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Johannes Seemann had the idea for a financial planning tool built around someone's relationship with money years before he had a way to build it. 

Then GenAI came along, and the idea finally seemed possible. But the models kept smoothing away the exact complexity he needed them to hold. 

In this conversation, IDEO's Becca Carroll talks to Johannes about taking a human-centered AI design approach, the technical challenges he's wrestling with, and why he made sure he had the right problem before he ever went looking for the technology to solve it.

If you're building something with AI right now (or thinking about it), you’ll find advice and insights you can apply to your work. 

Becca's Take

"Decisions have historically been really hard to make, and feeling equipped to make them has felt like a huge lift. But maybe the opportunity isn't to automate the decision that was hard to make—it's to make that decision easy enough to make that it can be representative of you."

— Becca Carroll, guest host and IDEO's Chief Strategy Officer (Follow Becca on LinkedIn)

Highlights From the Conversation

[13:41] She'd paid off her house and built real savings. Then a friend from the gym recommended a stock. She invested and lost $25,000. Johannes explains why this story convinced him money problems are rarely about math.

[15:55] Why would someone tell a chatbot what they'd never admit to a financial advisor? Johannes noticed something shifting in late 2024 that paved the way for what he was building.

[28:52] If someone sees themselves as frugal, they'll act like it whether or not it's the smart financial move. Johannes breaks down why identity, not logic, is usually the real force behind how people spend money.

Put It Into Practice

Chase the problem, not the technology.
If a new tool excites you, go experiment with it—that's how you learn what it's capable of. But before you build an AI product, make sure you're solving an actual human need. It's easy to confuse "this is possible" with "this is worth building."

Read the blog post for more practical takeaways →

The Bigger Picture

AI adoption is outpacing trust

55% of Americans now use AI to help manage their personal finances—up from just 10% a year earlier. Yet only 18% would trust AI to make a financial recommendation entirely on its own, even though 78% report using AI tools daily. Source: TD Bank, 2026 U.S. AI Insights Report

Human-centered behavior drives revenue

Companies that score in the top 20% on IDEO's five human-centered "POWER" behaviors report nearly 3x the revenue growth and ~2x the customer growth of companies in the bottom 20%. Source: IDEO Innovation Quotient (IDEO IQ) 2026 report 

Americans still go to friends for money advice

43% of U.S. adults say they turn to friends and family as the top source of financial advice, followed by a financial adviser or planner at 41%. Source: Gallup, "Americans Still Turn to People for Financial Advice," May 2025

The solo-founder surge

Solo-founder business applications are up 20%+ since early 2025, and nearly half of that growth is concentrated in high-AI-adoption industries, including finance. Source: Nasdaq Economic Institute, via Axios, June 2026

Coming Up Next

The second half of our Startups-in-Residence series drops next: Sida Li, co-founder and CEO of Shared Context Lab, on building Cue, a personal AI that lives inside your text messages and group chats.

Then IDEO's Ed White joins us to talk creative storytelling with AI.

Related Episodes

AI Tools for Researchers, Patterns vs. Insights, and When to Trust AI Output: Q&A with Angela Kochoska 

How to Use AI For More Human-Centered Research: Hannah Rosenfeld 

How to Build a Better Business Through Design: Amy Bonsall & Kerry O’Connor

Ready to Go Deeper?

AI x Design Thinking Certificate — Learn design thinking with AI woven in at every step.

Designing a Business course — Make your idea desirable, viable, and feasible to build.

"It's okay not knowing exactly what you want to be. Trust yourself and the skills and the interests that you have." 

— Johannes Seemann

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