How to write a good prompt: a simple formula for business work

If you ask a new employee to "write something about our offer", you get something vague. If you tell them who it is for, what the offer is, how long it should be and what to avoid, you get something useful. An AI assistant is the same. The instruction you type is called a prompt, and a good prompt is simply a good briefing.

The five-part formula

1. Role. Who should the AI act as? "You help a furniture shop in Pune reply to customers."
2. Task. What exactly do you want? "Write a reply to a customer who asked about delivery."
3. Facts. What must it know? Your product, price, timings, policy. If you do not give the facts, the AI will invent them.
4. Format. How should the answer look? "Under 60 words, simple English, WhatsApp style."
5. Limits. What must it not do? "Do not promise a date. Do not use emojis. Use only the facts above."

You do not need all five every time, but when an answer is poor, one of the five is usually missing.

Example: the same request, twice

Weak prompt: "Write a message about our Diwali offer."

Better prompt:

You help a made-up sweet shop in Indore write to its regular customers. Write a WhatsApp message about our Diwali gift boxes. Facts: three sizes of box, orders close two days before Diwali, free delivery inside the city, bulk orders for offices are welcome. Format: under 70 words, friendly, simple English, one clear next step (reply to this message to order). Limits: do not mention prices, do not use more than one emoji, do not add any fact I did not give.

The second prompt takes one minute longer to write and saves ten minutes of correcting.

Give examples of what you like

If you have a message that worked well before, paste it and say "Write in this style." One good example teaches the AI more than a paragraph of description. Remove names and phone numbers first.

Improve the answer by talking to it

The first answer is a draft. Reply to it:

• "Shorter, and remove the second sentence."
• "More polite. This customer is unhappy."
• "Give me three versions with different first lines."
• "Rewrite it in simple Hindi in English letters."

This is faster than starting again.

Ask the AI to ask you

For a bigger task, such as a proposal or a plan, add this line:

Before you write, ask me the questions you need answered to do this well.

You will get five or six questions. Your answers become the facts.

Prompts worth saving

Keep a simple document called "Our prompts" and save the ones that work, with a title. A starting set:

• First reply to an enquiry: role, product facts, one question to ask the customer, under 60 words.
• Summary: "Summarise this in five points for a busy owner. Then list any decisions needed and any dates."
• Polite refusal: "Write a polite message saying no to [request], give [reason], and offer [alternative]."
• Checking your own writing: "Find unclear sentences and mistakes in this text. Do not rewrite it; list the problems."

Three safety habits

• Check every fact, number and date before you use the answer. AI can be confidently wrong.
• Keep private details out. Use placeholders such as [customer name] and add the details afterwards. See Simple AI rules for your team.
• Do not ask it for facts it cannot know, such as today's price of a product or a rule that changed last month. Give it the fact, or look it up yourself.

Next step

Pick one message your team writes every day and write a five-part prompt for it today. Then build on it: A simple AI-assisted follow-up system for sales leads.