Over more than a century of leadership in the food and beverage industry, The J.M Smucker Company has expanded its range of products to maintain its relevance and address market demand. Today, the company leads numerous categories, with beloved products like Jif, Milk-Bone, and Folgers, which are the top choices of millions of Americans. By growing and diversifying their brands over the decades, Smucker has successfully weathered major shifts in consumer habits and technology. Today, though, CPG companies are experiencing unprecedented disruption, and leaders at Smucker understand that the escalating pace of change will require more than just new products.

Geoff Tanner, Senior Vice President, Growth & Consumer Engagement at The J.M. Smucker Company recognized the need to identify new market opportunities and establish practices that put innovation and growth at the heart of their business. And he saw the potential to bring those goals to life through his relationship with IDEO.

WATCH: Balancing innovation and efficiency through design has helped Geoff Tanner, Senior Vice President, Growth & Consumer Engagement at The J.M. Smucker Company, brave the unfamiliar, transform organizations, and ultimately bring game-changing ideas to market faster.

Geoff has stewarded a close partnership with IDEO for over a decade and throughout roles at numerous organizations. Together, Geoff and IDEO have worked on 25 projects, beginning while Geoff was VP of Marketing at Big Heart Pet Brands, and continuing on throughout his career at The J.M. Smucker Company. By working with IDEO to adopt a design thinking approach, Geoff has enabled collaboration across teams and empowered his organizations to find new ways of working that result in measurable business impact. For The J.M. Smucker Company, the partnership has brought creativity and human-centered design to the forefront of its operations, strengthening its ability to bring new products and brands to market and create a pipeline of growth.

WATCH: The J.M. Smucker Company has shifted to embrace growth and innovation as a mindset throughout the organization to bring more consistency to the innovation process.

Looking to the past to creatively connect with the future

As an example of this, Geoff and The J.M. Smucker Company suggested to IDEO that they explore how Folgers, America’s leading at-home coffee brand, might resonate more deeply with a millennial audience. Design research revealed that the mindset of today’s millennial coffee drinkers aligned with Folgers entrepreneurial brand roots. The teams collaborated to create a new concept: a brand called 1850 and an end-to-end, go-to-market product experience, including packaging, retail, and merchandise. 1850 hit shelves in 2018 and has since been reported by IRI Advantage as the top launch in the Coffee Category for 2019.

Frankly, I don’t think innovation gets any easier. You just get a little more comfortable with the discomfort, and that’s when the work starts to get consistently better.

Geoff Tanner, Senior Vice President, Growth & Consumer Engagement, The J.M. Smucker Company

Creating an innovation pipeline that’s inspired by consumers’ needs

With 1850 underway, Geoff and The J.M. Smucker Company continued to invest in human-centered design to drive new offerings. The next collaboration with IDEO explored how Jif, the iconic peanut butter brand, could extend beyond the jar and become more readily accessible and appealing to busy parents who want to feel confident about the snacks they give their kids.

The design team was moved by the challenges that parents face: They want the best for their kids, but struggle to choose between what’s wholesome and what’s convenient on a daily basis. The ideal foods are filling, nutritious, and energizing, but often take more time to prepare and aren’t backpack or carpool-friendly. On the other hand, more convenient options tend to be full of empty carbs. Based on this insight, IDEO and Jif decided to tackle the snack-time parenting struggle. The IDEO and Jif teams worked side-by-side to prototype multiple product ideas and formats and tested them with on-the-go families to ultimately create Power Ups.

Available at over 200 retailers worldwide and online at Amazon, Jif Power Ups make wholesome, delicious grab-and-go snacking possible for kids and parents alike, across products ranging from Soft Baked Bars to Creamy Clusters, which are filled with peanut butter and rolled in whole grain oats. All are made with peanuts as the first ingredient and contain no high fructose corn syrup. Since going to market in 2018, Jif Power Ups has been named the top innovation launch in the Snack Bars category by IRI Market Advantage.

Design thinking underpins everything we do.

Geoff Tanner, Senior Vice President & Corporate Officer, Growth & Consumer Engagement, The J.M. Smucker Company

WATCH: The J.M. Smucker Company is on a transformational journey, committed to three pillars of growth: Lead in the best categories, build brands consumers love, and be everywhere.

The J.M. Smucker Company has experienced accelerated growth and speed to market by testing bold new ideas and evolving the role of innovation at the company. Design thinking and consumer empathy have permeated the organization’s new product development process, making it easier to uncover sharp, human-centered insights that lead to thoughtful and uniquely differentiated brands in a competitive, ever-shifting, and overcrowded industry. The work has fueled Geoff’s vision to inspire a culture of innovation at the company so that it can move at the speed of consumers and remain a best-in-class family of brands for future generations.

It’s a Thursday afternoon in Oakland, California. A line of lunchtime diners snakes out the door of dosa by DOSA. Upon entering, eaters are greeted by the smell of tangy dosa—a large paper-thin crepe made from a fermented batter of rice and lentils—and sweet, spicy chai. Turquoise chairs pop against a floor-to-ceiling mural by Oakland artist Namita Kapoor that transports diners to Chandni Chowk, one of the busiest markets in Old Delhi, as if enjoying their food at a local vendor.

In 2003, Emily and Anjan Mitra spent their honeymoon in India, savoring the street food of Anjan’s childhood in Mumbai (often still called Bombay). After returning to San Francisco, they found themselves longing for those distinctive flavors and dishes. Realizing that most Bay Area diners had never seen nor tasted these foods, Emily and Anjan founded DOSA, an upscale, full-service restaurant that introduced the Bay Area to Southern Indian cuisine. Locals came to try the unique, plant-forward dishes, and left with satisfied bellies and a broader understanding of Indian culture.

The entrepreneurs envisioned a brand extension of DOSA: a counter-service restaurant that could scale nationally. The hospitality venture, called dosa by DOSA, would offer healthful Indian street food made from local and seasonal ingredients. Emily and Anjan also set out to expand their existing product line-up—including cold lassi beverages, simmering sauces, and grab-and-go-meals—to national grocers and retailers and needed launch-ready packaging that was convenient, eye-catching, and environmentally-friendly. The new expression would enable consumers to experience dosa by DOSA and Southern India in a variety of forms and places. Emily and Anjan partnered with IDEO to establish a cohesive and consistent brand experience, from the restaurant and to-go meals to retail stores and mobile delivery.

In close partnership with the founders, their staff, Feldman Architecture and MPADA, IDEO set out to bring dosa by DOSA to life and help it scale through brand, environment, and experience design. This included creating everything from the logo and packaging to the menu and operations strategy, with each element tying back to the founders’ vision of sharing Indian heritage and traditions through cuisine.

The group began by seeking cultural inspiration for dosa by DOSA’s brand identity system—the logo, colors, values, fonts, and messaging—to guide future designs. They were inspired by Indian truck drivers who decorate their trucks with garlands, signs, or flags that engage other drivers or bring luck. The dosa by DOSA logo design and its wood-cut typeface are inspired by the dimensionality of this homespun art form, while the vibrant, eclectic colors reflect the streets and textures of urban Mumbai.

The goal of opening people’s minds to Indian cooking and culture extends to the packaging, which meets customers’ needs and playfully educates them. The food containers—made from recycled and compostable material—feature brightly patterned labels reminiscent of the trucks. Some have built-in compartments suited to multiple dipping chutneys, making it convenient to sample a variety of Indian flavors. Paper tray covers resembling Mumbai newspapers offer eating tips like “Be civilized. Eat with your hands,” encouraging diners to experience an Indian custom.

The vibrant brand comes to life across an array of packaging, including cold cups printed with the phrase “thanda thanda pani”—meaning “cold cold water”—which comes from a popular Indian parody of the Vanilla Ice song "Ice Ice Baby."

To design the diner experience and restaurant environment in a way that invites curiosity about the culture and cuisine, the team started with diners: They identified key moments in their experience like entering, waiting in line, and paying. The floor plan, furniture, lighting, signage, and menu were designed around these touchpoints. For example, while customers wait in line, they can watch dosa being prepared, as if they’re eager and hungry travelers awaiting street food.

The dosa by DOSA menu includes distinctive items like coconut kale mung bean salad and hot masala chai made with caramelized milk—the way Anjan’s mother prepared it. To help the restaurant scale, the team created a preliminary furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) budget, 3D renderings of the space, and an operations strategy for the founders and their employees.

The dosa by DOSA flagship launched in January 2018 in Oakland, California. The IDEO brand guidelines have enabled the dosa by DOSA team to independently and easily shepherd new product lines to market, including salads, wraps, curry bowls, samosas, and simmer sauces. The brand’s packaged food launched in over 200 natural food stores in 24 months—including over 100 Whole Foods locations—as well as online retailers and delivery services like Good Eggs and Caviar. These items and the restaurant have helped Emily and Anjan realize their vision of bringing the flavor and spirit of Southern Indian cuisine to new communities around the world.

In recent years, due to shifts in Japan’s demographics, the food industry has faced challenges such as a decrease in market size and a shrinking number of producers. As a result, social impact opportunities abound in this field.

When Japanese software company NJC (Nippon Jimuki Co. Ltd.) approached IDEO seeking to identify new business opportunities that would build on the company’s core strengths, the food and agriculture industry rose up as a promising area of focus.

NJC is a well-established software company that has spent over 50 years helping to build backend business systems for small to medium enterprises. NJC works across healthcare, retail, and food and beverage, computerizing core processes to support and improve operations.

In partnership with IDEO, NJC explored its strengths and potential as an organization, as well as the ideas and visions of the employees, and emerged with the goal of using their capabilities to address large-scale issues facing regional farmers.

During research across Japan, local growers described challenges with multi-layered supply chains and analog systems, which led to “overwork for minimal profit,” as well as a gap between supply and demand. Because agricultural wholesalers lacked clear information in advance on the status of crops or the volume to be harvested, they struggled to negotiate with buyers, which led to wasted food On the other hand, the farmers who grow the crops are engaged in manual labor, and do not always have the energy to focus on business aspects such as efficiency or the pursuit of increased profitability, which leads to a diminished interest in farming among young people.

One question that emerged through research was why agricultural producers weren’t utilizing IT. This evolved into “How can profitability be improved for all stakeholders?” and, “How might we create a system that will provide useful data without creating a burden for either farmers or agricultural wholesalers?”

The result was fudoloop.

fudoloop is an app that enables farmers and wholesalers to conduct business more profitably by bringing transparency to the fluctuating produce market. Through fudoloop, wholesalers receive information from farmers a day in advance, and can coordinate the various requests of buyers, such as order size, production location and other special requests. As a result, wholesalers can function as “community managers,” doing business with both producers and buyers at a more appropriate price point.

NJC aims for fudoloop to be the first step in a cycle that brings value to all stakeholders, from farmers to wholesalers, retailers and even customers, by redefining the “middleman” role of produce wholesalers.

The population of Tokyo’s metropolitan area is twice as big as New York, and the daily influx of workers from the suburbs increases that number sixfold. Congestion on trains traveling through the center of Tokyo during commuting hours is said to reach somewhere close to 200 percent of the trains’ capacity.

East Japan Railway Company (known as JR East) is the world’s largest railway company by revenue, operating 12,000 trains daily and serving 6.4 billion passengers per year.

In March 2014, JR East leveraged their extensive operations and passenger data to publish a consumer app that provided train location information, congestion status, air conditioning temperature, and wayfinding tools.

The app was downloaded more than 3.8 million times; however, its features and usability proved unsatisfactory to users. In an attempt to be comprehensive in addressing passenger needs, the app was weighed down with data and worked sluggishly. Competitors’ apps were named above JR East in customer satisfaction surveys, highlighting the company’s need to address the tool’s usability.

JR East’s Technical Division approached IDEO to help design an attractive and consistent user-centered experience through its digital ecosystem. With a team of interaction designers, they launched a project to create a new version of their app.

During the research phase, the IDEO team observed passengers’ behaviors and decision-making processes and noticed that people were using several apps at once to get more personalized and complete information.

The team created a set of paper-based prototypes to test how users would react to various functionalities. Surprisingly, users ranked versions with limited functionalities higher than those with a broad range of features.

This insight informed a new prototype that enabled a customized user experience based on traveler needs. Wayfinding proved to be the most frequently selected feature, so the new app was designed around helping passenger navigate during their trips.

Although JR East had traditionally outsourced their app development, IDEO encouraged them to organize their own internal team. In cooperation with Pivotal—a frequent IDEO partner familiar with human-centered approaches—the internal team was trained in agile development and built the new app themselves. A prototype was released in November 2017 as “Go! by Train.” It was so successful in the market that the earlier JR East app was replaced entirely with the content of the new design.

JR East's internal development team was recognized by the company for their exceptional output, and will be integral to the company's human-centered digital transformation going forward.

When we're dreaming up futures, we often overlook the very human challenges that such futures might present. But we need to remember, it's us people living there, muddling through the everyday problems that future tech will inevitably toss our way.

This holds true even when our future is projected into outer space.

In October 2021, a rocket engineer from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) joined IDEO Tokyo for a month-long "cross-border study program”. This resulted in exploring the intriguing intersection of human-centered design and space exploration. The question at hand: what would space travel feel like when it's no longer just for astronauts but for the rest of us?

This posed a unique challenge: to reimagine space travel with a human touch, crafting an enjoyable experience for everyone, regardless of their physical abilities or cultural backgrounds.

Crafting the Future User Journey

At IDEO, we value creating new experiences by empathizing with users. But with space travel, we're dealing with a unique situation—the user may still be beyond our reach.

To envision the future of space travel in the most comprehensive manner, we leaned into expert interviews. These dialogues with specialists in various fields provided invaluable insights for designing future experiences and services.

We discovered from spacecraft engineers the mental and physical challenges astronauts face. An Experience Designer from IDEO's PlayLab further provided tips on how to craft experiences that preemptively mitigate discomfort.

What dawned on us was that space travel isn't just about the Overview Effect. It starts way before hitting the 'Book Now' button and lasts way after you're back on Mother Earth.

Experiencing the Future

In our quest to enhance empathy, we devised a method to immerse ourselves in the user's world, to get under their skin and understand their experiences more intuitively. At IDEO, we call this the Empathy Exercise. As Bill Moggridge, one of the founders of IDEO and a product designer, succinctly put it, "The only way to experience an experience is to experience it." So, we thought, why not bring a taste of space right here on Earth? Thus, our makeshift 'space camp' was born, where we mimicked the space traveler's journey under as-real-as-it-gets conditions.

Our space camp menu? Only freeze-dried food to be rehydrated with hot water, akin to space cuisine. We rationed water, limiting each participant to 3.5L per day for cooking, drinking, and freshening up—just like on the International Space Station.

We even simulated the trials of toilet use in space. You see, in a spaceship, you've got to don diapers or use a wall-mounted toilet while other passengers are just a step away. During the camp, we used portable toilets for urination. For the other, ahem, business, we had a two-person arrangement in a private room: one person turns a blind eye while the other does their thing.

While it may sound like a game at first, spending a whole day under these restrictions opened our eyes to various insights. For instance, the novelty of freeze-dried meals wore off after the first few bites. Eating straight from the package or ziplock bag was not only visually uninspiring but also cumbersome. So, we started getting creative with the packaging from the second meal onwards to make the food more palatable.

The bathroom experience was another big takeaway. In our daily grind, the loo is a private space, a welcome escape from the hustle and bustle. But in a cramped spaceship with no privacy, it's quite the stress-fest to hurry up to spare the waiting person and to keep any, well, olfactory offenses at bay.

Writing a 'One-Star Review' for Future Experiences

Our research revealed a number of human-centric problems hidden in space travel. To share these findings, we created a fictional news program from the future, featuring 'one-star reviews' penned by space travelers.

These fictional viral tweets aren't just complaints, but a launchpad for designing more enticing space travel experiences. By forecasting the everyday snags of a future where space travel is as common as a trip to Hawaii, we're one step closer to engineering a genuinely otherworldly experience.

Creating the Design Principles for the Future

Once challenges were identified, the impulse to dive straight into problem-solving was strong. However, at IDEO, we use 'Design Principles' to maintain our focus on the user's perspective.

For instance, our experience designer highlighted the need for psychological safety within a spaceship. Building trustful relationships is crucial for everyone to fully engage in the experience during space travel, where varied groups share a confined space.

We also learned from former astronaut Naoko Yamazaki about the value of fostering creativity. Space, free from gravity and conventional rules, allows for the redesign of norms. Rather than preparing all experiences in advance, we found that leaving room for travelers to create their own unique enjoyment might lead to more memorable journeys.

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Ultimately, we crafted five core design principles, each considering various perspectives from physical fitness preparations for the journey to designing an inclusive spacecraft interior. As we begin to design concrete concepts, these principles serve as our compass, enabling us to continually envision a future of space travel that is fundamentally human-centric.

In these uncertain times, we must remember the people are always at the heart of our evolving narrative. As we dream, our focus should extend beyond technology to include the everyday challenges it brings along.

With a touch of creativity and a playful mindset, let's 'experience' this future together. The secret to a brighter tomorrow might well be hidden in the most mundane problems.

Learn more about the project at spacetravel.ideo.com. (Japanese Only)

Once, Frederik Pohl, famed science fiction author, left us pondering a nugget of wisdom: A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.

Earlier this year,  Snapchat introduced My AI, a relentlessly cheerful chatbot powered by OpenAI’s GPT technology. The avatar, pinned to the top of your chat feed, was ready to respond to every passing thought, be your 24/7 rant buddy, or even…your new best friend.

You might imagine that Gen Z, cradled by the arms of technology from their earliest friendships found on Club Penguin or Minecraft, would welcome My AI. After all, this is a generation for whom dating starts with the subtle “like” of a post or in the DMs of a swiped-up Instagram story.

But in a surprising twist, Snap’s chatbot was an instant flop, resulting in a spike of 1-star reviews.

That tracks with the responses of the 13- to 21-year-olds we spoke to, all of whom voiced a resounding “no” to the idea of AI infringing upon their relationships. Rather than forming attachments to the programmed responses of AI, they are interested in cultivating genuine bonds with others that don’t require an algorithmic intermediary.

“How does this change our expectations of real life people?” asked one 19-year-old. “I feel like that could be super problematic for friendships because you're like, oh, I just want this person to be different. Why can't they talk like this? Why do they laugh like this? Why can't they understand this? Why don't they know everything about me? Why can't they read my mind?”

Young people already feel the damage social media has had on their relationships and mental health. And they're wary that AI will interfere with the relationships they’re just learning to foster.

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Meanwhile, brands are in an arms race to create AI companions and AI clones that can be integrated into products and services. But when our team put a series of hypothetical Gen AI-powered relationship products in front of a group of young people, they balked and even expressed discomfort. They want technology that augments human relationships, not bots that replace them.

These insights led to three principles that we’re using as guideposts as we design this space.

1️⃣ Skip the engineered reality; reflect authenticity

Perfect, personalized AI bots might breed dissatisfaction with flawed human friends. Plus, they’re just plain spooky. Gen Zs told us they would prefer tools designed to help them embrace the imperfections of relationships and help them navigate. “I don't like the idea of being able to mold someone,” one respondent told us. “One of the teachings that I feel is super valuable in my life is acceptance and being able to go, okay, this is where I can meet this person.” Wary of social peacocking, face filters, and all the doctored images of social media, they feel AI friends would only further the fakery they’re actively trying to undo.

2️⃣ Elevate human intuition and empathy

There is a real concern that an over-reliance on AI could cause people to lose touch with their intuition. Gen Zers know that awkward moments with others—conflicts with friends, job interviews, even a bad vacation—are part of the human handshake. “Relationships are about you learning as you go,” another respondent said. “You're not going to learn how to resolve conflict by yourself, you're not going to learn how it feels to be lonely and push yourself to go meet people.” At the same time, they’d gladly accept help with maintaining friendships. A personal coach that could suggest activities or check calendars for times when you’re both free? Sure. Relationship advice? Bring it on. Perfectly streamlined interactions? No thanks.

3️⃣ Build in transparency to gain trust

The people we chatted with were concerned about AI accessing their conversations. “There's a lot of personal things that my friends and I talk about. And I wouldn't just want a third party listener all up in the mix or storing photos or information. I wouldn't want to feel like it knows my whole life.” They want to know how much listening AI is doing, and how their data will be used by the companies that create it. They’re concerned about the racism that has surfaced, and how a system that reflects human bias might shape their perceptions of their own identity and the world. The concern is well-founded, and presents an opportunity for companies to be transparent about the information they collect and use to improve AI models, and mitigate unintended consequences.

Snapchat's My AI and the host of potential AI-powered relationship products may seem attractive, promising the allure of companionship and understanding. Yet, this generation, while tech savvy, recognizes the value of genuine, organic human connections. The charm of flawlessly crafted bots pales against the nuanced, idiosyncratic, tender core of human interactions.

The next generation has opinions about what we build, and their message is clear: AI is welcome to augment, enhance, and support, but when it comes to forging meaningful relationships, humans must remain at the helm. It’s a potent reminder that while technology shapes our world in novel ways and companies vie to be first to market, the essence of humanity—the value of mutual understanding, the beauty of our imperfection, and the need for companionship without a whiff of profit motive—should never be sidelined.

As we step into a future where AI is integrated into every experience, let’s remember that the best guides are our own instincts, not a bot trained on reading the internet. The collective wisdom of Gen Z might just be the compass we need.

Is your organization interested in designing more human-centered AI experiences? Let’s talk.

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If you've missed Parts One and Two of our Gen Z + Gen AI series, you can catch up here and here.

AI helped you with your final paper and made your workout plan—why not have it help resolve a conflict between you and your friends, or help you pick your career?

Because that’s where artificial intelligence crosses the line from innocuous to intrusive—at least for the group of 13- to 21-year-olds with whom we spoke. To better understand how the next generation will respond to a new wave of AI products, services, and experiences coming online, we prototyped hypothetical apps to elicit feedback. “AI Passion Coach” for one, is a guide that identifies your skills and makes suggestions for how and where to apply them. That didn’t go over so well. “I’m all for AI helping me find the most optimal way to learn once I know what my passion is,” a college freshman told us, “but finding a passion for me? Not so much.”

After sharing six concepts, we came away with some strong hunches about how this cohort wants to show up in the world—both in person and digitally. They’re not looking for products that can be creative for them, they want tools that help them be creative themselves—a subtle but important difference.

Just as digital maps have ruined our collective sense of direction, Gen Z fears that the generative AI’s shortcuts and automations may diminish their ability to form their own identity.

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As one 19 year-old explained, “It's so much more valuable when you experience and learn something yourself versus being told it.”

Several feedback sessions on AI Passion Coach, along with two other hypothetical concepts: AI Venture Accelerator, a creative co-founder that helps you bring your idea to life, and AI Muse, an idea generator that accelerates your creative pursuits, yielded insights from which we drew three design principles for creating products and services that are more aligned with what young people want. If your business is integrating generative AI, consider these guidelines:

1️⃣ Use AI to Scaffold the Creative Process

The Gen Zs we talked to don’t want to be handed the answer. They want to develop the capabilities to create something of their own. “I think there's a line where AI can provide the groundwork and help be a resource, but then we get to choose what we do with it from there,” one 19-year-old said. Exploration, experimentation, and reflection are important parts of the creative process that young people don’t want to see stripped away.

To align with that desire, companies can create AI services that help users discover and learn why and how something is created. Those aged 12 to 25 told us over and over again that being able to adjust their level of input, and add their own vibe was very important to expressing who they are.

2️⃣ Lower the Barriers to Entry

This cohort recognizes that there are tactical skill sets that they and others may not have access to. They welcome AI opening up opportunities for those who may have great ideas, but lack the knowhow to execute them. “I’ve been working on developing an app for sustainability. I can't code, and I don't know how to make an app, but I had the idea and wanted to make it real,” a college freshman shared with us. Instead of removing humans from the equation, companies could leverage AI to help users jumpstart their ideas and offer access to the resources and knowledge necessary to turn those ideas into reality.

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3️⃣ Connect Creative Communities

Gen Zs find a sense of belonging and community through creative pursuits and look for those who share similar interests. “I feel like the beauty in creating things is definitely the insights I'm getting from other people,” said a 19-year-old entrepreneur. Just as mobile phones consume our attention, they suspect that other emergent technologies will isolate people and put optimization and productivity above the slower process of sharing ideas. “You achieve things more quickly,” said a 20-year-old student, “but you're lacking the relationships that you build over time when trying to achieve those things together.” For companies looking to augment human creativity, this presents an opportunity. Instead of being a generator of machine-made solutions, AI can be a facilitator of human collaboration, allowing people to share tips, learn from diverse experiences, and build community.

As generative AI upends the way humans work, there’s a lesson to glean from this research. Generative AI’s omniscience and ability to generate staggering creative output almost instantaneously is undeniably seductive. But the fundamental values that we cherish—our creative agency, our ability to actualize new ideas, and our need to bond with others through collaborative work—are all key to the successful adoption of the AI products and services of the future.

These principles are a good starting point for how to innovate wisely with human needs in mind. In Part III of this series, we will dive into how AI might impact the next generation’s relationships and mental wellbeing.

Missed Part One of our Gen Z + Gen AI series? Head here.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume, then, that those between the ages of 12 and 25 would glom onto everything generative AI.

But that’s not what we found.

IDEO embarked on a data-driven approach paired with qualitative research with a group of Gen Zs, asking them what they think about the AI that so many companies are rushing to fold into new and existing products. The findings immediately challenged many of the prevailing assumptions about Gen Z.

As companies begin to leverage AI to power everything from art and music generators to dating apps, and even personal companions, it’s imperative that we understand how people will respond. This is a group that has already weathered the consequences of untested technology thrust upon them during their formative years (hello, social media), and it’s only fair that they have a say in shaping the next generation of technology and determining what aligns with their needs, and what disrupts their core values.

“I love being deeply connected to my intuition,” one 19-year-old told us. “And I feel like this technology can truly interfere with that and be super invasive to our natural rhythm and flow and trusting ourselves.”

To uncover ways we can responsibly design and innovate for their needs, we launched a stream of research into how to design AI for future generations.

Our interdisciplinary team—which includes members of this cohort—began with a quantitative approach, following conversations on AI on TikTok, meticulously analyzing hashtags, video topics, and comments.

What emerged was a strong consensus—AI is a helpful tool for boosting productivity and efficiency, particularly for school (help with homework), career development (writing a resume or cover letter), and daily routines (workouts or meal plans).

But we also discovered a profound ambivalence and much debate regarding the role AI should play in three specific domains: creative expression, human relationships, and mental wellbeing. What was striking is that these pillars are fundamental to identity formation and self-perception—integral parts of the coming-of-age experience that have already been significantly shaped by social media and the pandemic.

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To dig deeper into this dichotomy, we created six sacrificial concepts—hypothetical AI products and services of the future.

1. AI Venture Accelerator: A creative co-founder that helps you bring your idea to life
2. AI Passion Coach: A guide that identifies your skills and makes suggestions for how and where to apply them
3. AI Muse: An generator of inspirational ideas that accelerate your creative pursuits
4. Our AI Friend: A bot that helps your friend group interact and connect
5. New AI, New Me: An avatar trained on your preferences that has experiences for you
6. Build a FrAInd: Your ideal bestie come to life, based on celebs and influencers you love

We presented the concepts to 12 young people, aged 13 to 21, encompassing varied life experiences and levels of familiarity with AI. Together, we delved into what really matters to them, unearthing their desires and concerns about the technology that will influence their future.

The insights we gleaned made us check our assumptions. The participants expressed a yearning for opportunities to learn through relationships, to try new things, and to embrace failure as part of their growth. They voiced concern about how AI companions might influence their expectations of genuine and complicated humans.

“You might start comparing your simulated friend with your real friends,” said one 20-year-old student. “And then start noticing all the flaws in your real friends, which might start damaging your relationships.”

Another participant pondered the consequences of a tool that eradicated mistakes or smoothed over challenges, as it would create an all-too-perfect reality. They viewed these experiences as essential components of life itself, stressing, “Let us figure out our challenges, let us work through things and have those emotions. Give us tools that could aid us along the way, or work on it, but let us have that experience because I think we need it.”

“Let us figure out our challenges, let us work through things and have those emotions.”

The lessons imparted by this cohort defy the prevailing technology-centric mindset and challenge the stereotypes slapped onto Gen Z.

As builders of AI products, we believe we must always return to people. We're not suggesting we press pause on exploring novel ways to integrate emerging technologies into our systems. But let's check our assumptions, consider the unintended consequences, and design AI for future generations with care and intention. Failing to do so risks making costly bets on products, services, and experiences that will fail outright. Or worse, creating new problems.

Look out for the second part of this series, where we’ll share innovation principles for AI that will help organizations leverage the power of design to learn, understand, and build not just for young people, but with them.

Screenagers. Digital natives. The TikTok generation. It's hard to find an epithet for those born between the mid 1990s and early 2010s—aka Gen Z—that doesn’t call out a dependency on technology.

I help organizations cut through complexity by shaping how they show up, through brand strategy, identity, and storytelling.

Working at the intersection of brand and business, I bring an editorial eye and a bias toward making—turning ideas into tangible experiences that people can understand, trust, and believe in.

My work spans government, healthcare, financial services, media, and consumer goods, from launching Gen Z-focused ventures to building innovation labs and reimagining legacy brands. I relish moments of ambiguity and enjoy translating across teams, perspectives, and priorities to move ideas forward.

I started my career in editorial and digital design, shaping cross-platform experiences and identity systems in publishing and agency environments. That foundation still shapes how I work today: I’m detail-oriented, collaborative, and overreliant on the Oxford comma. I hold a BFA in Visual Communication from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

For 25 years, I've asked the same question: Who does this design exclude—and what are we going to do about it?

My work spans human-centered strategy, inclusive design, and qualitative research, with clients ranging from Microsoft, Google, and Verizon to the National Science Foundation, and San Francisco Unified School District.

Before IDEO, I taught elementary school in East Palo Alto and spent a decade doing design work with social service organizations—where I learned firsthand what it costs people when systems are built without them in mind.

I am currently writing User Error, a nonfiction book about digital access and the design decisions behind it. I live in Oakland, California.

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My expertise spans brand, communication, and product design across tech, education, the arts, and social impact.

I believe great work demands both high-level vision and obsessive attention to detail, and only happens through collaboration.

I bring an inclusive, hands-on approach and a deep understanding of business, which enables me to consistently deliver excellence while always asking why.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at the brand firms Pentagram and VSA Partners. I began my career as a designer, leading teams at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Milwaukee Art Museum. I hold an MFA in graphic design from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA in communication design from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, and have taught at some of the best design schools in the US.

I am responsible for IDEO’s long-term success in China and working with clients to use design as a tool to enable growth. Specifically, I have helped Chinese companies design holistic brand solutions through the development of their products, communication, services, and innovation teams, and I have helped multinationals expand their presence and influence in China.

I advise global leaders on developing China-led innovation and capabilities.

In over 15 years in IDEO Shanghai, I have worked on projects that use design to elevate the quality of the experience of healthcare products and services, streamline processes that increase productivity, create spaces and programs that promote and enable inclusive communities, and build next generation mobility solutions that are planet-positive.

Before joining IDEO, I worked at Philips Electronics and the Electrolux Group in Italy, the Netherlands, and Singapore on a number of breakthrough commercial products. I am a member of the Young President Organization in Shanghai.