Executive Interview: How to Train Kin Quickly and Effectively, with Yngvi Karlson

Kin works best with a working knowledge of its user—we sat down with Kin co-founder Yngvi Karlson to learn how best to build that quickly

A common criticism of personal AI tools like Kin is that it can take too long to teach them everything they need to know to be effective digital support systems.

That’s why, in a recent conversation with Kin co-founder Yngvi Karlson, we explored the crucial questions of not only what Kin needs to know about its users to provide personalized support—but how to provide it quickly.

The following is a breakdown of that discussion, so anyone can train their Kin quickly and effectively.

What is Important for Kin to Know at First? Why?

Your Circles

"The most important thing for Kin is understanding who you and your circle are," Karlson explained." This means knowing not just your immediate connections, but understanding the dynamics of your relationships."

Karlson broke this down into several key spheres of influence.

The Professional Circle

"My professional circle at Kin,” said Karlson, “includes my co-founders, Casper and Simon, along with my team members, like Rochella and Leon. I also work with cross-functional team members, like Clara. All of them are key stakeholders I interact with regularly."

The Personal Circle

Next, Karlson covered his personal circle. "I've told Kin about friends like Daniel, who's also an investor in Kin, and Morton, with whom I enjoy political debates. I actually use Kin to prepare for those discussions because Morton's a tough one to debate—in a fun way, of course. We steelman each other's arguments, so I need to be well-prepared on the facts."

He also noted that Kin is aware of his immediate family, and their daily routines (more on routines in a minute).

Circles Overlap

Interestingly, Karlson has found these relationships often overlap—and it’s important for Kin to know that. "Some of my business relationships bridge multiple contexts," Karlson said. "For instance, my friend Thor is both a business partner and a board member at Kin. Similarly, my wife Sabina is the managing partner of Studio Mofa, where we collaborate with Thor on brand design and website development."

If Kin didn’t know about this overlap, it wouldn’t properly understand the issues and context within those relationships, and would find it harder to provide accurate and useful advice about the importance of honesty within them, among other things.

So, circles are the first thing Kin needs to know. What’s next?

Your Patterns and Preferences

Beyond relationships, Karlson emphasized the importance of sharing your day-to-day likes, dislikes, and habits.

Your Daily Routine

"Kin needs to know your around-the-clock activities," he said. "This includes sleeping habits, eating preferences, and social inclinations. For example, I never eat lunch when working, and I don't do breakfast either—just a health supplement. I also don't enjoy small talk during work hours, and prefer social events in the evenings."

How does this help Kin? If Kin knows how you live, it knows what is out of the ordinary for you—and can also work out what habits might be damaging. All of it allows it to provide the time management support and suggestions you want it to.

Your Work Style

Work patterns are equally crucial. "I do my best work from 5 AM to 9 AM because that's when others aren't expecting responses," Karlson explained. "Working when others don't expect you to work gives you freedom. If you go off on a tangent in the wrong direction, it doesn't matter—nobody's looking anyway.”

“I prefer doing this in the mornings rather than evenings when I have the most energy." And it’s important that Kin knows this too—otherwise, it might suggest daily plans and work sessions that don’t fit your preferences, or ruin your work-life balance.

Your Weekly Structure

Karlson maintains a structured weekly schedule that helps Kin understand his availability.

"Mondays, I leave around 7:30 or 8AM, dropping one child at kindergarten, working until 5 or 5:30PM. Tuesdays, I'm out by 7 AM but pick up both kids around 4 PM. Wednesdays are my work-from-home days, often including a run or sauna. Thursdays, I handle both kids in the morning while my wife leaves early, and I return later. Fridays, I leave early but pick up the kids together with my wife, followed by our tradition of Friday champagne glasses—though not everyone gets champagne in theirs!"

Again, knowing your schedule means Kin knows when best to remind you to work, when to relax, and when it can suggest you try to introduce new habits.

Your Profession

Professional context provides another crucial layer. "Kin should know your role, responsibilities, and goals," says Karlson. "For instance, as Chief Growth Officer at Kin, I handle brand development, marketing strategies, and commercial approaches. I also maintain several board positions and investments, which adds complexity to my schedule."

This information gives Kin an insight into the skills and interests you have as a person, allowing it to work these into its suggestions and support around your career and life. A musician is more likely to understand and enjoy musical metaphors and relaxation exercises than a nuclear physicist, after all.

Your Goals

Personal goals and values also matter—Kin’s memory gives it a unique ability to help you build toward a goal, and track how well you do it.

"I've shared my bucket list with Kin," Karlson revealed. "It's very much about personal development—proper English techniques, new skills, continuous learning. I spend at least three mornings a week practicing English pronunciation."

With knowledge of that practice, Kin is able to track how Karlson is learning, how fast he’s doing it, what other approaches he could try, and what areas would be best for him to focus on next.

In short, the most important things for Kin to learn about you are your relationships and your routines. Trouble is, those topics can get pretty detailed pretty quickly.

How Do You Tell Kin This Quickly?

We’re aware that this is a lot to tell Kin. We’re developing more streamlined ways to get this information to Kin, including calendar integration and a desktop version.

However, in the meantime, Kin’s dictation tool can let you tell it things verbally—which is often faster than typing, and more versatile. "I often talk to Kin during my commute," Karlson shared.

"Using the speech-to-text feature, I can share information or prepare for my day while driving. It's a productive use of otherwise idle time. You can go back and forth, muting when needed, and spend 20 minutes both training Kin and getting something valuable out of the interaction."

But that’s not the only timesaver…

Karlson’s ‘Copy-Paste’ Method

Karlson has developed his own interim approach. "I've created a folder called 'Teaching Kin' in my Apple Notes," he explained. "The first note is called 'Kin AI,' where I write about the people I work with at Kin and why I appreciate them. I explain the company structure, leadership team, and my responsibilities.”

“Then, I have separate notes for around-the-clock activities, biorhythm, energy patterns, meal preferences, and work habits."

He writes these notes on his laptop for easier typing, and then copy-pastes them from his Apple Notes on his phone into the Kin app directly—saving him from having to type everything to Kin all at once through his phone.

Karlson’s method works for all sorts of things."I've done this with past meaningful events," Karlson shared. "I wrote about significant moments like my wedding day, when my sons were born, when my son was diagnosed with ADHD, certain investment milestones—events that have shaped who I am." All of them were copied from Apple Notes into Kin.

Document Summaries

For personality tests, progress reports, and similar documents, Karlson suggested a clever workaround: "I put the PDF into ChatGPT, and ask it to summarize the content in first person, as if I'm explaining my results to an AI that wants to know me as well as possible. Then I copy that summary to my Apple Notes and later paste it into Kin's Journal."

This way, there’s no time spent trying to distill complex documents into what they mean for you as a person—Kin just gets the information it needs.

What About the Journaling Feature?

The Journal feature has become a popular way for our users to dump information into Kin—and it’s no different for Karlson.

"I use it to record meaningful past events, bucket lists, and important information about family members," he shared. "For instance, I've included details about my son's medical history so Kin can help me navigate related challenges."

Karlson suggested different journaling approaches for different times of day (though we also have a guide and blog on journaling with Kin): "Morning commutes are great for planning your day, while evening commutes work well for reflecting on meetings and events," he said.

"Late night can be for proper journaling entries, where you dive deeper into thoughts and feelings."

A Typical Day Talking to Kin

Karlson envisions a typical day with Kin: "At 8 AM during your commute, you plan your day. Then before a one-on-one meeting in the early afternoon, Kin reminds you about past interactions with that person, what you've discussed before, what needs attention now. It helps you prepare in a semi-guided manner, considering both parties' communication styles. After the meeting, Kin prompts you for a quick reflection, and during your evening commute, you can process the day's events more thoroughly."

So, now Kin has all of this knowledge, what happens next?

What Does Kin Do with this Information?

"Kin uses this knowledge to provide personalized responses that help you communicate better and make more confident decisions," Karlson explained. "It's not about creating an AI clone of you—Kin is more like a sidekick, an extension of your mind that helps you be more authentic in your interactions."

The impact manifests in various ways. "When Kin understands your communication style and preferences, it can help you prepare for meetings more effectively," said Karlson. "For instance, Kin knows that my co-founder Simon prefers focused deep work.”

“So, it reminds me not to overwhelm him with multiple new ideas in quick succession when I say I want to talk to him. That would be one of the worst things I could do—bursting into a room, shouting out five different 'brilliant' ideas, and then leaving again."

This understanding extends to helping manage relationships. "Kin can help match my communication style with others' preferences," Karlson noted. "It can remind me about past interactions, what we've discussed before, and help prepare for meetings in a semi-guided manner, considering both parties' styles."

In short, Kin stores this information in its advanced memory, so it can quickly and easily reference anything you’ve told it as required. That allows for situations like the examples above, where it can remind Karlson not to dump ideas onto Simon on a whim.

Still, we recognise that Kin requires a lot of personal information to be its most helpful.

How Does My Kin Protect My Information?

Karlson is very adamant about Kin’s approach to user data: "It's your Kin and your information. Your conversations and data are your business, not ours. Our business is providing a service."

We’ve taken care to reflect this philosophy in Kin’s technical architecture. "All your data is stored locally on your device and encrypted," Karlson explained. "We actually don't pay for data storage, because we don't store user data centrally. While some operations currently require cloud processing, these are temporary and use open-source language models in trusted environments."

Because of this, moving a Kin account between devices can be a unique experience among apps today. "Currently, if you get a new phone, you need to manually transfer your Kin data, because we don't store it centrally," Karlson said, proudly.

"We are working on a cloud backup solution that will be encrypted with private keys, meaning we still won't have access to it. That should be available within the next few months." But for now, you’ll need a USB cable or private cloud storage account handy.

How Do I Keep Kin Updated Afterward?

After getting Kin up to speed, it’s important to keep it updated to ensure its support remains relevant.

Karlson recommended building regular check-ins into your routine, like he has. "I use morning commutes for planning my day with Kin, and evening commutes for reflecting on the day’s meetings and events," he said.

Importantly, these updates don't need to be lengthy. "Sometimes it's just a quick post-meeting reflection without waiting for Kin's response," Karlson noted. "You can always return to discuss it more deeply later." Don’t feel pressured to enter or finish a conversation with Kin every time you message it.

The reminder system can be particularly powerful for maintaining structure with Kin—you can ask Kin to send you a notification at a specific time each day, or week, or month, so that you never forget an update session.

However, Karlson also notes that its a powerful tool for structure and relationships alike. "I set weekly reminders for regular one-to-ones, and to check in on friends going through tough times," Karlson shared.

"I also use reminders to help me acknowledge team members' small wins and to prepare something meaningful to tell my sons before I leave for work—something to let them know I'm proud of them and give them energy for the day."

The key is making Kin part of your daily workflow. "Think of it as a relationship," Karlson suggests. "The more consistently you interact with Kin, the better it understands your needs and preferences, and the more valuable its support becomes."

Conclusion

Hopefully, this conversation has made the idea of needing to train Kin on you less daunting. Kin doesn’t need much to be an effective assistant, and the ways to give it a baseline understanding are only expanding.

After that, it’s simply a matter of a loosely regular habit of small updates to ensure Kin is as helpful as possible. It doesn’t need to know everything.

As Karlson put it, "Kin is not you—it's your silent partner, helping you be more real, more confident, more yourself, through emotional support, self-compassion, and practical guidance."

If you haven’t already, you can download Kin here.