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