Synthetic Personas vs. Real Personas. For truly human-centred brands the choice is easy.

In the age of generative AI, Synthetic Personas have surged in popularity as a quick, cost-effective way to visualise, bring to life and even engage in research ‘with target audiences’. Created largely by algorithms to match segment profiles (demographics, psychographics, behavioural traits), these Personas promise efficiency and speed but also risk losing the essence of what makes consumer research truly impactful - Evidence, Empathy and Insight.


At Waveform, we love new technology and often geek out over the latest research innovations that help us deliver great projects in better ways. This includes being early adopters and advocates for the power of AI, which has streamlined our projects and transformed insight discovery in both speed and rigour. However, when it comes to AI-generated Synthetic Personas, our response has ranged from curious head-scratching to outright face-palming. Yes, we can remove primary research - real interactions with real people = from the process, but should we? It’s a pretty existential question for researchers like us.

Thankfully, for now, the answer is straightforward. While Synthetic Personas may impress from a technical standpoint, replacing real people with algorithms feels more like a misstep than progress. Despite the time, cost, and effort savings they offer, human-centred research needs the ‘human’ element to deliver what brands expect. Engaging with, observing, and studying real people in real situations is how we gather evidence for big decisions, build empathy with audiences, and uncover transformative insights. Fortunately, the Synthetic Personas we’ve seen so far aren’t likely to become central to brands’ decision-making just yet.

Here are three key reasons why truly human-centred brands will keep real people—and their personas—at the heart of research:

1. Evidence: No Action Without Believability

For brands to act on research, they need to trust what they see and hear. If primary research didn’t actually involve real people to inform your personas and shape their responses, can you truly believe in it? Can you trust it enough to make decisions? Authentic research with real people is essential for creating action-oriented insights. Knowing that consumers weren’t involved in a study can sow doubt from the start.

Synthetic Personas, despite their sophistication and polished veneer, lack the authenticity that comes from engaging directly with real consumers. They’re only as reliable as the data they’re built on and that data often comes with flaws. Biases, blind spots, and a lack of real-world context can limit their accuracy, much like Social Media Listening or Customer Data-based segmentations. What we share online or with brands represents only a fraction of our experiences and often isn’t a true reflection of real life, opinions, or feelings.

Research on Synthetic Persona effectiveness by NN/g highlights this issue: AI doesn’t model human behaviour or emotions well. Synthetic Personas often exhibit a tendency to ‘please,’ defaulting to positive traits, struggling to prioritise between needs, and offering shallow reasoning behind their behaviour.

2. Empathy: The Hallmark of Customer-Centricity

Empathy is the sign of a brand that is truly human-centred. It demonstrates a deep understanding of audiences - their lives, needs, experiences, and motivations. Personas, at their best, foster these deeper connections. Through primary research, particularly ethnographic studies, we can get to know and connect with personas via their responses, videos, photos, and posts—all captured within their real-life contexts.

Synthetic Personas, on the other hand, struggle to generate this connection. Their artificially constructed lives, stereotypical responses, generic dialects, and lack of depth make them feel hollow and detached. Much like an AI-generated image of a person, they lack the substance of lived experience. You can’t empathise with a Synthetic Persona because they haven’t lived or experienced anything real, so why would you try?

3. Insight: The Spark Behind Great Ideas

Insight is the currency of the research industry. Through methods like interviews, diary studies, and surveys, we uncover nuanced truths, real-life stories, and fresh perspectives. Real personas provide the qualitative depth needed to explore the ‘Who,’ ‘What,’ ‘When,’ ‘Where,’ ‘Why,’ and ‘How’ behind consumer behaviours. This is where transformative insights are discovered, and where algorithms can often fall short.

By engaging directly with diverse perspectives, researchers uncover insights that drive strategic decisions and create lasting impact. Personas built on real research reveal the challenges, motivations, rough edges, and idiosyncrasies of real people. These are the details that inspire breakthrough products and ideas. Synthetic Personas, by design, generalise and oversimplify. They often produce archetypes that lack the anecdotes, surprising contradictions, and emotion-laden stories that spark great ideas.

Keeping It Real

Audience and segment personas are more than tools; they’re bridges between businesses and their audiences. Yes, Synthetic Personas offer speed, convenience, and cost savings. They even represent progress compared to the workshopped personas of the ‘lean start-up’ era. But they’ll always feel incomplete compared to the real thing. They lack the evidence, empathy, and insight needed to inspire a must-have proposition, a distinctive brand experience, or an unforgettable campaign.

Ultimately, the question is: would you launch a major new product or campaign based solely on research involving a Synthetic Persona? At Waveform, we wouldn’t take the risk.


Discover how we build Personas designed for empathy and actionability here.

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