One AI habit that saved me this week

Before I sign anything — a contract, a subscription, terms and conditions — I paste it into an AI assistant and ask one question:

“What should I worry about?”

This week it mattered.

What happened

A financial advisor at a major bank called me about opening a business account. During the call, he insisted I also had to sign up for one of their investment plans — said the account couldn’t be opened without it. I refused and ended the call.

Then I went to the bank’s website, downloaded the full terms and conditions for business accounts, and pasted them into an AI assistant with that same question.

In under a minute, it flagged what the advisor had said — and showed me the exact clauses proving the investment plan was optional, not a requirement.

I emailed the bank’s customer support with what I’d found. They confirmed it. The advisor was replaced.

Why this works

You don’t need to be a lawyer. You don’t need to read 40 pages of legal text. You need to ask the right question — and you need the patience to verify what you’re told before you agree to it.

AI assistants are remarkably good at parsing dense, structured documents. Terms and conditions, insurance policies, rental agreements, employment contracts — these are exactly the kind of text that AI handles better than most humans, because it doesn’t get bored on page 23 and start skimming.

The habit is simple:

1. Download or copy the full document.
2. Paste it into any AI assistant you trust.
3. Ask: “What should I worry about?”
4. Read what it flags. Verify the claims against the original text.
5. If something doesn’t match what you were told — push back.

The bigger point

We live in a world designed around the assumption that you won’t read the fine print. Every upsell, every “required” add-on, every default-checked box relies on the same bet: that the cost of verifying is higher than the cost of just agreeing.

AI has collapsed that cost to nearly zero.

Try it next time someone tells you “this is required.” It’s free. It takes 60 seconds. And it protects you from things you’d never catch on your own.