Three days before a keynote in Washington, DC, I sat down for what would become one of the most revealing conversations of my career.
My interviewer? my AI called Atlas, so called because “he” has been trained to be a group of synthetic customers or, as I like to call them, a PersonaAI.
I needed to sharpen my message. The speech was ready, but I wanted to stress-test it against real objections. So I asked Atlas to interview me as if it were a sceptical life science marketer who’d heard too many AI promises.
“How do you convince small teams this isn’t just another tool they don’t have time to learn?”
The question stopped me cold. Not because I didn’t have an answer, but because it forced me to confront the exact tension my audience would feel.
Atlas pushed harder. “What happens when the founder’s vision doesn’t match what the market actually needs?”
These weren’t softball questions. They were the kind of challenges that derail launches, stall campaigns, and keep marketing directors up at night. And they were coming from an AI trained on years of persona research, customer interviews, and real commercial objections.
This is what PersonaAI does
It doesn’t replace your judgement. It sharpens it. By the time I walked on stage in DC, I’d rehearsed against the toughest crowd I could face – a synthetic version of my actual audience, armed with their real concerns.
Why small businesses need this more than enterprise teams
When you’re running a lean operation, every decision costs more. You can’t afford three rounds of messaging testing. You can’t hire a research firm to validate your positioning. And you definitely can’t waste budget on a campaign that misses the mark.
PersonaAI gives you what large organisations pay consultancies six figures for: a living, queryable representation of your buyer’s decision logic.
Want to know if your value proposition will survive procurement? Ask.
Wondering whether your launch messaging lands with technical buyers or budget holders? Test it.
Need to pressure-test a product claim before it goes live? Drop it in and watch PersonaAI argue back.
Here’s what makes it different
Most personas are decorative. Beautifully designed PDFs that no one uses after the initial workshop.
PersonaAI is a colleague. One that remembers every stakeholder insight, never gets tired of reviewing copy, and always pushes for what matters to your buyer – not what sounds good internally.
For $500 and 48 hours, you get a synthetic customer that helps you:
- Pre-test messaging before it reaches real prospects
- Generate content that reflects actual buying criteria
- Audit campaigns for weak claims and missing proof
- Support lean teams without adding headcount
The real advantage
I’ve spent 25 years watching companies struggle to translate vision into commercial reality. The gap isn’t usually strategy. It’s execution grounded in buyer truth.
PersonaAI closes that gap. It gives you buyer perspective before you burn budget learning it the hard way.
When I finished that keynote in Washington, three people asked the same question: “Can I talk to your Atlas?”
That’s when I knew we’d built something that works. Not just for me preparing a speech, but for anyone who needs their message to land before the market tells them it didn’t.
Your buyers are already making decisions. PersonaAI helps you understand them before they’ve made up their minds.
www.steeryourbusinss.com/magazine/jan-feb-2026
