AI Can Generate Stories, but it Still Can't Listen

We recently returned from a trip to the U.S., and the same theme kept surfacing in conversations with people across generations.

Again and again, we heard about children who had gifted their parents a Storyworth subscription. The intention was meaningful. The appreciation was genuine. The desire to follow through was real.

But when we asked how it was going, the answer was often the same: they hadn’t finished - and many hadn’t truly begun.

What we heard wasn’t reluctance to share life stories. It was overwhelm.

For many people, these thoughtful gifts quietly become another open browser tab, another reminder email in an already crowded inbox, another task that feels too large to tackle alone.

A weekly questionnaire arriving 52 times over the course of a year works well for some. But for many others, life gets busy, momentum fades, and the story remains fragmented or unfinished.

At Capture Your Story, we’ve shaped our work around a different approach.

We believe stories surface best through conversation - when a living, breathing person is fully present, listening carefully, asking thoughtful follow-up questions, and helping make sense of the larger arc of a life.

Technology can do many impressive things, and AI has its place. But when it comes to preserving the stories that matter most, it cannot replace the connection that happens when one human sits with another and truly listens.