In today’s fast-paced sports business world, leveraging generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity can provide a competitive edge. These tools can help professionals streamline tasks and enhance decision-making. The key to maximising their benefits lies in crafting effective prompts. Here’s how to write better prompts for generative AI tools and enhance your results.
Understanding Prompts
Prompts are the instructions you provide to an AI tool. The quality of these instructions directly affects the quality of the AI’s output. Simply put, better prompts lead to better results and more value from your AI tools. Here’s how to improve your prompts.
Your Key Strategies for Crafting Effective Prompts
- Define the AI’s Role
Begin your prompt by clearly specifying who you want the AI to be, and what you want it to do. For example, “You are an expert business writer perfectly capable of writing an email with the purpose of Y”. If you tell the tool who or what it is, it’s been proven that you will get better results. - Provide Examples
When possible, include a few examples to illustrate the type of output you’re seeking. This approach, known as “shot prompting,” helps the AI understand the desired response style. For instance, if you’re asking the AI to categorise emails, provide 2-3 sample emails and tell the tool what category they would be. - Offer Context
Provide enough context for the AI to understand the task at hand. However, avoid overwhelming the AI with too much information and bloating your prompts away from the key instructions. Aim for a balance that keeps the prompt focused and concise. I find it useful to include, “Ask me any contextual questions to better understand the request,” allowing the AI to seek clarifications. - Utilise Markdown Formatting
While formatting styles like bold, italic, and headings might not directly copy over when pasting text into your prompt, using markdown formatting you can guide the AI’s understanding of the structure of the text. Since many AI models are trained on data that includes markdown formatting, this approach can lead to better responses, as it has more information about the structure of its input.
By following these strategies, you can enhance the quality of your prompts and, consequently, the output from generative AI tools. As AI becomes more prevalent in sports business, mastering prompt engineering can set you apart from the competition and help you unlock the full potential of these advanced tools.
