Martha Stewart’s new AI startup: A good thing?

Martha Stewart just launched a new startup called Hint—an “always-on, AI-native home management platform” set to launch this summer.

The venture was born out of a conversation Stewart had with Kyle Rush, her neighbor and an AI engineer. The two wanted to create software that can help identify and solve pesky home repairs, as well as reduce expenses. After Stewart partnered with Rush and home-services executive Yih-Han Ma, Hint was born.

“The first thing you do is give us your address,” Ma explained to Fortune. Then, Hint pulls publicly available data on the property. Users can upload further information, like inspection reports and insurance policies, to give Hint a more holistic picture of the property so it can keep a record of the home’s history and needs.

The company raised $10 million in seed funding. There are other VC startups in the space, like Honey Homes and Birdwatch, but they rely on human labor. Fortune reports that Hint will use artificial intelligence to sidestep that cost and connect people with products and services—from which it can earn an affiliate commission. 

“Hint is an always-on home management platform that keeps your home organized, protected, and always working for you,” Stewart wrote in a LinkedIn post. “For more than 40 years, I have been documenting how a well-run home should work: the standards, the seasonal routines, the small decisions that prevent expensive problems. All of that expertise is now embedded in Hint, working on your behalf before you even know you need it.”

Stewart told Fortune that she always envisioned a tool for people to manage their homes the way she does, but that the technology hadn’t been sufficient. Stewart has been active in the process of building Hint, from writing guidelines the model follows to testing its suggestions on her property.

“Think of it as a digital extension of the trusted teams that have helped me care for my homes for decades—the contractors, the plumbers, the gardeners, the designers—now available to every homeowner,” Stewart said in her LinkedIn post. 

Several famous women have publicly championed AI and encouraged use of the tech, especially among other women. Reese Witherspoon took to Instagram to share her surprise that only three in 10 women in her book club used AI. “I think we should learn some really good tools that are going to make our everyday lives easier and better,” she said. 

In another Instagram video, Mel Robbins announced her partnership with Microsoft Copilot and told her followers, “You have to lean in” to AI. Sandra Bullock shared that sentiment in April, when she said people should “lean into” AI in a constructive and creative way.

These women have been met mostly with ridicule and annoyance, which could stem from broader anxiety around AI and the future of work. An International Labour Organization study found that women face higher workplace risks from generative AI than men do. Other research also suggests that women are falling behind men when it comes to AI adoption. 

But, other research shows that women are leading AI strategy.

A survey of 1,768 male, female, and nonbinary leaders from the Harris Poll found that 80% of women play an active part in building their company’s AI framework. And women over 50 are well equipped to operate in a workforce that has been reshaped by AI. They bring emotional intelligence, judgment, and adaptability, among other valuable qualities, to the table.

The conversation around AI and women has been marked by a lot of anxiety and warnings. For Stewart, the technology was less a fear, and more a problem of how to actually use it. Now, she has a startup to run.

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