As AI continues to integrate into nearly every industry, knowing how to communicate effectively with these tools is becoming a crucial skill. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang advises students, and by extension, professionals and entrepreneurs, to embrace AI now.
But how exactly can one make the most of AI? The key lies in learning how to craft effective prompts.
Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and co-founder, recently shared a four-part formula for writing AI prompts that generate the best results. Developed by AI engineer Ben Hylak, this structure helps users guide AI systems more effectively, ensuring responses are relevant, accurate, and useful.
Why It Matters: AI is only as good as the instructions it receives. Poorly written prompts lead to vague, inaccurate, or unhelpful responses, while well-crafted ones unlock AI’s full potential. By understanding the art of prompting, users, whether students, entrepreneurs, or professionals, can leverage AI tools more efficiently for research, content creation, business strategies, and beyond.
- State Your Goal Clearly: The first step in writing an effective AI prompt is to define exactly what you want. A vague question leads to vague answers, while a specific request improves the accuracy of the response. For example, if you’re looking for hiking recommendations, instead of asking, “What are some good hikes near me?” specify, “A list of the best medium-length hikes within two hours of San Francisco that offer cool and unique adventures and are lesser known.”
- Specify Your Preferred Format: AI tools can return information in various formats, so it’s important to be clear about your preferences. Do you want a bullet-point list? Detailed explanations? GPS coordinates? Academic citations? In the hiking example, Brockman’s prompt requests each hike’s name (as listed on AllTrails), starting and ending addresses, distance, drive time, hike duration, and what makes it unique.
- Set Warnings and Guardrails: AI is powerful but not perfect. It can generate incorrect or misleading information, so it’s crucial to add constraints to your prompts. If accuracy is important, explicitly tell the AI to fact-check its responses. In Brockman’s example, the user instructs the AI to ensure that the trail names are correct, that the hikes actually exist, and that the estimated times are accurate. Even with these safeguards, users should always verify AI-generated information before relying on it.
- Provide Additional Context: The more details you provide, the better AI can tailor its response. If you were asking a friend for hiking recommendations, they’d consider your past preferences and experiences before making suggestions. AI doesn’t have this built-in knowledge, so you need to supply it.
- Prompting AI Is Easier Than You Think: Writing AI prompts doesn’t require technical expertise or complex language. In fact, the best prompts resemble normal human conversations. Instead of overthinking how to phrase your request, approach AI tools the way you would ask a knowledgeable friend for advice. The more complete and natural your instructions, the better AI will understand and respond.
Go Deeper -> How to Write the Perfect AI Prompt, According to OpenAI President Greg Brockman – Inc
