Written 14 October 2026.
Put your situation in your first message: your role, your size, what you use now and your budget. A bare “what’s the best X?” gets you the answer for a customer who doesn’t exist.
What I measured
On 9 October 2026 I asked ChatGPT and Gemini for the best accounting software in the UK, with and without a persona. One sentence about who was asking changed the shortlist. The finance director of a 250-person manufacturer got a different market from the generic question.
ChatGPT ended all six of its answers with a question about my business. It asked even when the prompt had already said. Study and CSV.
What to paste
I'm a [role] at a [size] [type of business] in the UK. We use [current tool]. Budget is [£x]. What's the best [product] for us? Name three.Fill in every bracket. ChatGPT asked about business type, turnover and current system, so those are worth giving up front.
What I will not claim
- That a persona makes the answer better. I tested whether it changes the answer, not whether it improves it.
- Anything beyond two engines, three prompts and one evening.
- Anything about memory or account history. I typed the persona into the prompt and used temporary chats.
This is hack 7 on the search hacks page.