Personas allow you to customize how Smith responds by assigning specific roles, expertise areas, or communication styles. Create personas to get more relevant, context-aware answers tailored to your work. Soon, you'll also be able to share personas across your organization.
Understanding Personas
A persona is a customizable AI configuration that defines how Smith interprets and responds to your questions. Think of it as assigning Smith a specific role, expertise area, or communication style. When you apply a persona, Smith adjusts its reasoning, terminology, and output to match that role.
Personas are particularly valuable when you work across multiple domains or need consistent, role-specific guidance. For example, a "Financial Analyst" persona can prioritize quantitative reasoning and cite regulatory frameworks, while a "Content Writer" persona focuses on clarity, tone, and audience engagement.
Why Use Personas?
Personas eliminate the need to repeatedly explain context or expertise level in every conversation. Once configured, they apply consistent framing to all your queries, saving time and improving response quality.
Anatomy of a Persona
Each persona consists of three core components that work together to shape Smith's behavior:
Name
A unique identifier for your persona (e.g., "CFO Advisor", "Legal Reviewer", "Marketing Strategist"). This appears in the Personas tab and helps you quickly identify which persona to apply.
Focus
A brief description of the persona's context or domain (e.g., "Financial planning and analysis", "Contract review and risk assessment"). This field helps you and your team understand the persona's purpose at a glance.
Prompt
The instructional text that shapes Smith's behavior. This is where you define expertise, tone, output format, and reasoning approach. The prompt is automatically applied to every query when the persona is active.
Sharing Options COMING SOON
Personas can be marked as Personal (visible only to you) or Shared (accessible to other users in your organization). This enables team-wide standardization of AI interactions.
Creating a Persona
Building effective personas requires thoughtful design. Follow this step-by-step process to create personas that deliver consistent, high-quality results.
Step 1: Access the Personas Tab
In the main navigation, click the Personas tab (located between "Prompt Library" and your workspace). This opens the Personas interface where you can view existing personas and create new ones.
Step 2: Click "Create Personas"
Select the Create Personas button to open the persona creation modal. This presents three required fields: Name, Focus, and Prompt.
Step 3: Define the Persona Fields
Complete each field with precision to ensure the persona behaves as intended:
Name
Choose a clear, descriptive name that reflects the persona's role or purpose.
• "Financial Analyst - GAAP Focus"
• "Technical Writer - API Documentation"
• "Executive Summary Generator"
Focus
Provide a one-sentence description of the persona's domain or objective.
• "Financial analysis using GAAP standards for quarterly reporting"
• "Technical documentation for REST APIs targeting developer audiences"
• "Executive summaries for C-level stakeholders with emphasis on ROI"
Prompt
Write the instructional text that defines how Smith should behave. Be specific about expertise, tone, constraints, and output format.
You are a senior financial analyst specializing in GAAP-compliant reporting. When analyzing financial data:
• Prioritize accuracy and regulatory compliance
• Reference relevant accounting standards (ASC codes where applicable)
• Present findings in structured formats (tables, variance analysis)
• Flag any assumptions or data quality concerns
• Use formal, professional language appropriate for audit-ready documentation
Step 4: Set Sharing Permissions COMING SOON
Currently, all personas are saved as Personal (visible only to you). Soon, you'll be able to mark personas as Shared (accessible to other users in your organization). Shared personas will be useful for standardizing team workflows and ensuring consistent AI behavior across departments.
Step 5: Save the Persona
Click Save to create the persona. It will now appear in your Personas tab as a card. The new persona is immediately available for use in your conversations.
Iterative Refinement
Personas rarely work perfectly on the first attempt. Plan to refine the prompt based on actual usage. Small adjustments to phrasing, constraints, or output format can significantly improve results.
Effective personas balance specificity with flexibility. Follow these guidelines to create personas that consistently deliver value:
| Best Practice | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Be specific about expertise | Define the exact domain, frameworks, or standards the persona should reference. "Financial analyst" is vague; "Financial analyst specializing in SaaS revenue recognition under ASC 606" is actionable. |
| Define output format | Specify how you want information structured: bullet points, tables, narrative paragraphs, executive summaries. This ensures consistent formatting across queries. |
| Set tone and audience | Indicate the intended audience and communication style. "Explain for technical audiences" vs. "Simplify for non-technical executives" produces drastically different outputs. |
| Include guardrails | Add constraints or requirements such as "Always cite ASC standards", "Flag assumptions explicitly", or "Limit responses to 300 words". This prevents off-topic or overly verbose outputs. |
| Test and refine | Run your persona with several different queries to ensure it produces consistent results. Adjust the prompt based on what works and what doesn't. |
Example: Well-Designed Persona
Persona Name: Compliance Risk Advisor
• Identify potential regulatory issues under SEC, FINRA, and GDPR frameworks
• Cite specific rule numbers or guidance documents where applicable
• Flag areas requiring legal review with explicit "⚠️ Legal Review Recommended" markers
• Use formal, audit-ready language appropriate for compliance documentation
• Prioritize risk mitigation over operational efficiency when trade-offs arise
• Provide actionable next steps for each identified issue
Format findings as: [Issue] → [Regulatory Reference] → [Recommended Action]
Common Persona Use Cases
Personas are versatile and can be tailored to a wide range of professional scenarios. Click on any use case below to see detailed examples:
Financial Analysis
Persona Name: "Budget Variance Analyst"
Focus: Explain budget deviations and recommend corrective actions
Use Case: Analyzing monthly departmental spend against forecasts, identifying anomalies, and suggesting reallocation strategies.
Content Creation
Persona Name: "Brand Voice Editor"
Focus: Ensure messaging aligns with company tone guidelines
Use Case: Reviewing marketing copy, social media posts, or customer communications for tone consistency and brand alignment.
Technical Documentation
Persona Name: "API Documentation Specialist"
Focus: Generate developer-friendly API reference documentation
Use Case: Converting technical specifications into clear endpoint descriptions, parameter tables, and example code snippets.
Legal Review
Persona Name: "Contract Risk Flagging"
Focus: Identify unfavorable terms and legal exposure in contracts
Use Case: Reviewing vendor agreements, NDAs, or SaaS contracts to highlight liability clauses, indemnification terms, or data privacy concerns.
Executive Reporting
Persona Name: "Board Deck Summarizer"
Focus: Condense complex analyses into executive-level summaries
Use Case: Transforming detailed operational reports into concise, decision-focused slides for board presentations.
Customer Support
Persona Name: "Customer Success Advisor"
Focus: Draft empathetic, solution-oriented customer communications
Use Case: Creating response templates for common customer inquiries, escalation communications, or product update announcements that maintain brand voice while addressing specific concerns.
Personas + Workspaces = Powerful Combinations
Combine personas with workspace file selection for maximum effectiveness. For example, activate a "Compliance Risk Advisor" persona and select only your regulatory filings folder. This ensures Smith focuses exclusively on relevant documents when identifying compliance gaps.
Applying Personas to Conversations
Once created, personas can be activated to shape Smith's responses. Unlike other features, clicking a persona card in the Personas tab does not automatically apply it to your conversation. Instead, you have two methods to activate a persona:
Method 1: Persona Selector in Chat Input (Recommended)
The primary way to apply a persona is through the persona dropdown menu in the Custom chat interface. Located in the chat input area at the bottom of the screen, this selector allows you to choose from all your available personas. Select a persona from the dropdown, and it will remain active for all subsequent queries until you select a different persona or deselect it.
Method 2: Quick Use from My Workspace
Alternatively, navigate to My Workspace Personas tab where you'll see a table view of all your personas. Click the Use button next to any persona. This action switches you back to the Smith AI interface and automatically selects that persona in the chat input dropdown, ready for immediate use.
Switching Personas During a Conversation
You can change personas at any point during a conversation using the chat input dropdown. This is useful when your question shifts to a different domain. For example, you might start with a "Data Analyst" persona to explore trends, then switch to a "Content Writer" persona to draft a summary of your findings.
When you switch personas, Smith applies the new context to all follow-up questions. Previous messages in the conversation thread remain visible but are interpreted through the lens of the newly selected persona.
Deactivating a Persona
To use Smith without any persona applied, deselect the persona from the dropdown menu in the chat input area (return to "Persona Select"). This returns Smith to its default behavior without role-specific framing, ideal for general queries or exploratory conversations where a specific persona might be too constraining.
Managing and Editing Personas
As your work evolves, you'll need to view, update, or remove personas. Smith provides two locations for persona management, each with slightly different workflows.
Viewing Persona Details
To view the complete details of any persona, you can access the detail panel from two locations:
Two Ways to Access Persona Details
- Click any persona card to open detail panel
- Panel shows: Focus and Prompt
- Actions available: Edit, Copy, Delete, (Share - coming soon)
- Click any persona row to open detail panel
- Panel shows: Focus and Prompt
- Actions available: Edit, Copy, Delete, (Share - coming soon)
Important: Clicking a Persona Does NOT Activate It
When you click a persona card in the Personas tab, it opens the detail panel for management purposes—it does not apply the persona to your conversation. To actually use a persona, you must select it from the chat input dropdown or click the "Use" button in My Workspace.
Editing an Existing Persona
From either location's detail panel, click the Edit button to open the "Edit Persona" modal. This modal displays the same three fields you used during creation: Name, Focus, and Prompt, all pre-populated with the current values. Make your changes and click Update to save the modifications.
Editing a persona affects all future conversations where that persona is applied, but does not retroactively change past conversation threads.
Deleting a Persona
You can delete personas from multiple locations:
- From detail panel: Click the delete icon (trash can) in the persona detail panel accessed from either Personas tab or My Workspace
- Quick delete from My Workspace: Click the red delete icon directly on the persona row in the My Workspace table view
In both cases, you'll receive a confirmation prompt to prevent accidental deletion. Once deleted, the persona is permanently removed and cannot be recovered unless you recreate it manually.
Copying a Persona
The Copy button in the persona detail panel allows you to duplicate a persona's prompt text to your clipboard. This is useful when you want to create a similar persona or use the prompt text elsewhere.
Version Control for Personas
Smith does not currently maintain version history for personas. If you make significant changes to a persona's prompt, consider creating a new persona with a different name (e.g., "Financial Analyst v2") before making major edits. This allows you to test new configurations while preserving the original persona as a fallback.
Sharing Personas COMING SOON
Feature Coming Soon
The ability to share personas across your organization is currently in development and will be available soon. The following sections describe how this feature will work when it launches.
When the sharing feature becomes available, you'll be able to mark personas as shared (accessible to your entire organization) or keep them personal (visible only to you). This will enable team-wide standardization of AI interactions for common roles and workflows.
Benefits of Shared Personas
Team Consistency
Ensure everyone uses the same expertise framework for common tasks
Faster Onboarding
New team members access proven personas immediately
Knowledge Capture
Preserve institutional expertise in reusable formats
Important Consideration
Shared personas will be visible to everyone in your organization. Avoid including sensitive information, personal data, or confidential details in shared personas. Use personal personas for anything specific to your role or projects.
Personas vs. Prompt Library
Both personas and the prompt library customize Smith's behavior, but they serve different purposes and work best in complementary ways.
Personas vs. Prompt Library
- Persistent context — Applied continuously across multiple queries
- Role-based framing — Defines how Smith "thinks" about problems
- Broad applicability — Affects all queries until switched off
- Best for: Ongoing work in a specific domain or with a consistent audience
- One-time use — Inserted for a single query
- Task-specific — Designed for a particular action or output
- Quick access — Click to populate the input field
- Best for: Recurring tasks that don't require persistent role framing (e.g., "Summarize this document in 3 bullets")
Using Personas and Prompts Together
You can combine personas with prompt library entries for powerful, specialized workflows. For example, activate a "Legal Reviewer" persona to set the overall tone and expertise, then click a prompt library entry like "Identify liability clauses in this contract" to execute a specific task within that context.
This layered approach allows you to standardize high-level framing (persona) while maintaining flexibility for task-specific instructions (prompt library).
Troubleshooting Persona Issues
If a persona isn't producing the expected results, review these common issues and solutions:
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Responses are too generic or don't reflect the persona | Revise the persona's prompt to include specific expertise areas, output formats, and tone requirements. Test with sample queries and refine iteratively. |
| Persona provides incorrect or irrelevant information | Ensure relevant workspace files are selected for context. Review the persona's prompt for unrealistic expectations (e.g., asking for real-time data when only static documents are uploaded). |
| Responses are overly verbose or off-topic | Add guardrails to the prompt such as "Limit responses to 200 words" or "Focus only on financial metrics; exclude operational details". |
| Shared persona isn't visible to team membersCOMING SOON | When the sharing feature launches, verify the persona is set to "Shared" (not "Personal") in the visibility settings. Check that you saved the persona after making changes. |
Related Articles
Related Articles
Using and Creating Prompts
Learn how to build and manage reusable prompts in Smith's prompt library to complement your personas.
Organizing Your Work with Workspaces
Discover how to organize files and folders in your workspace to provide targeted context for persona-driven queries.
Starting and Managing Conversations
Understand how personas integrate with conversation threads, model selection, and follow-up queries.
Next Steps: Create your first persona tailored to your primary use case. Test it with several queries to validate its behavior, then refine the prompt as needed. Once optimized, you'll be ready to create additional personas for other domains when the sharing feature launches.
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