This page covers the fundamental principles of writing effective AI prompts.
1. Clarity & Specificity
To ensure the AI model generates accurate and desired responses, your prompts should be unambiguous and as specific as possible. Use clear verbs, nouns, and detailed descriptions instead of abstract expressions.
Examples:
Bad Prompt: "Write a good essay." Improved Prompt: "Write a friendly and persuasive 500-word blog post explaining the benefits of sustainable energy solutions for an online publication."
2. Role Assignment
Assigning a specific role or persona to the AI can guide it to generate responses with an appropriate tone, style, and knowledge level. This helps align the AI's output with your expectations.
Examples:
"You are an experienced marketing expert. Propose new social media campaign ideas targeting young adults (20s)." "You are a historian specializing in ancient Rome. Briefly explain Caesar's conquest of Gaul."
3. Commands and Instructions
Your prompt should include clear commands and instructions for the AI to follow. Use action verbs such as "write," "summarize," "explain," or "generate" to explicitly guide the AI's behavior.
Examples:
"Summarize the following sentence in 30 characters: 'The advancement of artificial intelligence is expected to bring significant changes across society.'" "Write Python code to implement the Quick Sort algorithm."
4. Providing Context
Providing sufficient context to the AI enhances the relevance and accuracy of its responses. Include background information, objectives, and target audience details.
Examples:
"The following is a section from our company's annual report: (Insert report text). From this report, extract three key financial performance indicators and explain them in language understandable to a non-expert."
5. Setting Constraints
Specifying constraints on the AI's response, such as length, style, keywords to include, or content to exclude, increases the likelihood of getting the desired output.
Examples:
"Summarize the following text in under 100 words, and ensure it includes the words 'innovation' and 'future': (Insert long text)." "Explain the solar system using simple words that children can understand. Avoid using technical jargon."