About Me

Karen Ferguson is the founder of MindMotive AI, where she develops Digital Partners designed for specific purposes. Otto, built to help people make sense of situations, relationships and decisions at the point they need to, is one of them.

She has worked as a therapist for 26 years, as a hypnotherapist since 2000 and later as a counsellor, and for nearly 20 of those years as a trainer and supervisor. She has trained more than 1,000 therapists. Much of her work has been with people who appeared to be managing well while carrying a great deal underneath.

Over time, it raised a question about the limits of one-to-one support. What happens to everyone it never reaches? Support that depends on an appointment arrives at a fixed hour rather than the difficult one. Support that costs by the session is out of reach for many people entirely. And a considerable number of people will never choose to sit down with a stranger at all, for reasons that are their own and rarely change with persuasion.

MindMotive AI was built in response to that gap.

MindMotive AI’s Digital Partners are conversational AI, each designed around a defined purpose rather than general conversation. They give people a structured, consistent way to engage with whatever is on their mind, privately and at the point it matters. Every aspect of how they behave is deliberate: what they hold onto, what they question rather than simply accept, how they respond when conversations become difficult, and where their boundaries sit. Those decisions come from 26 years of practice, not from whatever the underlying technology does by default.

Some MindMotive AI Digital Partners are designed for specific areas, such as relationships or confidence and resilience. Otto is broader because most people don’t arrive already knowing which category their situation belongs in. Organisations also use MindMotive AI Digital Partners as a consistent form of support at scale.

Karen is a Fellow of the ACCPH (Accredited Counsellors, Coaches, Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapists).