Your first prompts: how to ask AI for what you actually want

Learn in your browser · Chapter 01 of 07

A prompt is simply what you type. The words you choose decide most of what you get back, so a little care here saves a lot of time later.

A prompt is everything you give the AI to work from: your question, your instructions and any text you paste in. The AI cannot see your screen, your goals or your situation. It sees only your words, so it fills every gap with a safe, average guess.

That is why vague prompts give bland answers. 'Write an email about the meeting' leaves the AI guessing who it is for, what was decided and what tone you want. It will produce something that fits nobody in particular.

Weak: Write an email about the meeting.

Better: Write a short, friendly email to my team of six. Remind them that Thursday's planning meeting has moved to 2pm in the small meeting room. Ask them to reply only if they cannot come. Keep it under 80 words.

Learn in your browser · Chapter 02 of 07

There is no magic formula. But most strong prompts contain a mix of six ingredients, and once you know them you can build a good prompt for almost any job.

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Role. Telling the AI who to be changes its tone and focus. 'Act as a friendly editor' gets different help from 'Act as a strict examiner'. A role shapes the style of the answer. It does not turn the AI into a qualified professional, so treat any advice on health, law or money as a starting point for questions to a real expert.

Task. Start with a clear verb: explain, summarise, compare, draft, list, rewrite, check. One task per prompt works best.

Context. Say who the answer is for, what you already know, what you have tried and what you want to achieve. Context is easy to leave out, and it is often the part that helps most.

Format. If you want a table, bullets, a numbered list, an email or a certain length, say so. Otherwise you get whatever the AI feels like.

Constraints. Say what to leave out as well as what to include: a word limit, a reading level, topics to avoid.

Examples are so powerful that chapter five is devoted to them.

You are a patient tutor for adult beginners.
Explain how a mortgage works.
I am a first-time buyer. I am comfortable with basic maths but have never borrowed a large sum.
Use five short bullet points and finish with one worked example.
Keep it under 200 words, avoid jargon, and do not give personal financial advice.

Learn in your browser · Chapter 03 of 07

First replies are rarely perfect, even for experts. The real skill is in the follow-ups.

A chat is a conversation, so you can steer it. Instead of starting again, reply to what you got. The AI can see the whole chat so far and will build on it.

• Adjust the tone: 'Warmer, and less formal.'
• Change the length: 'Half the length. Keep the date.'
• Be concrete: 'Replace the general points with two specific examples from a small office.'
• Simplify: 'Explain that as if I had never heard the term.'
• Ask for options: 'Give me three different versions.'
• Point at a problem: 'The second paragraph is too pushy. Rewrite only that paragraph.'
• Check assumptions: 'What did you assume about me or the situation? List the assumptions.'

Change one thing at a time. If you change five things in a single follow-up, you will not know which change helped. Say what you liked as well as what you did not: 'Keep the opening, change the ending.'

If a chat has wandered off track or grown very long, start a fresh one and paste in a short summary of what you have agreed. In a very long chat, early instructions can slip out of view. That is the context window from the first workbook at work.

Learn in your browser · Chapter 04 of 07

Two habits make big tasks manageable: let the AI interview you first, and break the work into stages.

Sometimes you do not know what to include. So flip it round and ask the AI to question YOU.

I want to plan a small birthday party for a friend. Before you suggest anything, ask me up to five questions, one at a time, that you need answered to give good ideas. Wait for my reply to each one.

Asking for one question at a time keeps it easy, and you finish with a far richer brief than you could have written alone. When you have answered, say: 'Now use my answers to write the plan.'

For larger jobs, ask for the work in stages. Instead of 'Write my whole presentation', try this:

1. Ask for a short outline, then approve it or change it.
2. Ask for the first section only.
3. Give feedback, then continue section by section.
4. At the end, ask for a review: 'Read it all again as a busy customer and tell me what is unclear.'

You can also ask the AI to show its working: 'List the steps you took and any assumptions you made.' This makes mistakes easier for YOU to spot. It does not make an answer certainly right, so still check anything important.

Learn in your browser · Chapter 05 of 07

Describing a style in words is hard. Showing a sample is easy, and AI is very good at following a pattern.

If you want writing that sounds like you, or answers that match your existing documents, paste a short example and ask the AI to follow it. Use text you wrote yourself that contains nothing private: a paragraph from an old blog post, a message you were pleased with, a template your team already uses.

Here is a short example of my writing style:
[paste 100 to 200 words of your own writing]

Notice the sentence length, the tone and the vocabulary. Now write a short thank-you note to a colleague who covered my shift, in the same style. Keep it under 60 words.

You can also give an example of the answer format. Show one or two finished items, then ask for more like them. Prompt writers call this few-shot prompting, because 'a few shots' means a few examples.

Turn each note into a task, like these:
Note: Ali to book the room next week.
Task: Book the room | Owner: Ali | Due: next week
Note: Sam will call the supplier by Friday.
Task: Call the supplier | Owner: Sam | Due: Friday

Now do the same for these notes. If an owner or a date is missing, write 'not stated' and do not guess.
1. Priya will send the figures on Monday.
2. Someone needs to order coffee.

Notice the last instruction in that prompt. Telling the AI what to do when information is missing is a simple way to reduce made-up details (hallucinations).

Learn in your browser · Chapter 06 of 07

Beginners tend to make the same handful of errors. Spot them early and you will improve fast.

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One more habit: read the whole answer before you use it. AI text can sound fluent and still contain an error, an invented detail or a tone you did not intend. You are the editor, and you are responsible for whatever you send or publish.

Learn in your browser · Chapter 07 of 07

The prompts that work for you are worth keeping. A small personal library turns one good afternoon into a lasting habit.

Whenever a prompt gives you a result you are pleased with, save it. Put the reusable parts in a note, a document or a spreadsheet. Replace the details that change (names, dates, topic) with square brackets, so next time you only fill in the gaps.

Give each prompt a short name and a one-line note on when to use it. Group them by job: writing, learning, planning, checking. Once a month, delete what you never use and improve what you do.

Here is a template that covers the six parts. Copy it, and delete any line you do not need.

Role: You are [who the AI should be].
Task: [What you want done, starting with a verb].
Context: [Who it is for, what you know, what you have tried].
Format: [Bullets, table, email, length].
Constraints: [Word limit, reading level, things to avoid].
Example: [A short sample of what good looks like, if you have one].
Before you start: if anything is unclear or missing, ask me up to three questions.

Well done. You now know how to ask for what you want, improve a reply, let the AI interview you, show it a style and keep your best prompts. The next workbook, The free AI toolkit, shows you how to choose tools and stay safe while you use them.