Aha! Knowledge | AI prompt best practices

It may take several tries to get the results you want from AI. As you use it more frequently to draft different types of content, you will learn which types of prompts work best to get the output you are looking for. Follow these best practices to get more predictable and useful results from AI.

Goal-first

What do you want AI to help you achieve? The deeper your understanding of what you want to write, the better you can direct AI to produce the results you are looking for. Your goals will help inform what your target tone and style will be — so you can include this in your prompt and get results that convey the right message.

Identify your audience

When prompting AI to generate or improve text, provide your intended audience in your prompt. This helps AI tailor a relevant message that resonates. Identifying your audience will also assist AI in determining the appropriate language and terms to use.

You can take it further and include perspective in your prompt as well — tell AI who is speaking in your written piece. This helps you refine the voice in your generated text.

Be specific

Tell AI exactly what you are writing and what you need to include. This gives AI a clear goal to work towards. If your prompt is vague, the text generated may not be relevant or accurate. But if you include specific details in your prompt, the AI-generated text is more likely to be appropriate and effective.

Test and test again

By testing different prompts and analyzing the results, you can identify which prompts are most effective in providing the results you want. This is especially important when you want AI to produce text that adheres to your brand voice and tone. Once you learn through trial and error which prompts achieve the right results, you can use them again in the future.

Document best practices for your team

Once you get comfortable using AI, document what works for you. Then educate and align your team on how to get consistent, quality results from AI. When you onboard new teammates, provide them with your best practices so they will have a resource to help them understand the standards for using AI at your organization.