Our meta-agency is evolving and AI is starting to reflect who we are. We’ve been training AI to act like a persona. More accurately, we’ve been teaching it to act like the many different versions of human beings.
When people interact with an LLM, they often assign it a role, such as “you are a masterclass coach with ten years of experience” or “you are a strategic analyst who thinks critically”. We’ve found that AI responds better when we tell it who it should be in each chat.
But the irony. We have been doing this ourselves for years, without saying it out loud enough, how AI reflects who we are.
the personas we already wear
Reflect on the day in the life we live every day. In the morning, there’s a version of a human acting as a problem-solver, easing tension between departments. By lunchtime, the human was the gateway to bridging executives, ensuring the executive’s time was used wisely. Later, the human became a supportive coach for a new team member. Then, in the comforts of home, in the evening, deciding what’s for dinner or whether it’s time to go to the gym or see a movie.
It’s the same mind and the same values, but completely different ways of performing.
Each version is truly human, adjusted for the situation, the people involved, and what’s needed at the time. We’ve been forming this habit, consciously shifting how we show up throughout our careers. But now, AI reflects this and making us notice it.
confusion with personas
But let’s unlayer this pattern. Humans don’t always use personas for the right reasons.
Think about the colleague who talks about honesty and respect at work. They bring up psychological safety and open communication. But when confusion arises, they copy an executive on an email, not to be transparent, but to emphasize their dominance. This move is a persona tactic and reveals the depth of consciousness in behavior patterns.
This human acts like a collaborative peer while also acting as a political operator, sometimes in the same email thread. The side-door cc. Adding the boss to an email thread as a silent enforcer. The persona adopted to appease a demanding leader. They juggle different personas with opposite goals, and do it so well that executives don’t always see the signal.
If we’re truly honest, we’ve probably justified similar moves by saying we were ‘keeping people in the loop’ or ‘maintaining accountability’. Humans can adapt, but these calculating behavior examples should not be part of the collaborative transformation when training AI.
the weight we carry
This matters because maintaining multiple personas can become heavy, which impacts well-being. There’s a buildup. More people to answer to, more platforms, more situations to handle. In every Slack and Teams channel, Zoom call, and meeting, humans struggle to be what each situation needs.
There’s also the mental and emotional strain of acting when there’s caution in withholding who we really are. Humans hide their true feelings to please a leader or adjust how they communicate with different executives. At home, they are decisive. But at work, they appear more supportive, and switching between these roles leads them to burnout.
On top of that, not everyone naturally adapts to change. We like what’s familiar and tend to stick to old habits. So even if juggling personas wears us out, we avoid looking at it or making changes because it is uncomfortable. Until something or someone forces the conversation.
AI disruption
There’s a lot of hype around AI and its impact on future jobs. But the more immediate disruption is that AI is making the invisible visible.
When you have to tell AI exactly what role to take, we become aware of the choice. We’re naming something we used to do without thinking about it. We start to see our own patterns from a new perspective. And once this comes to light, especially in uncomfortable ways, our first instinct is often to look away. But the awareness has already begun.
This is temporal awareness in decision-making. The ability to recognize that who we are in any given moment is a choice, not a fixed identity. It’s mindfulness applied to professional identity. Observing human persona shifts with purpose, in the present moment, without judgment, in the service of understanding who we are designed to be and gaining wisdom.
leaning into curiosity
The best way forward isn’t to resist. Stay mindful and curious.
Be aware of the pattern shifts. Tune into the depth of the human frequency. Make a checklist of the patterns that excite you or drain you. Highlight when the experience is strategic and when there’s manipulation involved.
Think of it this way: when people always travel the same road to work, school, or the gym, their perspective never shifts because their surroundings stay the same. The same is true for personas. Without intentionally exploring different approaches, we stay stuck in familiar patterns.
This is where the deep work begins. Not in learning to write a better prompt, but observing the depth of human capabilities more clearly. Ask these questions:
- Which of my work personas feel aligned with who I am designed to be?
- Which ones do I perform out of habit or fear?
- When I shift between contexts, does the situation force me to abandon my being?
This isn’t about forcing all personas into one. It’s about reframing the approach to adapt to situations. Specifically knowing there’s a difference between being flexible and feeling scattered. As AI evolves to incorporate more capabilities, we need to understand how we shift between contexts so we can communicate that same clarity to LLMs.
questions to ask
As AI automates routine tasks we do, the nature of our work will change. That’s not new. What we don’t talk about enough is how this change will allow us to truly add value.
Which tasks need human judgment versus automation?
AI can help write the email, but can it tell when it’s not the right time to send it? Can it notice that the executive needs some guidance instead of another answer? Can it pick up on the signals in the meeting, even when it’s not being said out loud?
Where do I add value that can’t be automated?
Not only what is done every day, but also the nonverbal sense and signals. The pattern recognition comes from years of observing human behavior. The intuition that reveals when something’s off. The relationship is built on trust, allowing people to have conversations that AI could never have.
What problems do I solve that require human creativity?
These are the problems without clear answers. AI can’t see contradictions like humans, to be both supportive and challenging, to keep things organized, but also flexible. This scenario requires us to be fully present as a thoughtful, feeling, and adaptable person.
build a partnership
Refrain from competing with the hype. Learn how to communicate with machines. And the key to that collaboration is understanding what humans and machines bring to the experience.
AI delivers consistency, speed, and scalable pattern recognition. It can hold more information than human brains can. It doesn’t get tired, emotional, or biased by the last difficult conversation.
Humans bring context, nuance, judgment, and presence. Understanding the unspoken because humans have a base EQ. People can read what’s happening beneath the surface and be with another human in their complexity in a way that AI simply cannot. This is truly reflective of who we are as humans.
mindset shift
Partnering with AI isn’t a destination. It’s an ongoing process. A practice of awareness.
It starts with recognizing that the meta-agency we have developed, the ability to consciously choose how we show up, isn’t new. It’s already within you. These are habits and behaviors formed over the years.
the path forward
The future will be about humans being more confident in who they are. More present, more aware, more intentional about how we show up.
That requires us to look in the mirror AI is holding up and really see ourselves. Not only our capabilities, but our patterns. Not only our strengths, but our strategies, including the ones we’re not proud of.
The meta-agency has always been present within the soul of our being and we are learning more about how AI reflects who we are. Now the question is, how do we let our curiosity move forward without fear of losing sight of the comforts of who we are in this new era of tech?
