement, time to learn, and time to evaluate alternatives. These are the most direct gains. Along with these, we should not forget the things gained indirectly: reduced mental load, lighter stress coming from waiting times, and less decision fatigue.
Risk and Opportunity for Beginners
But we also need to think about the issue from another angle. Let's think about a young person who is just at the beginning and has not yet gained enough experience in any subject. How will this person "buy time" for themselves? Because artificial intelligence clearly gives us speed. But where will the experience, comparison skill, and reasoning ability come from that make it possible to use that speed efficiently?
There is also a bigger question: Could learning and moving forward this quickly turn into a comfort zone gained too early after a certain point? While making people more productive, could it also pull them away from deeper learning?
Closing Words
Artificial intelligence is not without value for beginners either. Maybe for them, its biggest contribution is not shortening the road, but making the road visible. It can help them notice faster where to begin, which concepts matter, and what questions need to be asked. But still, truly walking that road, repeating, making mistakes, and building judgment over time remains the person's own responsibility.
At first glance, artificial intelligence may look like it is only saving time. But in many cases, what we are buying is not only speed; it is also mental clarity, room for decisions, and sometimes even courage.
Maybe in the very near future, instead of talking about how much speed artificial intelligence gives us, we will be talking about how to build real depth on top of that speed. Maybe we will also be redefining what productivity means.