Hey, Product Hunters! Kayla here, one of the makers of MOTI AI.
Firstly, a big thanks to @nireyal for hunting us! We use a lot of his behavioral models and methodologies considering that MOTI is a company all about helping people build better habits!
Believe it or not the story of MOTI AI begins with hardware...
About two years ago, we started developing the first MOTI product - a tabletop companion (think physical bot) that would provide you with the emotional support and environmental cues for your habit. He’d learn the right amounts of negative reinforcement vs. positive, know when to send the right types of reminders, and is purposefully (and scientifically) adorable.
But let’s face it - hardware is slow!
We recently realized that we wanted to create something that could be released a lot faster — and specifically in time for New Year’s resolutions. So we’ve now taken the last two years of habit learnings (quite literally thousands of user touch points) as well as the latest insights in behavioral science to create something that goes deeper than your run-of-the-mill habit app.
So, here’s how MOTI AI works:
1. Chat with MOTI AI a bit about your habit goals. Here is where you’ll be guided to pare down your habit into something small, distinct, and actionable - and commit to it right then and there. Basically all the best practices you may be familiar with if you’re a Power of Habit nerd (like I am).
Not to mention, plenty of corgi GIFs interspersed!
2. This is where things start to get interesting.
In the next segment of the chat, MOTI AI will start to ask you probing questions to get at your level of underlying motivation. This is also where MOTI will see what area of habit formation you need to focus on for this particular habit - the cue, the routine, the reward, or accountability.
3. The last part of the chat is then looking at your motivational persona. Are you more motivated by fear? empathy? guilt? hope? This part is heavily based on our user learnings with physical MOTI, and it affects how you set up your accountability structures, either internally or externally.
4. Finally, MOTI AI analyzes your conversation and compiles it into you own customized Motivational Profile. Think a light version of Myers-Briggs for habit formation, made just for you.
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TL/DR: MOTI AI asks you probing questions in a fun, personable way, helps you define your habit, then analyzes your motivation level, habit focus area, and motivational persona. Also, funny GIFs to reward you along the way.
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I truly hope that you guys like what we’ve put together! This is certainly still in open “beta” mode, so I welcome all comments and suggestions as we release what we like to call the Jarvis of the habit world to you. Many thanks!
P.S. I also love answering questions about habit formation, so if you want any advice, just ask!
Habit forming products will be the next generation of self help books - the thing is, they're often tied to digital cues that require users to be on-all-the-time. That leads to a self selection of a small group of early adopters, but often makes it tough to get into the mainstream... The magic is to create the lure that Snapchat/Instagram has - and apply it to self-betterment...I'll give MOTI AI a chance, but it's a hard problem to solve!
I would love to test it but my Brazilian credit card was not accepted. Any chances of a payment system integrated with PayPal? Could I pay directly to one of the team members though PayPal and you activate my account manually?
@ignacy_wilczynski That's a great idea! We'll look into what a free trial might look like.
One thing to note - this isn't a recurring subscription sort of thing, it's a one-time purchase that runs out after a month. You'll likely only going through the process once per habit unless something changes.
Re: your question about how it differs from similar apps - see the (probably too) long post I just made explaining how it works.
The short version: we're giving you a highly-customized motivational profile at the end. It's also not just relying on you to set up the habits in the right way - we guide you step-by-step in the best practices from behavioral science.
If you know of any apps that do this as well, I'd love to hear about them!
Hey, @lewi3bib! Right now, we tell you your primary and secondary personas. These are categorized by if you're motivated more by: guilt, hope, fear, or empathy.
MOTI