I had gone to sleep feeling excited because I’d finally launched my software to help parents in Sweden navigate school and medical services. In three months, I used Claude Code to write the documents, help me create the code, and launch a social media campaign (while simultaneously managing our family’s school and medical contacts). As someone who had never coded before, I was really proud of what I created.
The next morning, I checked my phone and saw fourteen receipt emails from Anthropic, the company behind Claude. I knew something had gone terribly wrong. While I was asleep, a bot had found a way into my app’s backend and gone on a $686 shopping spree using a Claude API key I didn’t even know was still sitting exposed on my first version of the software.
The first thing I did was open my regular Claude agent, the one that had helped me build the project. Together, we searched the security logs and found the source of the attack. So there I was, using one AI to talk to another AI. My regular Claude agent prepared all the details of the attack to pass off to the Anthropic billing agent.
What came next felt like the Swedish medical circle of “we’d love to help you, but you have to go over there.” And then you go over there, and they tell you to “go back to the first place”, and when none of it works, you ask someone else to verify who you’re even supposed to be talking to, and the third person doesn’t even know. So there was a perfect irony in building software meant to help people navigate a circular system, only to get stuck in the same kind of loop with the AI agents.
Can I Talk To A HUMAN?
Here’s roughly how it went. I explained the situation clearly, with evidence. An attacker’s IP. A statistically impossible spike in usage. The bot was warm and sympathetic. It told me my case “clearly warranted” human review and that a human agent could look into this. It even said it was “transitioning” me to a human support agent.
So I waited. In the meantime, I chatted with my other AI assistant and collected more evidence of the fraud.
I asked again. Same “we care about you” tone and a vague reference to a human who might, possibly, look at my case.
The bot told me it was an AI assistant and could not, in fact, escalate to a human. But it did reassure me that talking to a human would be a good idea.
I tried several variations of wording to try to get a human agent on the line. At one point, I was told to escalate through a different channel. That channel told me to go back to the first one. Several messages, across two separate threads, over a few days. Each one acknowledged warmly. In the end, it actually took three months to get a human reply.
The System Loop
It seems all the systems are failing, and we are stuck in the middle.
Right before this AI debacle, I was juggling a denied claim with Sweden’s social insurance agency (which we did get overturned only after filing a ton of paperwork) and an appeal related to denied accommodations for school. At the same time, in the medical system, the specialist referrals kept getting returned, and I had a doctor asking me what to do because the system wouldn’t help my child get a blood test. Did I mention our house is also for sale?
So when the AI support bot kept directing me in circles, it wasn’t an isolated tech failure. It was one more loop, layered on top of all the other loops.
The whole system felt like it was collapsing around me while the chatbot was busy trying to be “helpful.” After I thought I’d finally found the correct thread to get in line for a human, I stopped replying to the emails. The support bot did a check-in: just wondering if you were doing ok?
I’m thinking no. I’m not doing ok. Cue me laughing. Maybe I am ok since I am laughing.
The Skolnavi Method is what I wish someone had handed me three years ago: 22 AI prompts that turn any AI chatbot you already use into a navigator for the school and medical system your child is stuck in. Not Sweden-specific — every prompt adapts to your own location and system.
Maybe Things Will Work Out
That day, I felt the anxiety and general dread of nothing working and too many people to contact. I knew I’d find a way through eventually, because that’s just what I do. But I also felt genuinely defeated.
I was the founder of an AI navigation tool meant to help overwhelmed parents cut through bureaucratic nonsense, talking to an AI chatbot to help manage my other AI chatbots, while fighting three other bureaucracies at the same time. It took a while before I could zoom out and see the humor in it all.
I had to sit with it for a bit. Make the reports with deadlines attached. And rest before making my next move.
What I Actually Learned
I started this whole project because I was tired of navigating things alone. I want to use strategies that actually work to help support other parents.
I don’t regret building any of it. It was a genuine learning experience. I found my biggest breakthroughs in our own family struggle by learning to ask AI sharper, more specific questions myself. While researching and compiling the documents that became the backbone of this project, I learned a lot that directly helped our case.
I found out that when you are asking for something instead of just saying no to what is offered, you are treated better. It’s a slow process, and our situation is not perfect by any means; however, we have found doctors and school staff who care about our family and are finally working together to help our child. That is a totally different feeling then where we were three years ago.
So here’s the pivot
Instead of building another product with an API key that can get stolen, I packaged up the actual questions and way of using AI that can grow with whichever AI you use. You’re not locked into my app. You will own the lessons learned and will be free to apply them in other areas of your life.
And for those who don’t want anything to do with AI at all, I’m also working on a book, so you can build the confidence to think through your case yourself, instead of staying stuck without school or medical care. We know nothing will work every time. But taking steps in the right direction is still how things move forward, even if it goes super slow.
Turns out the most useful thing I built in the past few years wasn’t an app. It was a hard-won understanding of the system here and what resources we are entitled to. A confidence that comes from understanding your rights and not being afraid to ask for what you need.
The Skolnavi Method is what I created: 22 AI prompts that turn any AI chatbot you already use into a navigator for the school and medical system your child is stuck in. Get your copy today.