How to Write AI Prompts That Actually Work

A prompt is simply the message you send to an AI chat. The gap between a vague answer and a genuinely useful one is usually not the AI itself. It is how much the AI knows about what you want. This guide gives you a simple structure, real before-and-after examples, and the follow-up moves that fix most weak answers in one or two turns.

The five parts of a strong prompt

You do not need special syntax or magic words. A strong prompt answers the questions a smart human assistant would ask before starting work. Most good prompts contain some mix of these five parts:

1. Task: what you want done, starting with a clear verb such as write, summarize, compare, explain, fix, plan or rewrite.
2. Context: the background the AI cannot guess. Who you are, what the situation is, what you have already tried.
3. Audience: who will read or use the result, and what they already know.
4. Format: how the answer should look. A table, five bullet points, a 150-word email, numbered steps, code only.
5. Constraints: limits and must-haves. Tone, length, words to avoid, facts that must be included, budget or deadline.

You rarely need all five. A quick factual question needs only the task. A cover letter, a lesson plan or a tricky email needs most of them.

Weak vs strong: three before-and-after examples

Here is what adding those parts looks like in practice.

Example 1: an email

Weak:
Write an email to my landlord about the heating.

Strong:
Write a short, polite but firm email to my landlord. The heating in my
apartment has not worked for 6 days. I reported it by phone on Monday and
nobody came. Ask for a repair date within 48 hours and mention that I can
give access any weekday after 4 pm. Keep it under 150 words. No threats.

The weak version produces a generic template you have to rewrite. The strong one is ready to send after a quick check, because the AI knows the facts, the tone and the goal.

Example 2: learning something new

Weak:
Explain inflation.

Strong:
Explain inflation to me like I am a smart 15-year-old who has never studied
economics. Use one everyday example with supermarket prices. Then give me
3 quick questions to check that I understood. Keep it under 250 words.

Example 3: planning

Weak:
Give me a workout plan.

Strong:
Make a 4-week beginner workout plan I can do at home. I have a pair of
5 kg dumbbells and 30 minutes, 3 times a week. I have a weak lower back,
so avoid heavy loads on the spine. Show it as a table with the columns:
week, day, exercises, sets and reps.

A step-by-step method for any task

1. Start with the outcome. Write down what "done" looks like, for example "a 200-word product description I can paste into my shop page".
2. Add the facts only you know. Names, numbers, dates, what happened, what you tried. If you leave gaps, the AI fills them with plausible but invented details, so fill them yourself.
3. Say who it is for. "For my manager", "for customers who are not technical", "for a job interview panel".
4. Pick a format. Ask for the shape you will actually use: tables for comparisons, numbered steps for instructions, short paragraphs for emails.
5. Paste source material clearly. If you want the AI to work from your text, put your instructions first and the text after them, marked off, for example between triple quotes. This keeps instructions and content separate.
6. Let it ask questions. For bigger jobs, end with "Before you start, ask me up to 5 questions about anything that is unclear." You answer, and the first draft lands much closer.
7. Review and refine. Treat the first answer as a draft. Follow-ups are cheaper than starting over.

Here is a reusable template you can copy into the chat and fill in:

Task: [what you want, starting with a verb]
Context: [background, facts, what you tried]
Audience: [who will read or use it]
Format: [table / bullets / email / steps, and the length]
Constraints: [tone, must include, must avoid]
Before answering, ask me any questions you need.

Not sure where to start? Let the AI interview you: open a prompt-builder request in the chat, replace the bracket with your goal and answer its questions.

Techniques that make a real difference

Show an example of what you want

If you want a particular style, paste one or two short examples and say "match this style". This works better than adjectives like "punchy" or "professional", which mean different things to different people.

Give it a role, but keep it concrete

"Act as an experienced hiring manager in retail and review my CV" helps because it tells the AI which point of view and standards to apply. A role does not turn the AI into a real expert, though. It still needs your facts, and you still need to check the answer.

Ask for the reasoning on hard problems

For maths, logic, planning and debugging, ask the AI to show its working step by step. Many current models reason through a problem before answering anyway, but seeing the steps lets you spot where it went wrong.

Ask for options, then choose

"Give me 5 different subject lines, each in a different style" beats asking for one and rejecting it five times. Pick the best and ask for variations on that one.

Set the length in numbers

"Short" is vague. "Under 100 words", "3 bullet points" or "one paragraph" is not. AI is not precise with exact word counts, but numbers get you close.

Follow-ups that fix most weak answers

The chat remembers the current conversation, so you can steer instead of starting again. These follow-ups solve most problems:

• "Make it shorter and more direct. Cut anything that does not add new information."
• "Keep paragraph 2 exactly as it is and rewrite the rest in a warmer tone."
• "This is too generic. Use the details I gave you: [repeat the key facts]."
• "What assumptions did you make? List them so I can correct them."
• "Rewrite it for someone who has never heard of [topic]."
• "Turn this into a table with columns for [A], [B] and [C]."

If a long conversation starts drifting or repeating itself, open a new chat and paste a short summary of what you want. In very long chats, early details can fall outside what the AI takes into account at once.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Stacking unrelated tasks. "Write my CV, plan my week and explain taxes" in one message gets you three shallow answers. Send one task per message, or a clearly numbered list.
• Hiding the key instruction at the end of a long paste. Put the instructions first, then the material.
• Asking leading questions. "Why is X the best option?" pushes the AI to agree with you. Ask "What are the pros and cons of X compared with Y?" instead.
• Trusting confident answers. AI can state wrong facts fluently. Check anything important; our guide on how to fact-check AI answers shows how.
• Sharing private data you do not need to. Replace names, account numbers and addresses with placeholders. See AI privacy and safety.

Prompt checklist

• Does the prompt start with a clear verb?
• Did I include the facts only I know?
• Did I say who the result is for?
• Did I ask for a specific format and length?
• Did I mention the tone and anything to avoid?
• For a big task, did I invite questions first?

FAQ

Do I need to write prompts in English?

No. Write in your own language and the chat will usually answer in the same language. If you want the answer in a different language, say so explicitly, for example "Answer in Spanish".

Are there magic words that make AI smarter?

Not really. A clear task, real context and a defined format matter far more than any trick phrase. Being polite does not hurt, but specific beats clever.

How long should a prompt be?

As long as it needs to be. A simple question can be one line; a cover letter prompt with your experience and the job ad can run to several hundred words. Length is fine as long as everything in it is relevant.

Why do I get a different answer when I ask the same thing again?

AI chat models choose their words with some built-in randomness, so each answer varies. That is useful: regenerate to see alternatives and keep the best. Our guide on how AI chatbots work explains why.

Can I use these tips with the ChatG tools?

Yes. Tools like the AI writer and the email writer already add a structured prompt behind the scenes, but the more context you put into the input box, the better the result. When you want to keep refining, use "Continue in chat".