You Don't Need to Know a Guy Anymore

The torque control lever on my John Deere L120 broke last week.

The same week, I read a post on LinkedIn arguing that AI is a real opportunity for people who don't have a big network.

I agree with it. And I have two repairs from the last seven days to show why.

We live in a rural community. Getting a service provider out here can take a while, if you can get one at all. For most of my life, fixing something I'd never fixed before meant one of three things: know a guy, pay a guy, or wait for a guy.

This week I didn't do any of those

The lever attaches to the transmission with a pin. I could see it. I could also see the pin wasn't going anywhere. Seized solid.

Before I touched it, I took a photo and uploaded it to ChatGPT so it could see exactly what I was looking at. Then I asked for three things: the best way to get a seized pin out without damaging the transmission, where to find the replacement part, and how to do the repair start to finish.

We worked it from least aggressive to most. First, a punch and hammer. Nothing. Next, heat on the lever, then the punch again. Still nothing. Last resort: drill it out with a cobalt bit and cutting oil. That did it.

ChatGPT linked me to the part online. A new lever and a new roll pin came to under $20.

No mobile mechanic. No loading the tractor on a trailer and dropping it at a shop. I fixed it outside, in my own yard.

Second project: pulling out an old bathtub.

The drain had rotted. There was nothing solid left to grab, and I couldn't get it to break loose from the drain pipe. Everything else was ready to go. The whole job was stuck on one fitting.

I explained the problem to AI. It pointed me to a tapered tool with grooved edges that fits on a 1/2" socket extension. You seat it inside the drain, the grooves bite into the inner wall, and you turn the whole drain out. Then it walked me through the step-by-step process for a drain in that condition.

The drain came loose. The project moved forward the same day.

AI didn't turn a single wrench.

Four years as an F-15 crew chief taught me what a seized fastener feels like before it strips. It taught me when to stop forcing something. And it taught me to check the instructions against what's actually in front of me before I trust them.

That's the part I brought.

What AI brought was the know-how I didn't have. I'd never pulled a pin on that transmission. I'd never removed a rotted tub drain. In the old days, that's exactly where the network came in: the neighbor who'd done it, the buddy at the parts counter.

AI filled that seat. My experience decided whether its answers made sense.

It saved me money. But the bigger win, for me, was time. Depending on when I could get a serviceman out here, I'd estimate I saved days, maybe a week.

It isn't.

Half of people have done it. In a survey of 2,002 UK adults for the insurer Aviva (published February 2026), 50% said they'd used AI for help with home repairs or installations. Seventy percent of those said they finished the job successfully, and 83% said they'd use it again.

Here's the part that caught my eye: the 45-to-60 group came in at 40%, well behind the younger groups at 74–76%. Press coverage of the same survey put 61-to-79-year-olds even lower, at 19%. If you're in your 50s or 60s, you're in the groups using it least — and you're also the ones with the most hands-on experience to pair it with.

Americans report real savings. A May 2025 survey of 1,005 US homeowners, run by the insurance marketplace Guardian Service, found more than 2 in 5 had used AI for repair or maintenance help. Those who followed its advice reported cutting repair costs by an average of 47%. That's self-reported, so treat it as a ballpark. AI users were also more than twice as likely to say it made home repairs less stressful (29% vs. 13% of non-users).

The same survey found 79% still trust a contractor more than AI. I think that's healthy. More on that below.

It works like a mentor. Stanford and MIT researchers studied 5,179 customer support agents who were given an AI assistant. Productivity rose 14% on average, and 34% for the newest, least experienced agents. The researchers' explanation: the AI was passing along the habits of the best people on the team.

That's the network point in one finding. AI gives you something close to the experienced person at the next desk, even if you've never met them.

At work, it's real but modest. The St. Louis Fed tracks an ongoing national survey of working adults (18–64). By mid-2026, 39% said they'd used generative AI for work in the past week. The share of total work hours saved was about 2%. Small, but it's been climbing every year since tracking started. No miracle. Just steady.

The same Aviva survey found 13% of people spent £250–£499 (roughly $330–$670) fixing DIY attempts that went wrong. Aviva's own home insurance lead said gas and electrical work should be left to trained, licensed professionals.

I agree. AI is a thought partner, not a license.

My rule from the flight line still applies: check it twice before you trust it. If AI's instructions don't match what you're looking at, stop and ask again. If the job can hurt you, your house, or your wallet when it goes wrong, that's the point to call a pro, even if it means waiting.

Pick one thing on your fix-it list. The one you've been putting off because you weren't sure who to call.

Before you call anyone, describe it to AI the way you'd describe it to the guy at the parts counter:

1.      The make and model, and what's broken or stuck.

2.      What you can see and what you've already tried.

3.      Then ask for three things: the likely causes, the tools you'll need, and the point where this job gets risky enough that you should call a professional.

If your AI tool accepts photos, snap one and include it. It helps more than you'd expect.

That third question matters most. A good answer tells you where to stop.

Hit reply and tell me the last thing you fixed yourself — or the one you're still putting off. I read every response.

If you're not connected with me on LinkedIn yet, find me there: [LinkedIn link]

Next week: more from the farm. I've got another project lined up, and I'll walk you through how I used AI to get it done.

— Eric

Let's connect on LinkedIn. I post there every Tuesday and Thursday, and it's the easiest place to keep the conversation going between issues: linkedin.com/in/eric-skelton-ai-over-50-newsletter