What are personas in Gumshoe?
The Personas page highlights audience segments that are most likely to ask questions about your brand in AI-generated search. These segments represent different types of customers or decision-makers searching for information related to your products or services.
Each persona reflects a pattern of interests, behaviors, and search intent. By understanding who is asking about your brand and why, you can better align your messaging, content strategy, and brand positioning to meet your audience's needs.
Personas matter because AI models are designed to satisfy the user’s intent, which means they’ll often tailor responses based on who they think is asking. If you or your team tried to run this research manually, it could take weeks, and the models would likely shape answers to match your perceived expectations. Gumshoe uses personas to simulate realistic audience identities, framing prompts as if they’re coming from that specific user type (for example, "Hi, I’m a busy mom..."). This approach ensures the insights you get reflect how AI would respond to actual customer queries, not your own.
Why do personas matter?
- Identify the audience segments AI models associate most with your brand.
- Understand the motivations and behaviors behind different customer types.
- Tailor your messaging, strategy, and positioning to match user intent.
- Align content more closely with the questions and needs of your target audience.
- Get more realistic and accurate responses from AI models.
How are personas generated?
Personas in a Visibility Audit (formerly known as a report) are created through a proprietary diagnostic process. We query multiple AI models and return a consensus on the types of users they associate with your brand. These personas aren't pulled from real-world customer data because AI models don't make that information available, but instead reflect how the models themselves picture the audiences most likely to engage with you.
Think of them as a point-in-time read of the assumptions AI is already making. Gumshoe specifically asks models to draw on their own learned experience, so the results aren't random guesses, but informed signals based on the patterns and context they've been trained on.
You can (and should) edit personas to reflect your actual target audience. But the automatically surfaced personas are a rare window into how AI currently perceives your customers, and the only way to measure those associations in real time.
When your project runs, the models are queried again, fresh and individually, to show how they would respond to each persona in a real-world environment.
How do I add a persona of my own to my project?
- Click the plus sign to add a persona.
- Enter a persona name or title.
- Choose to have Gumshoe generate a description, or paste in a description of your own.
- Add the persona to your project by clicking "Save."
How do I edit or customize personas during project setup?
- Click "See More" at the bottom of each persona box to expand its details.
- Press the trash icon to remove a persona from your list.
- Press the pencil icon to edit the persona's details.
- To add a new persona manually, enter a name and description, then click "Add Persona."
- To have Gumshoe generate a description, type a name in the Persona Name field and click "Suggest." If the description works for you, click "Add Persona."
- Click "Continue" when ready to move on to the next step.
How do I edit or customize personas in an existing project?
- Click Personas in the left-side menu, under Configure.
- Click "See More" at the bottom of each persona box to expand its details.
- Press the trash icon to remove a persona from your list.
- Press the pencil icon to edit the persona's details.
- To add a new persona manually, enter a name and description, then click "Add Persona."
- To have Gumshoe generate a description, type a name in the Persona Name field and click "Suggest." If the description works for you, click "Add Persona."
- Click "Continue" when ready to move on to the next step.
- Your changes are applied automatically the next time your project runs on its schedule.
How can I reuse or import personas from other projects?
You can reuse personas from your workspace, including anything you or your team created there, along with any personas you personally created in other workspaces or company accounts.
- Click "Add Persona."
- Select "Import from existing."
- Choose "Mine" for personas you personally created, or "Workspace" for personas created by anyone in this workspace.
- Click "Import" next to the persona you'd like to add.
Why do personas improve results?
Each persona helps clarify how AI models interpret your audience. Strong persona targeting improves the relevance of your summaries, questions, and cited content in your Visibility Audit.
Persona questions are the next step in building your project.