Introduction
Karla Mendes first encountered AI not as a promise, but as a camera notification in someone else’s hallway. For many domestic and care workers she knew, technology meant surveillance, ratings and the uneasy feeling of being watched while doing work nobody called skilled.
Karla lives in Vienna and coordinates an AI education initiative for migrant household and care workers. Her starting point is not fascination with tools. It is the question of who gets to use them for their own protection.
Story of the Path into AI
For years Karla had cleaned homes and supported families. Contracts were vague, working hours stretched, and digital skills rarely appeared in the job description. When language models became more accessible, she saw a different possibility: workers could use them to prepare questions, understand documents and organize information before seeking advice.
The barriers were practical. Participants had little time, poor experiences with authorities and understandable fear of making mistakes. Karla herself had to grow into the role of teacher. She learned basic data safety, translation prompts and adult education methods. Her first course explained employment contracts in plain language and helped participants prepare questions. Every sheet carried the same warning: this does not replace legal advice.
The first group was quiet. Then one woman brought an actual contract, folded in four. The room changed. The tool was no longer abstract.
Current Work
Today Karla’s initiative offers short workshops in community rooms and counselling centres. Participants compare AI explanations with information from a qualified advisory service. They learn how to ask better questions, how to avoid sharing personal data and when an automatic answer has reached its limit.
Several women say they now enter conversations with employers less defensively and with clearer documents. Karla treats that as a serious gain. Technology becomes liberating only when it reduces dependence without making vulnerable people more transparent to others.
Personal Advice
“Do not use AI alone when the stakes are high,” Karla says. Her advice is to treat the tool as preparation: sort the document, gather questions, translate difficult phrases, then bring the result to a person who can be held accountable.
Key Facts
Age and place: 49, Vienna.
Background: domestic work, migration, limited formal education.
Entry into AI: course on understanding work contracts without replacing advice.
Focus today: AI education and labour rights.
Typical tools: translation, document explanation, privacy training.
Werkstattnotiz
Karla’s course material has empty boxes for questions participants are afraid to ask aloud. At the end, some boxes stay empty; others fill with precise worries about hours, pay or passports. She is now adapting the material so that caution is taught as a skill, not as fear.