Date
May 28, 2026 3:00 pm
Duration
40 min
Location
Lucerna Great Hall
Personas have never been easier to make and never been more dangerous. Ask any AI to “make me a persona”, and it will hand you a complete, confident, plausible human being in ten seconds. The problem is that none of it is real.
In this talk, Dr Nick Fine shows why AI-generated personas are fiction dressed as research, and what to do instead. You will learn to treat personas as containers for real insight, structure them so they actually inform design, and use AI the right way: to analyse real user data, not invent fictional users.
Plausible is not valid. Come and learn the difference.
Nick Fine
Principal UX Research Consultant and Strategist
Adaptavist
Dr Nick Fine is a UX psychologist and user researcher specialising in evidence-led product design, behavioural modelling, and human-centred decision-making. With over two decades of experience working across enterprise, SaaS, and complex technical products, he helps organisations move beyond surface-level UX and build the right thing based on validated user needs. Dr Nick is known for his rigorous stance against checkbox research, vibes-based design, and untested assumptions, and for translating psychology and research insight into practical product outcomes. He currently works in the Office of the CTO at Adaptavist and regularly speaks on scientific design, AI-accelerated research, and the future of UX practice.