AI personas -synthetic, but we find them authentic.

This has a name - Synthetic Authenticity - and it explains when an artificial persona feels real enough to trust, buy from, learn from, or confide in.

AI personas

Prashant Saxena

AI persona research programSynthetic by form, authentic by judgment

FromPrashant SaxenaRegional VP, Revenue, SEAAdjunct at B-SchoolsPhD researcher, NTU

Read the researchFrameworksWritten for top HCI, advertising, and marketing journals. See it in practiceBrands and governmentsSoutheast Asia work, adjunct at B-schools, and startup mentor. Thoughts in the pressOpinions, columns, quotesPublished in CMR, The Business Times, Forbes, LSE, and IMD.

AI personas

Built faces. Real reactions.

Robots, tutors, companions, influencers, care assistants, and shopping agents. None of them have lived a day but some still feel real enough.

Social robotRe-check loop

Companion AIBurdenless listening

AI influencerTransparency tax

Care assistantThreshold model

School tutorDoubt spreads

Shopping agentApproval gate

The problem

Trust has a new shape.

When AI agents speak, sell, teach, and comfort, authenticity becomes an ontological problem and therefore a business problem.

Synthetic form

AI built, trained, prompted, deployed. Efficient and scalable.

Human judgment

Consumers still decide whether they feel real enough to act on.

Prashant Saxena presenting in a green suit on stage — A problem to be solvedIn live rooms and with live data.

The stakeholders

Different rooms. Same question.

CMOs, policy makers, and deans are asking similar questions. How do AI personas enter their domains in an authentic way?

CMOs

What is consumer trust worth when people know it was manufactured with AI?

Policy makers

How should AI personas roll out in healthcare, home affairs, education, and other public services?

Deans

If AI is rewriting marketing, how should marketing pedagogy change?

Research

Synthetic Authenticity.Multiple use cases.

Synthetic Authenticity is tested across care, social robots, AI influencers, classrooms, shopping agents, and companion AI.

Synthetic Authenticity framework linking synthetic AI persona signals to authentic human judgment and public confidence

Care

How human should a helper feel?

The threshold matters more than realism.

Social robots

Who is speaking?

People keep checking the communicator.

AI influencers

What does disclosure change?

Attention and authenticity move differently.

Classrooms

How does doubt travel?

One viewer's suspicion becomes a shared cue.

Shopping agents

Where does choice sit?

Delegation moves judgment to approval.

Companion AI

Why do people confide?

Burdenless listening changes the exchange.

Upcoming International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

The authenticity paradox.

Saxena, P., & Prahl, A. (upcoming). The authenticity paradox: The threshold model of synthetic authenticity. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction.

The foundational study. A map of 2,685 articles and 111 AI-persona studies shows where human cues help and where they start breaking trust.

The authenticity paradox framework showing calibrated sufficiency between too little cueing and too much realism — Calibrated sufficiency at the threshold.

Under review Human-Machine Communication

When the communicator is code.

Saxena, P., & Prahl, A. (manuscript under review). When the communicator is code. Human-Machine Communication.

This is the process behind the construct. People keep re-checking what kind of thing is speaking, and that quiet check decides what gets believed.

Role-based acceptability map showing role stakes and ontological load for AI personas — Roles shift the level of scrutiny.

Under review International Journal of Advertising

The transparency tax.

Saxena, P., & Prahl, A. (manuscript under review). The transparency tax on virtual influencer engagement. International Journal of Advertising.

Across 1,531 Instagram posts, AI disclosure lifted engagement 19.2%, yet lower felt authenticity appeared when the account leaned too hard on disclosure.

The transparency tax framework showing how disclosure changes inspection and audience response to AI influencers — Disclosure lifts attention and taxes authenticity.

Minor revision Journal of Advertising

Doubt spreads.

Saxena, P., & Prahl, A. (manuscript in minor revision). Collaborative persuasion knowledge: How doubt spreads around AI influencers. Journal of Advertising.

Public comment threads become forensic investigations. One viewer's private suspicion turns into the next viewer's public cue.

Collaborative persuasion knowledge framework showing evidence clues braided into collective judgment — Suspicion becomes social evidence.

Under review Journal of Interactive Marketing

When AI shops for you.

Saxena, P., & Prahl, A. (manuscript under review). When AI shops for you. Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Delegation does not remove judgment. It moves judgment to the moment people approve, override, or blame the agent for the choice.

AI shopping approval legitimacy framework showing recommendations, social verification, and consumer approval — The decision moves to the approval gate.

Under review Journal of Marketing Management

Burdenless listening.

Saxena, P., & Prahl, A. (manuscript under review). Burdenless listening in AI care markets. Journal of Marketing Management.

From 3,670 posts and reviews: people confide because the AI asks nothing back, and that same ease can make leaving feel like loss.

Burdenless listening framework showing companion AI, confiding, dependence, market capture, and rupture risk — One-way confiding can feel safe.

Practice

Different forums.Practical advice.

Frameworks and findings on AI disclosure, persona design, and public confidence. They are tested against reputation, policy, revenue, and pedagogy through regional commercial leadership, business-school classrooms, founder mentoring, and Southeast Asia briefing rooms.

On the main stage & in panels

Keynotes, conferences, and panels across Southeast Asia, translating Synthetic Authenticity research for marketing, comms, and policy audiences.

Prashant Saxena speaking on a blue-lit stage

DMAP DigiCon talk on narrative intelligence

Infobank · Digital Brand Awards

Keynote on brand authenticity in algorithmic feeds. Jakarta.

Applied masterclass with an industry audience

Students and founders

The same work in classrooms and accelerator rooms, where AI changes marketing pedagogy and startup judgment.

ESSEC cohort group photo with Prashant Saxena

Students presenting public sector AI case

Press

Quoted.Wrote.

Every card below leads to thoughts covered in California Management Review, The Business Times, Forbes, LSE Business Review, I by IMD, and Research World.

California Management Review The Business Times Forbes LSE I by IMD Research World

California Management Review

AI personas -synthetic, but we find them authentic.

Built faces. Real reactions.

Trust has a new shape.

Synthetic form

Human judgment

Different rooms. Same question.

What is consumer trust worth when people know it was manufactured with AI?

How should AI personas roll out in healthcare, home affairs, education, and other public services?

If AI is rewriting marketing, how should marketing pedagogy change?

Synthetic Authenticity.Multiple use cases.

The authenticity paradox.

When the communicator is code.

The transparency tax.

Doubt spreads.

When AI shops for you.

Burdenless listening.

Different forums.Practical advice.

Quoted.Wrote.

Authenticity runs on three levers.

When nothing looks fake, looking real is worth less.

Acting authentic can backfire.

CEO trust does not erode. It snaps.

The fastest crisis reply does not always win.

Claim less. Prove more.

Posting more achieves little.

AI-written executive posts barely travel.

Ask for the private briefing.