Rule #2: Know Your Audience with AI-Powered Personas
You can't have meaningful conversations if you don’t know who you're talking to.
Traditional personas were a good start — a way to summarise target audiences. But in today’s dynamic environment, they fall short. They’re often based on broad assumptions, outdated research, or static data.
What we need now are living, evolving, AI-powered personas.
The Problem with Traditional Personas
Old-school personas look something like this:
- “Marketing Mary, aged 35–44, works in retail, cares about brand image, reads marketing blogs.”
While this gives you a flavour of the audience, it doesn’t tell you:
- What she's searching for today
- How she interacted with your brand last week
- What tone she responds to best
- Whether she’s frustrated, curious, or ready to buy
They’re fixed snapshots in a moving world.
Static vs. Dynamic
- Static Persona: Based on a quarterly customer survey
- Dynamic Persona: Learns in real time from browsing, behaviour, sentiment, and feedback
What Are AI-Powered Personas?
AI-powered personas are adaptive audience profiles generated and refined using real-time data — from website interactions to CRM behaviour, social media trends, support chats, and more.
They allow you to:
- Segment audiences based on intent and behaviour, not just demographics
- Respond in real time with tailored content or messaging
- Predict needs, pain points, and conversion likelihood
- Optimise tone, timing, and channel for each individual
Sources that feed AI personas:
| Data Source | What It Reveals |
|---|---|
| Website analytics | Pages visited, time spent, conversion intent |
| CRM and support logs | Pain points, loyalty patterns |
| Social listening tools | Emerging trends, sentiment |
| Chat interactions | Real questions, language preferences |
| Purchase history | Behavioural segments, buying cycles |
Real-World Example: Netflix
Netflix doesn’t use one-size-fits-all user personas. Every viewer has a unique profile shaped by viewing history, feedback, time of day, and device habits. This lets them recommend content with uncanny accuracy — and their retention rates prove the value of it.
Bringing Live Personas Into Marketing
Once you have AI-powered personas, you can start:
- Creating conditional flows in chatbots and campaigns that adapt based on behaviour
- Tailoring messages by mood, stage, or product interest
- Identifying micro-segments to test targeted offers, CTAs, or formats
This isn't just about data science — it's about empathy at scale.
Getting Started
You don’t need to build your own AI model. There are platforms and tools that can help you move towards dynamic personas quickly:
| Tool / Platform | Use Case |
|---|---|
| HubSpot or Salesforce AI | Behaviour-based segmentation |
| Drift or Intercom | Persona tagging via chat conversations |
| Segment, Amplitude | Real-time analytics and customer traits |
| ChatGPT / Claude | Can be used to generate persona drafts |
Start small: choose one channel or audience segment, and test a dynamic approach. Then scale what works.
What This Rule Really Means
You can’t build great conversations if you treat every customer the same. AI-powered personas help you stop guessing and start responding — in context, in real time, and with relevance.
“Relevance is the new reach.”
— Bernard Marr