Tet gift "Advisor
In the days leading up to Tet, I met Mai Phuong (26 years old, Hanoi office worker) at a crowded bus station. Unlike the confused look, carrying mass-produced gift baskets of cakes and candies like every year, Phuong's luggage this year is light, but her eyes flashed with unusual confidence.
Honestly, choosing Tet gifts is a torture for me," Mai Phuong shared. "Every year I buy a large box of cakes and a bottle of wine, but my parents receive them and only put them on the altar for beauty. This year, I decided to ask the AI "advisor" to intervene.
Mai Phuong opened her phone and showed me the conversation with ChatGPT. She did not ask general questions, but entered very detailed data: "Suggest Tet gifts worth under 5 million VND for dad (55 years old, often has back pain, likes to drink strong tea), mom (50 years old, likes to cook but often has knee pain) and younger brother (18 years old, likes technology)".
In just a moment, AI did not offer industrial gift baskets. It suggested Phuong buy her father an infrared massage mattress and a Bat Trang liquor teapot set, and her mother a oil-free frying pot or a handheld massage machine. As for her younger brother, the "AI advisor" advised Phuong to buy an active noise-canceling headset. Even, AI compared prices between 3 e-commerce platforms to find a place to sell with a Tet-through delivery service to her hometown in Hung Yen.
Mai Phuong's story is proof that AI is changing the definition of "Tet gifts". Previously, we gave what we found convenient. Now, AI helps us give what the recipient really needs.
AI era" wish
In previous years, we were fed up with soulless "copy-paste" sample messages sent en masse on New Year's Eve. This year, the game is different.
Nguyen Quang Minh, a student in Hanoi, showed me the "unique" Tet card collection he just created. "I used Gemini to create the image of the horse (symbol of 2026) in the style of Dong Ho paintings. After that, I asked ChatGPT to write 10 different Tet poems: A humorous poem for a group of close friends, a solemn six-eight verse poem for grandparents, a skillful "flattering" of the boss..." - Minh excitedly recounted.
With Gen Z generations like Minh, AI does not make them lazy, but helps them be creative. Instead of a faint "Happy New Year", technology helps them create content that is both strange and fun, with a strong personal imprint that if done manually would take a week.
However, it must also be said that not everyone is excited about this change.
The touch of nostalgia
When I asked about wishing Tet with AI, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Long (68 years old, retired official in Hanoi) pondered: "Honestly, if I receive a long poem and know it is written by a machine, I feel it's just... weird. Literature can be meticulous, rhyming is only better than ordinary people, but it lacks the mistake, the honest clumsiness of people. In the old days, writing one wrong word, bricking and rewriting, that was the heart.
Mr. Long's concern is well-founded. Vietnamese culture values the word "Love". If completely abandoned to AI, Tet is at risk of becoming an industrial "factory producing wishes".
But then, Mr. Long himself also shared that he once shed tears because of technology. His grandson used an AI tool to restore old photos to refresh Mr. Long's black and white photo taken with his parents from the 1970s. From a yellowed, blurred photo, AI has recreated facial features, colored skin, clothes, and even made the elderly "move" and smile.
The moment I saw my parents "reviving" on the screen, clearly as if standing in front of me, I was moved beyond words" - Mr. Long recounted. "Technology, if used in the right place, touches the most painful heart of a person.
From this perspective, AI is no longer dry words. It becomes a bridge, helping to connect generations in the family, evoking old stories at Tet tea tables that young people rarely have the opportunity to hear.
Celebrating Tet with AI
It can be seen that AI is reshaping Vietnamese Tet in a very unique way. It does not erase tradition, but is putting a new, more modern coat on tradition.
Maps applications using AI predict traffic jams make the road home less difficult. Design tools help online home decoration become brilliant. But the core of Tet is still people.
Tet 2026, we can ask AI to create a menu, but let's season the Tet Eve meal ourselves. We can ask AI to suggest Tet greetings ideas, but let's write or say those words ourselves with our own style.
Technology is born to serve life. And in these traditional Tet days, if we know how to take advantage of it, AI will be a "catalyst" for Vietnamese people to celebrate Tet more leisurely, more civilized, while still maintaining the warmth of family affection.
