Future of UX | Your Design, Tech and User Experience Podcast | AI Design · Patricia Reiners

#126 Synthetic Users in UX Research: Hype, Reality, and the Future of Design

·21 min·1 clip

Synthetic users are AI profiles that can actually talk back to you, unlike static personas.

Patricia Reines explores the controversial topic of synthetic users—AI-generated profiles powered by LLMs that can engage in interviews and research activities. Drawing from a talk by Julian de la Matia at the Future Product Days conference in Copenhagen, she defines synthetic users, distinguishes them from personas and digital twins, explains their creation process (data ingestion, target definition, simulation, interaction), and covers multiple use cases from desk research to marketing simulation. The episode sets up the inherent tension between cost/speed benefits and the fundamental problem of using AI to replace real user research, framing synthetic users as a tool worthy of critical examination.

As heard by us

A clear reminder that polished answers can hide the real shape of a user problem.

Patricia Reines sets synthetic users against the rougher grain of real interviews, moving from a Copenhagen conference note to a boat workshop and then into the episode's main point.

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Why you'd press play

Want to see how synthetic users compare with messy real interviews?

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