A New Strategic Advantage: AI Personas
Why Simulating Personas with AI Is the Secret to Sharper, Smarter Content
What if you had access to a boardroom full of expert reviewers every time you created a piece of content? Strategists, customers, critics, CEOs…whoever you can imagine. And what if they could all give you feedback before you ever hit send?
That’s not a fantasy. It’s a practical AI workflow available right now.
We’re used to thinking of AI as something we use to speed up tasks. But a different mental model is this: Generative AI is a simulation engine for people. It can be your idea partner, your internal critic, your dream customer, and even your harshest reviewer. On demand.
Generative AI isn’t just for faster writing. It’s a way to improve your thinking by simulating the right perspectives at every stage of content creation. And when used well, it can dramatically boost clarity, impact, and confidence in your message before it ever leaves your desk.
Start with an Ideation Persona
One of the most underused powers of prompting is asking the AI to take on a role or persona. Not in a gimmicky way, but as a method of focused thinking.
A persona is simply a simulated role…like a CEO, customer, or critic that helps you see your content through a different lens. You’re essentially inviting another voice into the room, one that helps stretch or sharpen your thinking.
Want to brainstorm marketing copy? Ask the AI to act like a seasoned creative director at a fast-growing startup.
Need help outlining a white paper? Invite a skeptical but informed analyst persona into the room.
This works because large language models are expert generalists. They’ve read more marketing plans, pitch decks, and white papers than any human alive. When you assign them a focused role, like a skeptical CFO or a persuasive product manager, they can simulate that mindset to pressure-test or elevate your message.
So the first phase of content creation is about leveraging the right personas to help you generate. You can even switch between them: a fast-moving startup founder for speed, a policy wonk for depth, a contrarian thinker to poke holes.
Then, Bring in Your Review Board
Business professionals often make high-stakes decisions based on limited information. The content you send has to hit the mark. AI personas can help you test how different stakeholders might read your work, so you can refine before the moment of truth.
Once the content is drafted, most people move on. But this is where the second persona phase becomes powerful. Who would be the most ideal person to review your work?
A skeptical customer
A friendly critic in your field
A time-pressed executive
A curious but confused outsider
You can simulate all of them with generative AI.
Prompt:
“Read this article as if you’re a busy mid-level manager who has only two minutes to decide whether to read the rest. What stands out, what’s confusing, and what would make you keep reading?”
Or:
“You’re a tech-savvy Gen Z reader skimming this on their phone. What parts would feel cringey or too slow?”
These simulations can highlight blind spots in tone, clarity, and usefulness, providing insights that are hard to get even from human colleagues (often because they’re busy or too nice to be blunt).
Real-World Use Cases
This workflow isn’t theoretical, it’s already being used:
In consulting: Teams use AI personas to pre-test proposals. One persona helps writes the pitch, while another responds with objections. The team tightens the message before the real meeting.
In media: Writers use AI to generate headlines and intros, then simulate different readers to gauge which version lands best. It’s like having a built-in A/B test lab.
In education: Professors create assignments using AI personas, then simulate student reactions to check if the instructions are clear or the prompts are engaging.
In product development: Teams simulate user personas to evaluate onboarding flows or feature descriptions. It’s like running a mini focus group without having to schedule one.
This mirrors findings from behavioral science: we make better decisions when we consider diverse perspectives. With AI, you can simulate those perspectives in seconds.
Try This
Pick a piece of writing…a draft email, a slide, a paragraph. Ask AI to review it as a “customer who’s skeptical,” a “colleague who’s distracted,” and a “stakeholder who really cares.” What changes? That’s where the power lies.
The Big Shift
This is part of a broader shift in how we use generative AI. The most effective users aren’t just better writers or faster designers, they’re better framing thinkers. They know how to set up the right personas, at the right moments, to unlock different parts of the creative process.
So next time you use AI to draft something, don’t stop there. Ask: Who should read this before I send it? Who might challenge it? Who could misunderstand it?
Then simulate them.
The future of work might not be about doing things faster. It might be about thinking in more voices, more often. And generative AI is how we get there.
