New platform provides guidance for retirees

A new artificial intelligence (AI) platform has launched to fill a gap that is persisting for retiring members seeking purpose in the retirement phase.

Purpose Again founder Colin Pudsey told Financial Standard he's launched the platform on a mission to help find "meaningful" contributions for those that are transitioning into different life stages, particularly retiring members.

Pudsey said he is currently seeking partnerships among different organisations and noted the implementation within super funds will complement the suite of initiatives currently available to its members.

"At the moment we are having multiple conversations with large retirement living communities, councils, departments within the government, and also a couple of super funds and companies that help manage employee benefits and that transition with workforce," Pudsey said.

"This would be appealing for all of them.

"It's about 'when' in a member's journey, that they start preparing for retirement or going through that retirement transition. I think that's where we could be valuable and have some meaningful partnerships."

Despite the involvement of AI, Pudsey highlighted the platform involves a "very personalised" component to understand an individual's life story before connecting them to where opportunities would fit based on their identity.

"[The opportunities] could be mentorship, volunteering at different community groups by taking them on a structured program for a number of weeks to build their confidence and prepare them for that role," he said.

"And the culmination of the program, we believe, is at any point in time we'll have 10,000 to 20,000 opportunities just in Australia alone around volunteering, mentorship... It's not a marketplace; it's not about punching in your profile and say, 'here are 10,000 opportunities to go and explore by yourself.'

"They are curated opportunities that would fit this person, and exactly why it would fit them in terms of their interests, strengths and experience."

The crucial differentiation is not AI, he said, noting the human aspect the platform provides will create great outcomes for users.

"For many people going through that journey, there's a lot of joy in that and a lot of self-discoveries... our goal is to marry the human aspect [within the offering] and the engagement comes from that," he said.

He also highlighted the offering can help ease a critical issue volunteer organisations face, with fewer people willing to commit to volunteer work on a longer-term basis.

"From early conversations with some partners, about 60% to 70% of volunteering opportunities are looking for people to commit for longer-term commitments," he said.

"There's quite a struggle to be able to find people to fulfill on the longer term, because a lot of the people who find the opportunities might be in a much younger cohort, and their objective is to do shorter term things.

"By turning to this cohort of people, who are seeking to contribute and volunteer in a meaningful way on a long-term basis, is a win-win for essentially for them and the organisations."