Write the persona

For agents

Guide: Write the persona

This page: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/ai-agents/write-the-persona

Topic: AI agents

Time: about 3 minutes

Who can do it: Owner, Administrator or Manager

Author: https://anantgupta.xyz (Anant Gupta, founder of CommentWatchDog)

Start in the app: https://app.commentwatchdog.com/en/settings/agents

Result when done: The agent sounds like your business rather than like a machine.

Context: The persona is how it sounds, not what it knows. Two or three sentences about voice and perspective do more than a page of description, and they are what stop a reply reading as generic.

Before you start

1. Persona is voice; Knowledge is facts. Keep them apart.

2. A short persona is followed more faithfully than a long one.

3. The tone selector sits beside it and covers the obvious registers.

Steps

Step 1 of 4: Open the agent and find Persona.

Where: Settings, AI agents, then the agent. Persona is under the name, with a line saying it describes how the agent sounds and not what it replies to.

Link: https://app.commentwatchdog.com/en/settings/agents (Open AI agents)

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/agent-detail.en.webp (Persona, in the agent editor.)

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/agent-phone.en.webp (The same on a phone.)

You should see: A box for voice and perspective, separate from the knowledge box below it.

Step 2 of 4: Write who is speaking.

Where: Say who the agent is and how it talks: you are the barista behind the counter at a small coffee roastery, warm and brief, you never oversell, you use the customer name once. Avoid instructions about what to answer; those belong elsewhere.

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/agent-detail.en.webp (Who is speaking, in the Persona box.)

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/agent-phone.en.webp (The same on a phone.)

You should see: Generated replies take that voice, in every language the comments arrive in.

Step 3 of 4: Set the tone of voice.

Where: Tone of voice, beside the persona: Helpful, Professional, Conversational, Casual or Funny. It is a broad register, and the persona is the detail.

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/agent-tone.en.webp (Tone of voice.)

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/agent-tone-phone.en.webp (The same on a phone.)

You should see: The register changes while the persona keeps the character.

Step 4 of 4: Try it on a real comment.

Where: In the inbox, open a comment on that page and press Generate. Read the draft as a customer would, then adjust the persona rather than the draft.

Link: https://app.commentwatchdog.com/en/inbox (Open the inbox)

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/ai-draft.en.webp (Generate, on a real comment.)

Screenshot: https://commentwatchdog.com/media/shots/inbox-phone-sheet.en.webp (Generate on a phone.)

You should see: A draft that either sounds like you or tells you exactly what to change in the persona.

If something is off

Problem: The replies are too long

Fix: Say so in the persona: keep replies to one or two sentences.

Problem: It sounds American and we are not

Fix: Name it: you write British English, and you never say awesome.

Problem: It invents facts

Fix: That is knowledge, not persona. Put the facts in Knowledge, and it will say when it does not know.

Problem: Every reply starts the same way

Fix: Ask for variety in the persona, and turn off Start replies with a mention if that is the repeated part.

Common questions

Question: What is the difference between an agent's persona and its knowledge?

Answer: The persona is how the agent sounds; Knowledge is what it knows. Keep voice and perspective in the persona and put prices, policies and product facts in Knowledge.

Question: How long should the persona for an AI agent be?

Answer: Two or three sentences about voice and perspective. A short persona is followed more faithfully than a long one, and it is what stops a reply reading as generic.

Question: Does the agent keep my persona when a comment arrives in another language?

Answer: Yes. Generated replies take the persona voice in every language the comments arrive in; CommentWatchDog agents answer in the commenter's own language.

Question: If a generated draft sounds wrong, should I fix the draft or the persona?

Answer: Fix the persona. Read the draft as a customer would, then change the persona rather than the draft: editing the draft fixes one reply, changing the persona fixes the next ones.

Related guides

Give the agent knowledge: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/ai-agents/give-the-agent-knowledge

Tone, delay, mention and archive: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/ai-agents/tone-delay-mention-and-archive

Generate a reply in the composer: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/ai-agents/generate-a-reply-in-the-composer

Plain text of this guide: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/ai-agents/write-the-persona.md

All guides for assistants: https://commentwatchdog.com/help/llms.txt