A relative called me recently, clearly stressed.

She runs an online business on a WordPress + WooCommerce website, but something felt off.

She explained that someone else was “handling the site” for her — an admin she had hired a long time ago. Over time, his salary kept increasing. Any tiny change? New bill. A small feature request? Another invoice. She felt trapped but didn’t know exactly why.

So I asked her a few very simple questions:

• Do you have access to your hosting panel?
• Where is your domain registered?
• Do you have the admin password for your own website?

Her answer was short and worrying:

“No. None of that.”

At that moment, the real problem became obvious.

This wasn’t about WordPress.

It wasn’t even about WooCommerce.

And it definitely wasn’t about AI.

It was about ownership.

The Hidden Cost of Not Knowing the Basics

When you don’t control the fundamentals of your own digital assets, you don’t really own them. You’re renting them — emotionally and financially — from someone else.

In this case, the admin wasn’t necessarily a villain. But the power imbalance was real. If you don’t know how to log in, you can’t:

• Change providers
• Compare prices
• Verify claims
• Or even walk away

Every small task becomes “technical,” and every technical task becomes expensive.

Where AI Fits — and Where It Doesn’t

We hear it everywhere now:

“AI is changing everything.”

And that’s true — to a point.

AI can:

• Write code
• Design pages
• Debug problems
• Explain complex systems in simple language

But AI cannot force someone to learn the absolute basics.

If a person hasn’t taken the time to understand:

• What hosting is
• What a domain is
• How logging in works

Then AI becomes just another tool they’ll fully hand over to someone else.

The gap doesn’t disappear.

It just changes shape.

The Real Skill of the Future

The most important skill going forward isn’t coding.

It isn’t prompt engineering.

It isn’t even using AI tools.

It’s digital self-reliance.

You don’t need to be a developer.

You don’t need to manage servers.

But if you run a website or an online business, you must:

• Own your domain
• Control your hosting account
• Have admin access to your platform

Anything less is a risk — no matter how advanced technology becomes.

Final Thought

AI will absolutely transform workflows, jobs, and industries.

But it won’t rescue people from learned helplessness.

If you can’t log into your own system, no amount of artificial intelligence will give you real control — only the illusion of convenience.

And that illusion is often very expensive.