What is a prompt?

The word prompt means a cue or a signal to begin. Some people also call it a “request” or an “instruction.” In practice, it’s everything you type into the chat box before you press Enter: a question, an instruction, a text to fix, a photo to describe.

The AI can’t read your mind. It only works from what you give it. A vague prompt gets a vague answer, and a precise prompt gets a useful one.

An example

• Vague prompt: “Write an email.”
• Precise prompt: “Write a short, polite email to my neighbour asking him to move his car, which has been blocking my driveway for two days.”

The second one says who you’re writing to, why, and in what tone. The AI no longer has to guess.

What a good prompt often includes

• The context: who you are, the situation.
• Exactly what you want.
• The format you want: list, paragraph, table, length.
• The tone: formal, friendly, simple.

No magic formula needed. Write to the AI the way you’d explain the task to a coworker who knows nothing about the file.

Learn more

I’ve already shared how I word my requests, step by step, in How to work better with an AI?.