The use of AI as an everyday tool, reducing mundane, slow or laborious tasks is well and truly upon us. How we will interact with technology has forever changed with new tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Copilot to name a few offering the opportunity for natural language interactions.

That said there is a skill to speaking to generative AI tools and getting back what you need. We have pulled together our top 5 ways to successfully prompt generative AI tools.

Before we get into prompting let’s just briefly explain what Generative AI is.

Generative AI is a branch of artificial intelligence that can create content such as text, images, music, and more. It is powered by deep learning models that learn from large amounts of data and can generate novel outputs based on a given input or prompt.

Prompting generative AI is not always easy. You need to provide clear and specific instructions, avoid ambiguity and bias, and balance creativity and quality. In this blog post, we will share with you some tips and best practices on how to prompt generative AI effectively and get the most out of it.

1. Define your goal and audience

Before you start prompting generative AI, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and who you are targeting. For example, do you want to generate a catchy slogan, a persuasive essay, a funny joke, or a realistic image? Who are you writing for or communicating with? What is the purpose and tone of your message?

Having a clear goal and audience will help you craft your prompt accordingly and set the right expectations for the output. It will also help you evaluate the quality and relevance of the generated content.

2. Use keywords and examples

One of the simplest and most effective ways to prompt generative AI is to use keywords and examples. Keywords are words or phrases that describe the topic, theme, or style of the content you want to generate. Examples are snippets of text or images that illustrate the desired output.

Keywords and examples can help guide the generative AI model and provide some context and constraints. They can also help trigger its creativity and diversity. For example, if you want to generate a poem about love, you can use keywords like "romance", "passion", "heart", etc., and examples like "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" or "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

3. Be specific and concise

Another important tip for prompting generative AI is to be specific and concise. You want to provide enough information and details for the model to understand your request, but not too much that it becomes overwhelming or confusing.

Being specific and concise can help reduce ambiguity and noise in your prompt, which can lead to better quality and consistency in the output. It can also help avoid unwanted or inappropriate content that may not match your goal or audience.

For example, if you want to generate a summary of a news article, you can provide the title, the source, and the main points of the article as your prompt, rather than copying the whole article or giving vague instructions like "summarize this".

4. Experiment and iterate

One of the most fun and rewarding aspects of prompting generative AI is experimenting and iterating. You can try different prompts, formats, styles, tones, lengths, etc., and see how the model responds. You can also tweak your prompt based on the feedback or results you get.

Experimenting and iterating can help you discover new possibilities and insights with generative AI. It can also help you improve your prompting skills and learn from your mistakes. You may be surprised by what generative AI can do if you give it a chance.

5. Have fun and be creative

Last but not least, have fun and be creative with prompting generative AI. Generative AI is not meant to replace human creativity, but rather to augment it and inspire it. You can use generative AI as a tool, a partner, or a muse for your creative projects.

Have fun and be creative with your prompts and let generative AI surprise you with its outputs. You may find new ideas, perspectives, or expressions that you never thought of before. You may also find new challenges, limitations, or ethical issues that you need to consider.

Prompting generative AI is an exciting and rewarding experience that can enrich your personal or professional life. We hope that these tips will help you prompt generative AI successfully and get the most out of it.