AI From Zero - Lesson 5-a: Crafting Your First Strong Prompt
Crafting Your First Strong Prompt
"The art of communication is the language of leadership." - James Humes
In our previous post, we learned about the different capabilities of AI in various categories. Generative AI has emerged as a key contributor in the modern workplace, helping individuals and teams to greatly increase their productivity and creativity. In this twin post, we will be learning the language of communicating with AI to ask it to do useful work for us effectively: the art of “prompting“.
What is a Prompt? Your Instructions for AI
When you interact directly with an AI tool, especially a Generative AI like ChatGPT or Gemini, you're not just chatting with it. You're giving it instructions. These instructions are called prompts. A prompt is essentially your command, question, or statement that tells the AI what you want it to do.
Think of the AI as an incredibly intelligent but literal assistant. It will try its best to follow your instructions, but it can't read your mind. The quality of the AI's output is directly related to the quality of your prompt. A clear, well-structured prompt will almost always lead to a better, more useful response.
Remember: Do not treat AI like a “vending machine”. Treat it like a helpful assistant and thought partner who needs clear guidance and context to fulfill your request effectively.
Weak vs. Strong Prompts: Why Words Matter
The difference between a weak prompt and a strong prompt can be huge.
Weak Prompts are often vague, too general, or lack specific direction. They leave too much up to the AI's interpretation, which can lead to generic, irrelevant, or unhelpful answers.
Example of a Weak Prompt: "Tell me about cars." (The AI might give you a history of cars, types of cars, how they work - too broad!)
Strong Prompts are specific, provide context, define the desired format, and clearly state the goal. They guide the AI precisely towards the desired outcome.
Example of a Strong Prompt: "Imagine you are a car mechanic specializing in classic cars. Explain the top 3 common maintenance tips for a 1967 Ford Mustang to a new owner, in a friendly and practical tone, using bullet points." (This prompt gives the AI a role, a specific car, a number of tips, a tone, and a format!)
You can see how the strong prompt leaves much less room for the AI to guess, resulting in a much more useful and tailored response.
The Conversation Flow: Building on Previous Responses
Most modern AI chatbots are designed to be conversational. This means they remember what you've said earlier in the chat. You don't have to put all your instructions into one massive prompt. You can have a back-and-forth dialogue, refining your request or asking follow-up questions based on the AI's previous answer.
This "conversation flow" allows you to:
Refine: Ask the AI to change aspects of its previous response ("Make it shorter," "Change the tone to formal").
Elaborate: Ask for more detail on a specific point ("Tell me more about that second point").
Continue: Pick up where you left off ("Now, write a conclusion for that email").
Mastering this conversational ability is key to getting the most out out of AI tools, as it allows for an iterative and collaborative process.
Practice Exercise
You will need to sign up for an account on an AI chatbot platform tool such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude for this exercise, if you do not have one already. The platforms are easy to use and have a generous free account that is sufficient for these exercises without requiring you to pay.
Using the AI chatbot, try this:
Weak Prompt: "Summarize the key lessons of 'The Little Prince' in 3 bullet points."
Then, try to improve it by adding tone, audience, or purpose.
For example: "Summarize the key lessons of 'The Animal Farm' in 5 bullet points, explaining them as if you're speaking to a busy parent looking for life lessons, using an uplifting tone."
Compare the results. How did being more specific change the AI's answer?
Fun Fact
Prompt engineering, the skill of writing effective instructions for AI, is now a legitimate job role in some companies, highlighting how specialized communication with AI has become! These "Prompt Engineers" specialize in crafting the perfect words to get the best performance from AI models.
Learning Reinforcement Questions
What is a "prompt" in the context of AI?
An error message from the AI.
A command to turn the AI off.
Your instruction or question to the AI.
The AI's answer to your question.
Why is it important to use "strong prompts" instead of "weak prompts"?
How can providing context improve an AI's response?
True or False: Once you ask an AI chatbot a question, you can't build on that conversation.
Give an example of how you could make this prompt stronger: "Write a story."
Once you've given it a shot, you can find the <guidelines to answering these questions here> to check your understanding.
Extra Specialized Material: Lesson 5-b
"Lesson 5-b: Advanced Prompt Engineering Techniques." is an extra post building on this one and covering more advanced methods like role-playing, chain-of-thought prompting, few-shot prompting, and defining constraints to the AI in order to achieve great results effectively.
Licensing, Attribution and Commercial use
© 2025 Nacha – AI Activation Hub, a division of Asset Thinking Ltd. All rights reserved.
For commercial licensing, partnerships, adaptations, integrations, usage within an organization or consulting inquiries, please contact the author via email: zack@nacha.life
On the second prompting, it is even CHEERING UP to deliver that summary. Absolutely! Here's a summary of key life lessons from Animal Farm, perfect for a busy parent juggling it all – served with understanding and a hopeful spin:
🗣️ Keep Communication Clear & Question Slogans:
What happens: The pigs twist words ("All animals are equal... but some are more equal") to justify unfairness.
Parent Life Lesson: Remind yourself that catchy phrases (whether from ads, social media, or even internal pressure like "I must do it all!") can mask reality. Pause and ask: "What does this really mean? Does this feel fair?" Clear talk with your family and yourself prevents small misunderstandings from becoming big problems.
📚 Stay Engaged & Informed, Even When Tired:
What happens: The hardworking animals are too exhausted to notice the pigs slowly changing the rules.
Parent Life Lesson: Parenting is exhausting, and it's easy to tune out. But staying loosely aware of what's happening in your kids' world (school, friends, online), your community, and even your own needs helps you spot small issues early. You don't need to know everything, just stay curious enough to ask, "Hey, how did that go?"
⚖️ True Leadership Serves, Not Self-Serves:
What happens: The pigs start working "for the good of the farm" but end up hoarding the milk, apples, and comfort.
Parent Life Lesson: Whether it's managing the household, your job, or the PTA, true strength comes from lifting others up. Ask yourself (and teach your kids): "Is this decision/action helping us, or just me?" Building a family/community where everyone feels valued starts with shared effort and fairness.
🛡️ Protect Your Core Values Like a Mama/Papa Bear:
What happens: The original hopeful ideals of the revolution ("No animal shall kill any other animal") are erased bit by bit.
Parent Life Lesson: What are your non-negotiables? Kindness? Honesty? Respect? Actively nurture and protect those core values in your home, even when it's inconvenient. They're your family's compass. When things feel chaotic, come back to these anchors.
💪 Unity is Your Superpower (But Stay Awake):
What happens: The animals succeed initially by working together. They fail when divided and manipulated.
Parent Life Lesson: Teamwork works! Partnering with your co-parent, leaning on trusted friends/family, and teaching kids to help each other makes the load lighter. But... stay connected and watch out for anyone (or any habit) that tries to pit people against each other ("Us vs. Them"). True unity celebrates everyone's contribution.
DeepSeek is already complaining about the generality and lack of specificity on the Little Prince summarisation. "Hmm, the challenge is distilling such a poetic book into just three points. The story works on so many levels—childhood wonder, adult blindness, love, loss... But the user specifically asked for brevity."