Bringing dynamic consumers to life

AI-powered personas that drive research, refine insights, and empower innovation.

Feb 25, 2025

Imagine replacing the millions spent on traditional research  – surveys, interviews, focus groups, and incomplete datasets  – with a smarter, faster approach to understanding human behavior.

Picture predicting consumer trends in Tokyo, Riyadh, or New York before they even happen, or uncovering insights across continents in minutes, not months. AI-powered synthetic data is no longer a distant vision, it’s the reality. Reshaping how brands, governments, and organizations understand behaviors, test ideas, and innovate safely and efficiently. 
 
At EPAM, we’ve been working with synthetic data and personas long before AI became a buzzword. Our goal has always been to help clients deliver futuristic experiences rooted in real human needs and tensions, supercharging their innovation pipelines while keeping the focus firmly on the end customer. 
 
However, the term “synthetic data” doesn’t fully capture the richness and dynamism it holds. Similarly, the term “synthetic personas” falls short because it implies something static, artificial, and disconnected from real human behaviors. In reality, these personas are fueled by AI oxygen and shaped by tons of data points, constantly learning and evolving. We call them “Dynamic Consumers” – AI-powered representations of human behavior that breathe life into research and innovation. 

Dynamic Consumers are far more than surface-level profiles defined by high-level demographics like age, gender, income, or location. While these attributes provide a starting point, they barely scratch the surface of understanding human behavior. To truly mirror real individuals, we layer these personas with psychographics – the core of human behavior – capturing: 

• Attitudes, values, habits, preferences, motivations, and
• Contextual behaviors that reveal how people think, act, and make decisions. 

What really sets Dynamic Consumers apart is their ability to be tailored to specific attributes relevant to customers within different categories and industries. For example: 

• A persona for luxury retail might emphasize aspirational attitudes, discretionary spending habits, and emotional triggers tied to exclusivity. 
• In healthcare, the focus could shift to trust, lifestyle choices, and health management behaviors. 
• For technology, Dynamic Consumers might highlight tech adoption rates, problem-solving tendencies, and digital behaviors. 

But creating Dynamic Consumers is just the beginning. To unlock their full potential, key elements must align seamlessly. At the core is the LLM engine, the large language model that determines their sophistication and ability to reflect real human behavior. 

 
The real value emerges when connected data sources come together – combining past data (historical reports and insights), live data feeds (news, social listening), and first-party data (owned customer information) and other subscribed data sources. When these sources intertwine, they transform raw inputs into actionable insights, ensuring Dynamic Consumers remain adaptive, responsive, and relevant to real-world contexts. 
 
Dynamic Consumers open the door to transformative possibilities for research and innovation. While not exhaustive, the following key applications highlight how these AI-powered personas enable faster, smarter, and more actionable insights. 

Exploratory research

Dynamic Consumers bring exploration to life by enabling real-time, iterative research. You can conduct virtual interviews or simulated focus groups that mimic real customer conversations. The advantage lies in their adaptability – allowing researchers to ask follow-up questions instantly based on emerging insights. Gone are the days of regretting missed probes; you can refine and revisit queries dynamically as you analyze the findings, unlocking deeper layers of understanding.

Usability testing

Dynamic Consumers revolutionize usability testing by actively interacting with digital prototypes, live applications, or websites. Leveraging AI advancements, they evaluate flows, navigation, and user experience against established usability principles. They can flag design friction points, suggest improvements, and even test for accessibility compliance to ensure inclusive design. The result? Faster validation cycles and actionable feedback that refine user experiences before launch.

Data triangulation

By connecting diverse data sources – past reports, real-time social listening, and first-party data – Dynamic Consumers answer not just the “what”, but also the “why” and even the “so what?” For example, imagine identifying a sales dip in historical data. Dynamic Consumers can cross-reference live customer sentiments on social media and competitor activity to reveal underlying causes and actionable next steps. Turning disconnected insights into a cohesive, strategic story.

Concept, content, and campaign testing

Dynamic Consumers allow you to efficiently, and instantly, test ideas, concepts, and stimuli with consumers. Whether it’s an innovation concept, messaging direction, or campaign creative, these personas provide immediate, actionable feedback. More importantly, the system can take this feedback to refine and enhance the stimuli on the go. This iterative approach ensures that your final version – be it a message, ad, or product concept –resonates with target audiences before it reaches the market.

Qualitative depth with quantitative scale

Dynamic Consumers combine the best of qualitative and quantitative research. You can simulate interviews with hundreds of personas to extract both the breadth of large-scale surveys and the depth of open-ended qualitative responses. This approach provides clear insights into underlying motivations, preferences, and behaviors – at a scale that traditional methods cannot achieve.

Idea generation and white space identification

By analyzing pain points, unmet needs, and behavioral trends, Dynamic Consumers help identify white spaces for innovation. They don’t just highlight problems, they offer clues to solutions by generating initial ideas and directions. Whether it’s new products, services, or features, these personas act as sparring partners for ideation, bringing actionable possibilities to the table.

Fueling omnimodal experiences

Dynamic Consumers adapt to specific user contexts to deliver hyper-personalized experiences. For example, they can identify a target segment’s behaviors and refine personalized content, such as dynamic landing pages. Beyond this, they can anticipate customer needs as they transition across environments – like moving from car to home – and predict what matters most at each touchpoint. This ensures that every interaction is relevant, seamless, and impactful.

Real-time scenario simulations 

Dynamic Consumers can simulate various real-world scenarios to test responses to different market conditions, product changes, or external events. For instance: 

• How would customers react to a price change? 
• How might sentiment shift during a PR crisis? 
• What’s the impact of introducing a new feature or loyalty program? 

By testing these situations in a controlled environment, businesses can predict outcomes and develop contingency plans, minimizing risks and optimizing strategies. 

Competitive benchmarking 

Dynamic Consumers can simulate customer perceptions of your brand against competitors by testing product features, messaging, or customer experiences side by side. This allows businesses to identify areas where competitors outperform them and opportunities to differentiate. For example, comparing customer experience flows on your e-commerce site versus competitor platforms and pinpointing friction areas.

The future of research: AI agents collaborating

The future becomes even more exciting when AI Agents, powered by advanced LLMs and dynamic data engines, evolve beyond isolated tasks to work collaboratively. These agents can "talk to each other", sharing insights, processing data, and executing multi-step tasks – bringing the true potential of Dynamic Consumers to life. 

This creates a connected ecosystem where AI Agents not only curate Dynamic Consumers, but also activate them across critical functions. Whether it’s refining product innovation, optimizing messaging, or personalizing customer experiences, these agents seamlessly collaborate to deliver faster, smarter outcomes. 

For instance, a business aiming to develop a new product concept and test it quickly across different markets could rely on these collaborative agents: 

• The Research Agent curates Dynamic Consumers based on specific demographic and psychographic layers – eco-conscious young professionals in urban centers across England, Germany, and India. These personas reflect real-world attitudes, behaviors, and preferences. 
• The Innovation Agent leverages insights from Dynamic Consumers to identify pain points and white spaces, such as the demand for sustainable, affordable, and sleek product designs. 
• The Creative Optimizer Agent then simulates how these Dynamic Consumers respond to different concepts, messaging directions, and campaign ideas – highlighting which resonate most and why. 
• Finally, the Content AI Agent refines the messaging and content dynamically, aligning it with the specific attributes and cultural contexts of each market. 

This kind of collaborative interaction ensures that Dynamic Consumers are not just analyzed but activated – allowing businesses to test, learn, and refine ideas in real time.

While this technology is undeniably powerful, it is not yet capable of replacing human intuition, judgment, and creativity. AI-powered tools, including Dynamic Consumers, are best used to complement and augment human research – not as standalone solutions. They empower researchers to produce richer, more actionable insights with greater speed and efficiency. 

Human insight meets AI power

However, the accuracy and quality of the outputs remain dependent on how well Dynamic Consumers are curated – ensuring they reflect real, layered human behaviors and contexts – and on the thoughtful, well-designed questions researchers ask to uncover deeper, more meaningful insights. 

When used thoughtfully, this technology supports businesses and brands by enhancing innovation pipelines, improving decision-making, and enabling research teams to deliver outcomes that are both data-driven and human-centered. The synergy of AI and human expertise is where the real magic happens – unlocking the future of research while staying grounded in human understanding.