Young people today are paying to "hand-craft" AI personas

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Events Search Project Recommendations I Want to Join City Cooperation This Generation of Young People Are Paying to "Hand-Craft" AI Personas Jingzhe Research Institute · October 20, 2026 12:13 Chat Boxes Turn into Virtual Film Sets

"Hi, let's play a role-playing game! Please strictly follow the requirements below. [Your Settings] Name: (leave blank for random generation), Identity: the current dynasty's young Grand Tutor, Personality: extremely principled, keeps strangers at a distance..." This text, which looks like a character introduction, is a role-playing prompt written for AI.

From noble young masters who are flirtatious and deep-thinking, to virtual lovers who seem cold on the surface but are obsessive inside, from virtual characters in otome games and fan works, to the simple fantasies in users' heads. As long as users send the corresponding prompt to the AI through the chat box, they can get a character played by the AI, and in back-and-forth conversation, unfold a story experience with interactive plot.

As this way of playing gradually becomes popular, a group of sellers specializing in AI persona prompts has also appeared on social platforms, ranging from packaged templates for a few yuan or a dozen yuan, to private customization services tailored to buyers' preferences. What was originally a way for users to explore AI role-playing on their own is now gradually developing into a niche business with clearly marked prices.

Custom-Ordering an Original AI Character for 5 Yuan

At the beginning of this year, when she first came across AI role-playing, Xiaoxuan was quickly drawn in. In order to find character settings that better suited her preferences, she joined multiple related chat groups, gradually collected hundreds of persona prompts, and tried out characters with different backgrounds, personalities, and interaction styles.

*The customization outline Xiaoxuan received

"At first I thought each one was quite fresh, and whenever I saw a new setting I wanted to try it. But after playing for a while, I realized that mainstream personas are actually fairly fixed and don't have much distinctive character," Xiaoxuan said. She hoped to be able to set the story background, character relationships, and plot direction in advance, while also filling in details such as the character's personality and way of speaking more specifically, so that it would be easier for her to get into the role during interaction. So she decided to try private customization of AI personas.

For Xiaoxuan, the biggest appeal of AI role-playing is the uncertainty of the plot. "Compared with reading a novel or experiencing an otome game with a preset plot route, AI sometimes gives unexpected responses," Xiaoxuan told Jingzhe Research Institute.

In order to get an interactive experience she could participate in and adjust, Xiaoxuan tried different models including DeepSeek, Doubao, Gemini, and ChatGPT, and also came into contact with some character interaction products. "I feel that DeepSeek's performance is the most human-like. This is also one of the important reasons why I am willing to keep paying."

"When customizing, sellers generally first confirm whether there are special requirements, such as whether to specify the names of the male and female leads, add psychological descriptions, or whether text beautification is needed. Some sellers also help optimize the opening plot so that the whole setting looks more like a novel." And the cost of trying this interactive experience is not high. Xiaoxuan revealed, "I previously added several bloggers who provide custom prompts, and the prices were generally 5-8 yuan. Usually the finished product can be received in 2-3 days, and expedited or buyout orders cost twice the price. It's much cheaper than commissioning artwork or writing before."

For people unfamiliar with the OC community (Original Character, usually referring to original characters conceived by creators themselves), paying for a virtual character setting may be hard to understand. But in the OC circle, where original character creation and exchange are the main activities, paying for favorite characters is already a basic norm.

Unlike directly using IP characters from anime or games, an OC's appearance, identity, personality, growth experience, and even the worldview it inhabits can all be decided by the creator. After the character is born, new content can also be continuously added. For example, finding an artist to draw a character portrait, or commissioning a writer to create a story for the character. These creative needs also constitute the long-standing commission consumption in the OC circle. Affected by factors such as customization complexity, number of characters, and creative requirements, related commission prices range from dozens of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan.

However, in the past, OC circle players mostly improved the character's image and story unilaterally. Even if a complete personality, background, and character relationships were designed for the character, most of this content still remained in artwork and written settings, and what the character would say or do usually still needed to be conceived by the creator. The emergence of large AI models has added an interactive way to one-way character creation.

A Circle "Small Business" Born from Interest

As AI role-playing spreads on social platforms, more players have begun to hope for character settings that match their personal preferences. Jingzhe Research Institute noted that a group of creators providing AI persona services has already emerged, and they take on user needs through group chats, comment-section "ordering," and other methods.

However, unlike entrepreneurs in the traditional sense, this field has not yet formed a mature professional system. Some creators do not rely on it as their main source of income; rather, it is more of a service ecosystem that players spontaneously extend based on their interests and creative abilities.

Xiaoyue, a blogger on Xiaohongshu, told Jingzhe Research Institute that she first came across persona prompts shared by others and tried using them, and only later gradually began creating her own character settings. "Usually, when I come across some settings or get inspired by a novel's plot, I'll write my own version, and only post it if I feel the interaction works smoothly."

There is also a difference in demand between sharing gameplay and providing services. Some players are not satisfied with existing templates and instead hope someone will help them complete fuller character settings and plot design. When browsing social platforms and the group chats and comment sections of custom-design bloggers, Jingzhe Research Institute found that some players already have their own OCs and hope to use AI to make these characters truly participate in interactions; other users have no prior experience of "raising an OC" and simply want to experience a character storyline that suits their preferences.

"I think AI personas both create new interactive demand and have a certain connection with traditional OC creation," said another custom-design blogger, "YesNo." In her view, commissioning artwork, writing stories, and AI interaction are not substitutes for one another, but rather meet users' needs for character creation and companionship at different stages.

Compared with Xiaoyue, who focuses more on sharing her interests, "YesNo" has already begun taking orders to provide customized persona prompt services. She told Jingzhe Research Institute that her current services mainly include basic persona design, character background refinement, and complete plot settings. Pricing for different needs is based on content complexity, production difficulty, and time invested. "Overall, the prices are still quite affordable."

Regarding pricing, after consulting multiple related bloggers, Jingzhe Research Institute found that AI persona customization services are still generally at a low per-customer price stage, with the price for a single-persona prompt usually within 10 yuan per thousand characters. Actual quotes are adjusted according to the complexity of the persona, worldview setting, number of character relationships, delivery time, and whether services such as buyout and subsequent revisions are included.

Low barriers also mean this business faces a more chaotic market environment. For example, AI has lowered the threshold for persona creation, making popular settings easier to copy. Xiaoyue said, "Many similar themes have already appeared on the platform, such as Hong Kong entertainment circle big shots, post-apocalyptic backgrounds, and ancient-style power struggles. There are more and more similar types, and it may become increasingly saturated later."

Moreover, because different creators understand the boundaries between borrowing, reference, and plagiarism differently, issues such as overlapping settings and character ownership may also become points of dispute in transactions. "Some creators mark that modification is prohibited and resale is prohibited, and some creators are averse to BL. Everyone's rules are different," Xiaoyue told Jingzhe Research Institute. She has not encountered many disputes so far, but as participants increase, problems surrounding setting ownership, reference, and the boundaries of originality may gradually increase.

In addition, Jingzhe Research Institute also learned during its research that some AI persona prompts are suspected of bordering on explicit content or directly asking AI to engage in large-scale content interaction. However, at a time when regulation of generative AI is tightening, these persona contents that hover on the edge of the law may not allow users to "get what they want."

When AI enters the niche cultural circle of OC as an emerging technology, it also brings controversy.

On one side, AI is continuously lowering the threshold for character creation, allowing more ordinary users to quickly generate character settings; on the other side is the OC circle, which has long been built on original expression and character development. As AI participates more and more in character creation, questions such as "Does an AI-generated setting count as a landmine in the OC circle?" have also begun to appear in some player communities.

Supporters believe that AI lowers the threshold for character creation, enabling people without drawing ability or writing experience to quickly build a virtual character of their own; but another group of creators believes that the value of OC lies in the imagination, expression, and emotion that creators invest over the long term, while content generated out of thin air by AI squeezes out the emotional value that human creation gives.

However, for creators who try AI persona prompt services, AI is seen more as an auxiliary tool rather than a replacement for creation itself. Xiaoyue said, "I rarely use AI assistance when creating personas myself. I usually just write whatever comes to mind and don't really need AI to help me write." By contrast, "YesNo" uses AI to assist with part of the content during the creation process, but also makes revisions based on character settings and actual interaction results. "Relying solely on generation speed cannot create competitiveness. What really matters is personal aesthetics, creative ability, and understanding of characters and stories."

On this point, when browsing related social platforms, Jingzhe Research Institute also found that some users show a strong willingness to pay for personas that have already been publicly released. Some players actively ask whether they can buy a publicly released AI persona prompt, and even hope to obtain buyout usage rights. In addition, in some recommendation posts sharing AI character experiences, netizens can often be seen directly @-mentioning AI prompt bloggers and commenting that they "do a certain type of setting well" or that "the character logic is relatively complete."

This also means that after AI lowers the threshold for character creation, users still pay more attention to creators' ability to shape character backgrounds, relationships, and story logic. And this pursuit of character completeness and long-term value did not emerge only in the AI era.

In traditional OC creation, the consumption pattern in which players continuously invest around a single character has long existed. In recent years, OC culture has been gradually moving from a niche interest toward broader content communities. On platforms such as Xiaohongshu, "OC"-related content covers multiple scenarios including character setting sharing, illustration creation, and commission exchanges, gradually forming a content ecosystem built around original characters.

Taking commission platforms such as Mihuaishi as an example, demand around OCs already covers multiple stages including character design and full-body illustration. Players may first commission a basic full-body illustration or avatar, then further add clothing, expressions, and interaction images, and even commission creators to flesh out the character's story.

*Screenshot of the Mihuaishi platform

The process of a character going from birth to gradually becoming fuller is itself a process of continuous investment. AI persona prompts are more like an extension of OC consumption. However, as things stand, this business is still some distance from a mature commercial model. On one hand, the services as a whole remain at a low price point; on the other hand, how to continuously provide differentiated character experiences remains a difficult problem creators must face.

In the OC circle, characters are born because they are created, and they live because their settings are repeatedly enriched. From hand-drawn drafts to digital full-body illustrations, from handwritten settings to AI prompts, the medium of creation has kept iterating, but the desire of community players to create, to express themselves, and to raise a character of their own has never changed.

*Xiaoxuan, Xiaoyue, and YesNo are all pseudonyms

This article comes from the WeChat public account "Jingzhe Research Institute," author: Xia Xia, published by 36Kr with authorization.

The views in this article represent only the author's own, and the 36Kr platform merely provides information storage space services.+12

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