My wife first heard about LLMs this year

She's an engineer

What

she doesn't know anyone who has used one

How would she know if she's only just found out herself?

These things are heavily used in engineering

In addition, the tradesmen who have done work on our place lately have all been using AI. One took photos during quotation and used AI to show what it'll look like when they are done. One used it for invoicing. One used it to find the right parts. I'd argue your bubble in the world is an exception rather than the rule