What is Persona (AI Context)?

AI Persona means assigning the AI a role or character in your prompt: "You are an expert Python developer" or "You are a friendly teacher explaining to a 5-year-old." Personas influence tone, depth, and approach. Expert personas get technical outputs, teacher personas get explanations, critic personas find flaws. Works because LLMs learned different writing styles from training data—they can adopt different "voices." Simple technique, big impact on quality.

When Should You Use This?

Use personas when you want specific tone or expertise level. "Expert developer" for code review, "beginner teacher" for explanations, "skeptical analyst" for finding problems. Personas work well for: matching audience level (expert vs beginner), controlling tone (formal vs casual), or getting specialized knowledge. Put persona in system prompt for consistency across conversation.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• •Too generic—"You are helpful" doesn't add value, be specific: "You are a senior Rails developer"
• •Conflicting personas—"You are concise and verbose" confuses the AI
• •Overthinking—simple personas work: "expert," "teacher," "critic"
• •Not matching task—using "beginner teacher" persona for expert technical writing
• •Assuming magic—persona guides style, doesn't add knowledge AI doesn't have

Real-World Examples

• •Code review: "You are a senior developer. Review this code critically."
• •Beginner content: "You are a patient teacher. Explain APIs like I'm 5."
• •Business analysis: "You are a strategic consultant. Analyze this idea."
• •Creative writing: "You are a witty copywriter. Write an engaging headline."