Abstract

The Journey from Consumer to Investor: Designing a Financial AI Companion for Young Adults to Help With Sustainable Shopping, Saving, and Investing

The emerging field of Planetary Health recognizes profound interconnections between our economic behaviors, ecosystem services (water, air, soil), the climate crisis, and human health. In essence, how we use money to interact with companies - through shopping, or saving and investing - impacts the life-supporting biosphere we depend on. From an ecological perspective, every financial action is either an investment to support more environmentally-friendly companies - or to support polluters.

In Taiwan, college students genuinely care about environmental issues, yet seen through the lens of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) their attitudes alone are not enough: they also need reinforcing social norms and a sense of behavioural control. European Union initiatives such as digital product passports (DPPs) have the potential to supply those missing pieces, giving students a common data-driven benchmark (norms) and arming each person with sustainability facts at the moment of choice (control).

In my inquiry, I leveraged design research to find design concepts for simple AI-based generative user interfaces to help young adults participate in sustainable financial actions. Throughout the process, I conducted a survey of over 900 students from 20 universities across Taiwan, in-person user testing with 30 participants, and 7 expert interviews. The major contribution of the study is an interactive AI-companion prototype.

Keywords: Human-AI Interaction, Digital Sustainability, Transparency