How to ask AI to help you at work

Using a generative artificial intelligence model like Gemini, ChatGPT or Copilot doesn’t seem difficult: no matter what question you ask, it will always answer. It’s a different matter whether or not you get exactly the answer you need. Because it’s not the same thing to ask it to “write a text about the possibilities of AI” or “prepare a detailed guide on how to use AI in the business environment, which will be published in a general media outlet.”

The key lies precisely in the way these questions are asked. They are what are known as prompts, and they are essential to defining the tone, style and detail of the texts, images or presentations generated by an AI. It is not a simple task; in fact, there are already courses dedicated entirely to teaching people how to do it. What are the keys?

For a prompt to be complete, it is recommended that it include six essential elements, which serve both to provide context for the AI and to clearly identify the objective of the request. The general rule is to always be as specific as possible. Instead of saying “describe a tree,” the ideal would be “describe the physical and environmental characteristics of a tree located in a park in a large city.”

That said, the essential thing would be:

• Talk to AI as if it were an expert in a particular field. You can ask it to put itself in the shoes of any profession or occupation: “Do this task as if you were a teacher,” or a journalist, or a marketing manager, or a student, etc.
• Specify the context. You should provide as many details as possible. For example, explain who you are, why you need the job you are asking for, and how you are going to use it: “I am a journalist who is writing an article on how to create the best prompts to ask artificial intelligences like you questions. I need your help to find an attractive, descriptive, SEO-oriented headline for this text, which will be published in the technology section of a national newspaper.”
• Define your goal. It’s essential to explain to the AI whether you want to write an article, an academic paper, an email, a presentation, an outline, or any other type of work: “I need to create a presentation that combines text, images, and graphics for (topic).”
• Determine the tone. The language used in work or academic environments is not the same as that used on social media. Therefore, it should always be specified whether the type of content is formal, informal, persuasive, instructive, etc. In this sense, you can provide examples to use as a basis: “Prepare three descriptive texts based on this one.”
• Design the structure. Whether to cover certain points, in what order, or whether there are a certain number of paragraphs you want, among others. “I need the text to start with an introduction explaining what the metaverse is, continue listing in detail, with examples, its applications, and end with the challenges it faces.”
• Don’t ask for everything at once. If the “assignment” is complex, specialists recommend breaking it down into simple tasks; essentially, asking the AI to develop the content you need step by step instead of in one go. For example, if you are going to design a marketing campaign, the first thing to do would be to ask it to detail the process for developing one, and then ask about each of the steps specifically.

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