Echo

Echo helps people recognize how AI influences their decisions by comparing their original opinions with AI perspectives, then revealing patterns in confidence, reasoning, and judgment over time.

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Echo

Inspiration

Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday life. Whether we're asking AI for advice, brainstorming ideas, or making important decisions, its influence is growing rapidly. We began to wonder: How much does AI actually change the way we think? While most AI tools focus on providing answers, very few encourage users to reflect on how those answers shape their own opinions.

That question inspired Echo—an application designed to help people recognize AI's influence on their decision-making rather than simply relying on it.

What it does

Echo presents users with thought-provoking scenarios involving ethics, technology, education, and society.

For each scenario, users:

  1. Respond with their own opinion.
  2. Rate how confident they are in their answer.
  3. View an AI-generated perspective with its reasoning.
  4. Revisit their original response.
  5. Compare how their opinion and confidence changed.

Over time, Echo builds a personalized profile showing patterns in decision-making, confidence, and AI influence. Rather than telling users what to think, Echo encourages them to become more aware of how they think.

How we built it

Echo was built entirely in Visual Studio Code using:

  • React
  • Vite
  • JavaScript
  • CSS
  • HTML
  • Local Storage

Because we wanted the application to work completely offline, all user progress, responses, and analytics are stored locally using the browser's Local Storage. This eliminated the need for databases or external APIs while keeping the experience fast and private.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was designing an experience that encourages reflection instead of simply presenting AI-generated answers. We wanted users to engage critically with AI rather than accept its suggestions at face value.

Another challenge was organizing and tracking user decisions over time. Building meaningful analytics from locally stored data required careful planning to ensure progress remained consistent across sessions without relying on a backend.

Finally, creating an intuitive interface that guides users through multiple rounds of decision-making while keeping the experience engaging required several iterations of UI and interaction design.

What we learned

Building Echo taught us that AI products can be designed to promote self-awareness instead of replacing human judgment.

We also gained valuable experience with:

  • Building scalable React applications
  • Managing application state
  • Designing user-centered interfaces
  • Structuring long-term data using Local Storage
  • Creating meaningful visualizations from user interactions

Most importantly, we learned that some of the most impactful AI applications aren't the ones that provide the smartest answers—they're the ones that help people become more thoughtful decision-makers.

What's next for Echo

We're excited to expand Echo with:

  • More real-world decision scenarios
  • Personalized insights powered by machine learning
  • Collaborative discussions that compare anonymous decision patterns
  • Educational versions for classrooms
  • Long-term trend analysis showing how users' thinking evolves over months or years

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life, we hope Echo can help people remain intentional, reflective, and confident in their own decision-making.

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