Generating such a map from scratch can waste hours and dilute critical persona insights. Static boards lack dynamic prompts that surface deeper motivations. Manual exports and version control further delay stakeholder alignment across teams.
AI template automates content based on simple persona inputs, allowing teams to capture nuanced ‘Says’, ‘Thinks’, ‘Does’, and ‘Feels’ dimensions instantly. With integrated collaboration and pre-built frameworks, teams focus on interpreting insights instead of formatting diagrams.
AI Empathy Map Template Features
Brainstorming
Visualize Data to Discover Connections
Capture Requirements and Ideas
Benefits of Using the Empathy Map
Data-driven decisions
Collaborate in context of your work
Streamlined export workflows
The AI empathy map template captures user experiences across four key quadrants. AI-generated prompts enrich each dimension with deeper motivations, creating a unified framework that integrates verbal, cognitive, behavioral, and emotional insights for a holistic view of your target audience.
Empathy Map Quadrants
| Quadrant | Focus | AI Enhancement |
|---|---|---|
| Says | Verbatim quotes and statements from users | AI suggests representative quotes and refines language based on persona profiles |
| Thinks | Inferred thoughts, beliefs, and assumptions | AI surfaces hidden beliefs and highlights cognitive biases from research data |
| Does | Observable behaviors and actions | AI analyzes user interactivity and behavioral patterns and recommends potential touchpoints to explore further |
| Feels | Emotional states and motivations | AI prompts reveal underlying needs and emotional drivers to guide design decisions |
With Creately’s template, these quadrants become interactive canvases. Teams can refine AI suggestions, attach notes, and collaborate live to uncover hidden opportunities in user behavior.
When to Use the Map
Identify the ideal moments to apply an AI empathy map template. Whether kicking off a new project or synthesizing research findings, this tool aligns teams around user needs and accelerates decision-making.
Project kickoff workshops
Visualize user needs across the four quadrants to build a shared understanding and drive focused ideation early in the project lifecycle.
Persona development and stakeholder presentations
Auto-generate detailed persona narratives using AI empathy maps to align stakeholders and secure buy-in for feature roadmaps.
UX research synthesis
Import interview transcripts or survey data to auto-populate quadrants, streamlining synthesis and enabling rapid prioritization of user insights.
Product roadmap planning
Overlay proposed features onto empathy maps to evaluate impact on user behaviors and emotions, ensuring roadmap alignment with real needs.
Marketing campaigns
Map buyer motivations and emotional triggers to craft messaging that resonates, informed by AI-generated prompts and real data.
Customer support training
Visualize common pain points, behaviors, and emotional states to develop empathetic scripts and improve service quality.
How to Use the AI Empathy Map Template
Creately’s template provides an end-to-end workflow, combining AI-powered visual intelligence with collaborative editing and seamless export options. Teams move from user persona inputs to actionable insights without leaving the platform.
Step 1: Select the AI Empathy Map Template
This will launch your AI empathy map generator template.
Step 2: Enter Prompt
Provide user persona details or upload research notes and session transcripts into the text box to generate the template.
Step 3: Refine the template
Customize shapes, colors, and layout to match your project style and branding.
Step 4: Collaborate
Invite team members for real-time editing, comments, voting, and discussions within the diagram.
Step 5: Export
Download your AI empathy map template as PDF, PNG, Excel, or turn it into a slideshow for presentations and reports.
Empathy Map Best Practices
Follow these best practices to maximize the value of your AI empathy map template. Proper execution ensures accurate insights, team alignment, and compliance with data privacy standards.
Do
Separate user statements (Says) from inferred thoughts (Thinks) to avoid overlap and maintain clarity.
Validate AI-generated prompts against actual research data to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Group similar behaviors in the Does quadrant to identify patterns and streamline analysis.
Annotate emotional triggers in the Feels quadrant with supporting observations from interviews.
Don’t
Overload a single quadrant with too many notes; keep entries concise for readability.
Rely solely on AI suggestions without contextual knowledge from your research or stakeholder input.
Skip syncing the map with the existing customer journey or UX artifacts for consistent context.
Neglect version control; track changes to maintain an audit trail and ensure data integrity.
Sources of User Data to Collect for Empathy Maps
Enrich your AI empathy map template by integrating multiple sources of user data. Draw on transcripts, metrics, and behavioral logs for balanced insights.
User interview transcripts and session notes to capture verbatim statements.
Survey responses and quantitative metrics for statistical insights into user preferences.
Customer support tickets and feedback logs highlighting common pain points.
Web analytics, heatmaps, and clickstream data to observe actual behaviors.
Social media mentions and review analysis to surface spontaneous user sentiments.
Real-World Scenarios to Make Use of Empathy Maps
These scenarios illustrate how teams across industries can use AI empathy map templates to accelerate insight generation and drive user-centered actions.
SaaS Onboarding Persona
A SaaS startup UX team facing a high drop-off rate during initial product tours can leverage an empathy map template. They can generate quadrant content from interview transcripts with new users. ‘Says’ quotes can capture concerns like "I can’t find the settings menu," while ‘Feels’ can surface anxiety about learning curves. The infinite canvas can enable stakeholders to identify friction points and optimize tutorial placement. Within hours, the team can iterate onboarding flows, boost first-session engagement and improve user activation rates.
E-commerce Shopper Insights
Marketing teams in e-commerce can use the AI empathy map template to deepen understanding of holiday shoppers. By feeding past purchase data and support chats into the template, ‘Does’ items can highlight browsing patterns, while ‘Thinks’ prompts can reveal price-related hesitations. Campaign managers will be empowered to craft emails addressing concerns like delivery timing. Cart recovery rates and higher click-throughs on personalized promotions can be achieved.
Healthcare Patient Journey
Clinicians at a telehealth provider could improve patient engagement for follow-up appointments. They can do this by importing satisfaction surveys and appointment logs into the AI empathy map generator template. ‘Says’ comments such as "I forget to schedule a check-in," and ‘Feels’ with emotions like frustration and relief can provide valuable insights that drive redesigns and interface tweaks. Cross-functional teams can co-create new notification templates, to reduce no-show rates and higher patient satisfaction scores.
Financial Services Research
A retail bank aiming to boost mobile dashboard adoption can compile user interviews, support tickets, and usage metrics into the AI empathy map template. ‘Thinks’ such as "Is my data secure?" and ‘Does’ entries showing frequent logout attempts provide great insights. This can enable prioritization of security messaging and streamlined login flows. A decrease in login-related support cases and an increase in daily active users are potential improvement areas.
These examples demonstrate how an AI empathy map generator template accelerates insight discovery, fosters collaboration, and drives measurable outcomes across sectors.
Start Generating Empathy Maps
With Creately’s AI empathy map template, teams unlock deep user insights in minutes through AI automation. Real-time collaboration and intuitive editing simplify the journey from ideation to actionable analysis. Share live links, refine together, and export your final map to PDF, PNG, Excel.. Empower teams to make data-driven, user-centered decisions across product, marketing, and support workflows. Seamlessly integrate with GitHub, JIRA, Asana, and Confluence to maintain workflow consistency.