Writing Prompts for AI

How to Get Started with AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) made a big leap forward into the general public consciousness November 2022. AI has made rapid progress in its usefulness and skills. Humans have made progress in how to best interact with the tool that is AI. 

How Many REALLY Use AI?
ChatGPT, one of the largest generative AI models in use at this time, has posted 800 million weekly active users since April 2025. ChatGPT is 1 of roughly 5 big AI platforms as of this writing. Many using AI use multiple platforms for their work or more specialized AI platforms focusing on the mode of output desired (audio, visual, or even video) bringing the number of AI users to at least 1 billion and climbing. 

What Would I Use AI For? 
AI is now "multimodal" - it can think and output in multiple formats. We're going to focus on these as a reference point knowing AI is also embedded in many products we routinely use - Alexa from Amazon, online/digital shopping, "smart" home devices and appliances, phones, social media platforms, and more. 

• Text (most commonly used)
• Reasoning
• Image generation
• Video
• Audio

Where Do I Start?
Prompting - or how you query the system - is how you begin. The technology has been around long enough at this point that some consistent suggestions have developed for how to maximize your results with AI. You can find a variety of ideas here, here, and here. 

My personally favorite resource is Paul Roetzer with SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute. I've completed some of their AI Academy courses and love their clear formula for prompting that becomes second nature with use. 

Talk to AI - Yes, Seriously
This is simply the easiest and best way to think of how to prompt or query your AI - "talk" to it as if you're instructing a smart intern. "Talking" can be literally if your device does voice mode or by text typing your prompt. It's a bit more robust than what we're used to in Google searches.
Bearing that in mind, it does help to have a few cues in mind to get the most out of your prompting to reduce your time shaping the response you're after or throwing up your hands in frustration declaring, "It doesn't work!"

• Give it a role: Who is the AI? What role do you want it to play for its frame of reference?
• Task: What do you want it to do?
• Context: What does the AI need to know?
• Examples: Are there any relevant examples?
• Format: What format and style do you want for the output? 

Still Stumped? 
The crazy thing is AI has advanced enough that we can ask it how to better phrase a prompt for our desired result - seriously! You may be good at prompting with text for a text output, but image or video details are not your specialty to use the above formatting. You can simply ask your AI tool to give you an example of a prompt you could use for whatever vague information you do have. It may take a couple of tries to shape the information you're after, but it beats being stuck or floundering needlessly! Copy/paste the recommended prompt, place that into a new chat, and you're on your way to now shape what you're after. 

You've Got This!
My clients are often older. Major tech changes can be very intimidating. I'm here to assist you! I'm learning the stuff so you don't have to.

• I'm happy to provide assistance within your budget.
• I focus on teaching you how to do the work to put myself out of a job!
• I'm a big fan of independence and self-sufficiency.
• If you'd like to learn, I'm happy to teach.
• If it's easier to simply hire for what's needed while you focus on things only you specialize in, I'm here for you. 

As I'm working my way through an AI education program, this seems a useful time to share some of the basics with my potential customers - small nonprofits, fellow entrepreneurs, and nonfiction authors. This AI-stuff doesn't have to be hard and it doesn't have to be a barrier for you. You do not need to feel like you're being left behind!

Have you been playing with AI? What do you think? Are you getting the hang of it or is it feeling a tad overwhelming? Let's Chat or message me on LinkedIn! 

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