AI Prompting 101

How to Get AI Answers - Effectively

Everything is about AI these days. You can't turn around without an article or video about it. Unfortunately, much of the noise seems to be predicting doom and the awful results of the increasing AI. (Artificial Intelligence)

I have plenty of my own questions about whether we truly need this level of tech assistance or impact in our lives. Sure, some advancements are already pretty cool, but the level the "tech bros" talk about or that you can see as the train at the end of the tunnel coming at you? I'm pretty sure none of us have asked for that level of AI "assistance." 

AI Bubbles
There are very definitely the Users, the Non-Users, and the Ignore At All Costs bubbles at the moment. (NOTE: I am completely making these terms up for my own frame of reference)

• Users: If you use AI, you tend to really use AI. These folks keep up on the AI news. It becomes hard to get away from it. (thank you, algorithms, feeding you more of anything you look at) These are the most immersed folks. If you land in this bubble, it's hard to see there are many who don't use AI - at all.
• Non-Users: Believe it or not, especially if you use AI, there is a silent larger group of Non-Users! Most of the world doesn't actually have any interest or contact with AI nor feel a need for it. These folks will often be most concerned about energy, water, and conservation issues which are very valid. 
• Ignore At All Costs: Shockingly, many in Gen Z fall into this category. My kids are two of them. There are a few articles reflecting this on Medium,  Persuasion, and Forbes. 
  • They have been repeatedly told in school growing up about cheating and that use of AI is often seen as cheating. If AI isn't cheating, it's at least often and heavily picked up in plagiarizing check tools. These tools and teachers allow a certain level as "can't help it" when the the checker tools pick up overly much, but still—no one wants to be accused of cheating. 
  • These folks are also stuck on the "AI Hallucinates" bandwagon. Sure, it exists, but less so than initially and further prompts can reduce or eliminate that factor. It's also human responsibility to fact check and vet what AI provides. I don't see the need to fact check AI going away any time soon. This is actually a roadblock for some high AI users for the time needed to vet deep research projects. 
  • This post won't get into the impact AI is having on the entry level job market of Gen Z grads, which is definitely not encouraging use of the tool or generating any love for AI. 

Prompting Framework for Generative AI
I caught Joe Pulizzi on a recent podcast of This Old Marketing referring to a framework he heard from Geoff Woods at a recent MAICON conference that he shared in a blog post. There are a few similar versions for prompting, but this is a useful reference if you're getting started with AI or looking for small ways to improve your results. 

CRIT = Context, Role, Interview, Task

• Context: Give your tool (ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude - any of the models) a frame of reference you are coming from. Share your goals, tone, and audience.
• Role: What role would you like the AI tool to take? A fellow marketer, business owner, author, or nonprofit? A strategist who will poke holes in your ideas or article?
• Interview: This is a new idea to me - ask the AI tool to ask you three clarifying questions, one at a time, to help you think more deeply on the matter. 
• Task: What would you like the AI tool to do - how can it assist you? Provide a summary? Write an article you can then edit as a draft? Help you see next step actions?

Brilliant Use of AI!
This is a great succinct way to work through better ways to prompt AI as a thought partner rather than using it as a "do this for me" tool. This reflects my typical use of AI with the addition of the Interview idea. This is also a far better human-first approach to using AI! 

With Gratitude
My many thanks to Joe Pulizzi for sharing the thoughts and Geoff Woods for inspiring Joe! I just picked up Geoff's book The AI-Driven Leader on Audible as it inspired Joe's post. I'm looking forward to the read and sharing insights! 

How Will YOU Use AI?
Are you an AI User, Non-User, or prefer to Ignore At All Costs? Hopefully the CRIT idea offers useful options to enable you to prompt better to be more effective in your use or even to help get you started!

Love to hear how your AI journey is going - Let's Chat or message me on LinkedIn!

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