It’s been over a year now since AI burst into general usage for the public in the form of Open AI’s ChatGPT, and since then, for many, it’s felt a bit like “how on earth did we ever do without this?” For many others though, AI tools remain a mysterious blackbox, with the ability to prompt them into useful answers a new skill that needs learning before we can harness their full potential. That’s because getting the most from AI tools isn’t just about how sophisticated or mature the tech is anymore however, but instead relies heavily on the finesse of your interactions with it. That’s where the often-underestimated role of prompts come in — the queries and instructions we feed into them.  

Why Prompts Are So Important

The skill we’re learning here is how to best talk to an AI and that’s what you should think of it as… talking, in the context of a conversation. The whole point of AI interfaces is that they’re done in natural language, meaning you need to learn how to talk to a machine, as you would another person… sort of! It doesn’t matter if you’re seeking information, generating creative content or solving complex problems, the way you articulate your request will profoundly influence the AI’s ability to provide a meaningful response. Think of your prompts as the language ‘key’ that unlocks the vast reservoirs of knowledge and capabilities within its systems. The quality of an AI response will be intrinsically tied to the clarity and specificity of the prompts you provide it. A well-constructed prompt not only ensures accurate and relevant information will be provided but also enhances the AI’s capacity to understand nuanced queries going forward. Conversely, vague or ambiguous prompts will almost always lead to misunderstandings, resulting in less-than-optimal (or useless) outcomes and of course, a diminished user experience (i.e. you’ll be annoyed with an emotionless, inanimate object).  

8 Tips For Creating Much Better Prompts

• Always Provide Context: AIs aren’t mind readers. They’ll try as hard as they can to fulfil your prompt request but providing context will massively help them in doing that. For instance, “Write some social media text persuading people to buy XXX product” vs I’m trying to persuade (insert demographic) to buy more of XXX product whilst it’s on sale/we have excess stock. Create some text for LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter that will persuade (insert demographic) to read the ad, click the link and then buy XXX product.

The AI now knows not just what you want to achieve but why you’re trying to achieve it and can craft a much better response for you.

• Clarity Is Key: Clarity and precision are key when prompting an AI. You almost need to adjust your thinking as though you were talking to a small child (or an intelligent puppy). Children, just like AI’s, aren’t stupid. But they might not have the real-world experience you have to understand your requests. The level of precision needed starts with clarity in your language. You need to practice communicating your intentions with concise and unambiguous wording whilst avoiding jargon or industry anacronyms you might understand but an AI might not. Clear prompts leave will little room for misinterpretation and guide the AI toward understanding your request accurately. By avoiding unnecessary complexity and ambiguity, you’ll pave the way for more straightforward and effective interactions, contributing to the overall quality of AI responses (and your happiness).
• Think In Terms Of Keywords: Keywords are the linchpin of effective AI prompting. They serve as the catalyst that triggers an AI’s understanding of your intent (think context again). By carefully selecting targeted and relevant keywords, you can better guide the AI towards the desired information or action. For instance, if you’re asking an AI drawing app like Dall-E or Microsoft Designer to draw a small, brown animal with a snout, pointy ears and a wagging tail, you’ll do a lot better by stating you want a picture of a dog… only then would you go into extra details like size and color.
• One Question At A Time: To prevent confusing your AI, try to just ask one question per prompt and split complex requests into multiple clear and concise questions. For instance, if you’re writing a blog about how awesome trains are, don’t just say “write a blog about how awesome trains are”. Start by asking for ten blog titles on how awesome trains are. Then choose your favourite and ask the AI to create a blog structure of H2 and H3 tags for a blog with that title. You can even go a level deeper then by adding/removing/editing the differing H tags and asking the AI to expand on them on individual elements of the structure it’s just created for you.
• Give Examples: When you feel it’s appropriate, provide real world examples of what you’re trying to achieve; “do this thing, like this thing here, but better/different”. Doing so will help provide the AI much needed context to work from, allowing it to generate useful (and accurate) responses.
• Watch Your Syntax Spelling & Grammar: I understand the impulse to rush a prompt, after all, it’s not the final product, so why does it need to be perfect? However, clear syntax, with correct spelling and grammar, really does help with better results as it lets the AI parse and understand your inputs more effectively. Going one step further, I’ve even seen advice from Microsoft themselves recently around Copilot, in which they recommend users to be polite, kind and respectful to the AI as it will help foster collaboration whilst improving the AI’s responsiveness and performance.

Apparently, we’ve reached the point where it’s possible to make an AI slow down and sulk if you’re rude to it… and you can take from that what you will!

• • Tell Your AI How It’s Doing: You don’t have to pat it on the back and say well done (although see previous advice there) but if the responses you’re getting aren’t what you’re looking for, tell the AI that BUT… provide it usable feedback. “This is wrong” won’t get you anywhere. “This needs to have more words/less words/focus more on XXX” however, will.

• Did You Know ChatGPT Has Custom Instructions? As a bit of a bonus for those of you using ChatGPT a lot and find yourself giving the same instructions over and over to provide context or clarity… take a look in the bottom right and click your profile. You’ll find a tab called custom instructions that you can fill out, that will automatically apply those instructions to all future prompts it provides, without being asked every time.

Final Thoughts

AI isn’t going anywhere, and whilst I normally like to avoid hyperbole, the future job market is going to belong to those who can prompt effectively. It’s a skill we all need to master and that, right quick! Hopefully some of these tips will help you get there but honestly? The best thing you can do is practice, test and refine by embracing this tech now, rather than having to catch up with everyone else later on when it’ll likely be too late.