About the author
Dennis Kriel
Dennis is an AI implementation consultant and speaker based in Pretoria, with more than twenty years in education and instructional design. He has trained over 500 leaders across twelve industries, runs five businesses, and speaks at schools and parent evenings about raising children who can think alongside AI.
He wrote Raising AI-Ready Children as a parent of growing children, to replace tech anxiety with evidence-grounded confidence and practical daily routines.
Why he wrote it
The book began at home. Watching his own children reach for AI tools for homework, Dennis saw the same tool lead to three very different outcomes depending on how a child used it: a shortcut, a learning partner, or a creative collaborator. The question that kept him awake was not whether children would use AI, but whether parents would know how to guide them. The research he gathered replaced that anxiety with a plan, and the book is that plan: five human skills AI cannot replace, and the daily routines that build them.
It is deliberately a book for parents without a technical background. There is no code and no jargon. There is the Family AI Agreement, the 20-Minute Rule, the V.E.T. rule for checking what an AI says, age-specific tips for children from 5 to 18, and figures that make each idea easy to remember and easy to explain to a child.
Speaking at schools and parent evenings
Dennis runs two sessions built on the book: AI and Your Child: A Parent’s Guide, a parent evening, and AI and You: Using It Wisely, Using It Well, for learners from Grade 7. He also gives keynotes and workshops on AI adoption for business audiences, in English or Afrikaans. Formats range from a 45-minute talk to multi-week programmes.
Get in touch
For anything about the book or your purchase, email dennis@verdantech.co.za. For consulting and speaking, see denniskriel.com.
The book’s spine