From a tech-obsessed Shanghainese who just wants her phone to stop being smarter than her
last week I was trying to write a message to my boss. Just a simple thing, you know? “Sorry I am late because of traffic.” But then my keyboard app started suggesting whole paragraphs. It wanted me to write something like “I sincerely apologize for the delay in my arrival due to unforeseen traffic congestion, and I appreciate your understanding regarding this matter.” I stared at my phone for five minutes. Who talks like this? Apparently, my AI keyboard thinks I am a robot wearing a human suit.
This is life in Shanghai in 2026. Generative AI is everywhere now. Not just in those fancy ChatGPT websites that tech people use. I mean everywhere. In your food delivery app, in your camera, in your shopping, even in your health apps that track how many steps you walked to the convenience store at 2 AM for instant noodles. It is like the whole city got an IQ upgrade, and sometimes I am not sure if we are ready for it.
Let me tell you what is actually happening with the apps we use every day, because honestly? It is both amazing and slightly scary.
Your Phone is Now a Mind Reader (Sort Of)
Remember when we used to type everything by ourselves? Those were the days. Now, every app on my phone wants to finish my sentences for me. I open WeChat to message my friend about dinner, and before I type “hot pot,” the app is already suggesting restaurants, checking my calendar, and offering to book a table. It is helpful, yes. But also, can I just think in peace without my phone knowing my dinner plans before I do?
The photo apps are even wilder. Last month, I took a picture of my cat sleeping in a weird position. Normal thing, right? Just a cute photo to send to my mom. But the AI in my gallery app did not just save the photo. It created a whole story. It added background music, made my cat’s ears twitch with animation, and wrote a caption: “Master of relaxation, teaching us the art of doing nothing.” My mom loved it. I felt slightly insulted that an AI understood my cat better than I do.
And do not get me started on the beauty cameras. You know the ones. They do not just smooth your skin anymore. Now they can change your whole face, your body, your background, even your clothes. I tried one app that let me “try on” outfits from online stores without leaving my house. I looked amazing in a dress that costs more than my monthly rent. Too bad I cannot AI-pay my rent the same way.
Shopping and Food Delivery Got Too Smart
Meituan and Ele.me, our food delivery apps, they know things now. Scary things. Last Tuesday, I was feeling sad because of work stress. I did not tell anyone. I did not post about it. But somehow, when I opened the app, it was showing me chocolate cake, bubble tea, and my favourite spicy noodles from that restaurant near my apartment. The app wrote a message: “Long day? Treat yourself.” How did it know? Did it see my face through the camera? Did it hear me sigh? I ordered the cake anyway, so I guess the AI won that round.
Shopping apps are the same. Taobao used to just show you stuff you searched for. Now it creates whole outfits for you. You upload one photo of a shirt, and the AI suggests pants, shoes, bags, even jewellery that matches. It puts them on a virtual model that looks kind of like you (if you were taller and had better posture). My friend bought an entire wardrobe this way. She looks great. Her bank account looks less great.
The weirdest part? The apps negotiate prices for you now. There is this new feature where an AI chats with the seller’s AI to get you a discount. Two robots arguing about money while you just watch. Sometimes they send you the conversation history. “Buyer AI: My human is a student, please be kind. Seller AI: My human has three children to feed. Final price: 15 yuan discount.” It feels like watching a strange play where everyone is pretending to be human, including the humans.
Work and Study Apps That Do Too Much
For students and office workers like me, generative AI is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, my writing app can now fix my terrible English in work emails. I write “pls send doc asap thx” and it becomes “Could you please send the document at your earliest convenience? Thank you so much for your assistance.” My boss thinks I am very professional now. I am just lazy and lucky.
Translation apps are basically magic now. I had a video call with a client from Brazil last month. Neither of us speaks the other’s language. But the app translated everything in real-time, with subtitles, with proper tone, even with cultural explanations. When he made a joke about football, the app added a note: “Humour about local sports team, respond with friendly acknowledgment.” I laughed at the right time. He thought I understood Portuguese. The AI understood everything so I did not have to.
But here is the problem: I am forgetting how to write properly. Last week, I tried to write a birthday card for my grandmother by hand. My hand hurt. My spelling was terrible. I kept waiting for the red underline to appear and fix my mistakes. There was no red underline. Just paper and my broken Chinese characters. It was embarrassing. The AI makes life easy, but maybe too easy?
Health and Money Apps That Watch Everything
My health app used to just count steps. Now it analyzes my sleep, my stress levels, my eating habits, and gives me advice I did not ask for. “You seem anxious today. Try breathing exercises.” How do you know I am anxious, phone? Did you read my messages? Did you hear me arguing with my brother? It is helpful, I guess. But also, can I have some privacy in my own anxiety?
Financial apps are using AI to tell you how to spend money. Not just track it, but actually advise you. “Based on your coffee purchases, you spend 800 yuan per month on caffeine. If you reduce by 30%, you could save for a holiday in Thailand.” First of all, rude. Second of all, how did you know I want to go to Thailand? Did I search for flights? Did I mention it in a voice message? The app is watching, always watching.
Some people love this. My colleague says his investment app made him 20,000 yuan last year using AI predictions. He just gave it permission to trade small amounts, and the robot did better than he ever could. I am too scared to try. What if the AI loses everything and then sends me a message like “Oops, my bad”?
The Good, The Weird, and The “Please Stop”
Let us be honest about what this all means for normal people in Shanghai. Life is faster now. Things that took hours now take minutes. Writing reports, editing photos, planning trips, even finding a date—there is an AI for everything. My cousin met her boyfriend through an AI matchmaking app that analyzed their chat histories to prove they were compatible. They are happy, so I guess the robot was right?
But there is also this strange feeling that we are losing something. When the app writes your messages, are they still your words? When the AI chooses your clothes, is it still your style? When the photo app makes your memories prettier than they were, are you remembering the truth or the AI version of it?
Last weekend, I tried to do everything the old way. I wrote a shopping list on paper. I called a restaurant to order food instead of using the app. I took photos without any filters or AI enhancement. It was slower. It was messier. My handwriting is terrible, the restaurant put me on hold for ten minutes, and my photos looked boring compared to my friends’ AI-enhanced ones.
But you know what? It felt like mine. The mistakes were mine. The choices were mine. The ugly photo of my lunch that looked nothing like the menu picture—that was honestly mine.
So here is what I think about generative AI in 2026. It is amazing. It is helpful. It is probably the future whether we like it or not. But we need to remember that we are still the humans here. Use the AI to make life easier, sure. But do not let it think for you, speak for you, or live for you.
My phone is still smarter than me in many ways. But I am the one who decides when to put it down and eat my noodles while they are still hot, even if the AI thinks I should take a photo first. Some things do not need to be generated. Some things just need to be lived.
What do you think? Is your phone getting too smart, or do you love the AI help? Message me your weirdest AI moment—I promise mine involved a chatbot trying to set me up on a date with my own cousin.