From Future Self to Present Action
Designing Conversational AI for Identity-Based Motivation
The project explored how a conversational AI that role-plays a student's 'future self' can support difficult career decisions by making long-term goals feel psychologically closer and more concrete.
The students designed a chatbot grounded in Identity-Based Motivation theory that first recommends career directions and then adopts the voice of the user's 10-years-older self. Using a Design Science approach, they tested different conversational features and showed that reflective, personalised dialogues increased future-self continuity and boosted students' motivation and confidence in their career choices, while transcript analysis revealed clear design guidelines for the next iteration.