How Is Generative AI Used for Persona Development?: A Systematic Review of 52 Research Articles
It identifies challenges and research gaps for improving AI-generated personas in academia and industry, but is incremental as a review of existing literature.
This systematic review of 52 articles from 2022-2024 examines how generative AI is used for persona development, finding that closed commercial models dominate, it is applied across multiple stages, and there are gaps in evaluation and human-AI collaboration.
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.