How Is Generative AI Used for Persona Development?: A Systematic Review of 52 Research Articles
Danial Amin, Joni Salminen, Farhan Ahmed, Sonja M. H. Tervola, Sankalp Sethi, Bernard J. Jansen
TL;DR
This systematic review analyzes 52 articles from 2022–2024 to map how GenAI, especially large language models, is used for persona development. It finds a strong GPT-centric practice, diverse data sources, and multiple presentation formats, but highlights major gaps in evaluation, ethics, and human-AI collaboration; a need for standardized methods and transparent workflows is identified. The study offers practical guidelines (standardized prompts, model-agnostic verification, combined validation) and outlines future research directions, emphasizing responsible adoption, broader domain applications, and richer collaboration patterns. Overall, GenAI-enabled personas hold promise for faster, richer design representations, but realizing their potential requires methodological rigor, transparency, and careful attention to bias, accountability, and long-term design impact.
Abstract
Although Generative AI (GenAI) has the potential for persona development, many challenges must be addressed. This research systematically reviews 52 articles from 2022-2024, with important findings. First, closed commercial models are frequently used in persona development, creating a monoculture Second, GenAI is used in various stages of persona development (data collection, segmentation, enrichment, and evaluation). Third, similar to other quantitative persona development techniques, there are major gaps in persona evaluation for AI generated personas. Fourth, human-AI collaboration models are underdeveloped, despite human oversight being crucial for maintaining ethical standards. These findings imply that realizing the full potential of AI-generated personas will require substantial efforts across academia and industry. To that end, we provide a list of research avenues to inspire future work.