What Makes a Good AI Prompt?

“I asked it and got a rubbish answer” is almost always a prompting problem, not a tool problem. The gap between a vague request and a genuinely useful AI response usually comes down to a handful of habits that take a few minutes to learn.

Be Specific About What You Want

“Write me a social post” produces something generic. “Write a short, friendly Facebook post announcing our new opening hours, in the same tone as our usual posts” gives AI something to actually work with. The more specific the request, the less editing the result needs.

Give It Context

AI doesn’t know your business unless you tell it. Include who you are, who you’re writing for, and anything relevant about the situation. A short paragraph of context at the start of a prompt makes a noticeable difference to the quality of what comes back.

Specify the Format You Want

Asking for “a short paragraph,” “a bulleted list,” or “three options to choose from” removes a whole layer of guesswork. Without a format request, AI tends to default to a longer answer than most tasks actually need.

Give Examples When You Can

If you have an example of the tone, style, or structure you want — a previous post, a similar document, a sentence you like — include it. Examples do more work than descriptions, especially for anything about tone or style.

Ask It to Ask You Questions

If you’re not sure what details matter, try: “What would you need to know to do this well?” AI will often list the missing information itself, which is a quick way to spot gaps in your own prompt.

Refine Rather Than Restart

If the first answer isn’t quite right, it’s usually faster to say what’s wrong — “too formal,” “too long,” “missing X” — than to start again from scratch. AI tools handle follow-up refinement well; treat the first response as a draft, not a final answer.

A Simple Prompt Structure to Try

Context (who you are, who this is for) + Task (exactly what you want) + Format (how long, what shape) + Example (if you have one) covers most of what makes a prompt work well, across almost any task.

Get Hands-On Prompting Practice

If you’d like practical, hands-on practice with your own real tasks rather than generic examples, that’s exactly what AI Training & Workshops covers.

Book an AI starting point call to talk through getting more useful results from AI.