Learning to write prompts: a guide for your team

Good prompts – i.e. instructions to an AI tool – have five components: a clear task, the necessary context, material or example, the desired format and limits such as length or tone. If you formulate in this way, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or your own AI chat will give you much more useful results and have to do less rework.

The most common disappointment with AI in the office is: "Only general things come out of it." Most of the time, this is not due to the tool, but to the instructions. Learning to write prompts is therefore the skill with the greatest benefit for employees – and it is quickly learned.

What is a prompt?

A prompt is the input you use to tell a language model what to do. A language model uses this input to guess which text fits best. The more precise the input, the less it has to guess. What a language model is is explained in the glossary under Large Language Model.

The five building blocks of a good prompt

Building block	Question behind it	Example
Task	What exactly is to be created?	"Formulate a response to this customer inquiry."
Context	Who writes, to whom, why?	"We are a heating construction company, the customer is annoyed about a delay."
Material	What should AI rely on?	the request itself, key points for the solution
Format	What should the result look like?	"Email, 120 words or less, with a subject line."
Boundaries	What is taboo, which tone?	"Friendly, you-form, no promises on prices."

Before and after: three examples from the office

Customer response

Before: "Write a response to the customer."

After: "You are a customer service employee of a heating construction company. Formulate a response to the following complaint. Apologize for the delay, name Thursday as the new date and offer a callback. Friendly, you-form, maximum 120 words. No statements about costs."

Conclusion

Before: "Sum it up."

After: "Summarize the following minutes for the management: five bullet points, then a list of open tasks with responsible person and deadline. Don't add anything that is not in the minutes."

Job Advertisement

Before: "Write a job ad for an electrician."

After: "Write a job advertisement for a full-time electrician in Schwerin. Highlight: permanent clientele, company car, 30 days of vacation. Target group: Skilled workers who want to change employers. Tone: direct, without empty phrases. Outline: Entry, tasks, requirements, offer, contact."

Typical mistakes

Too vague: "Do it better" – better in what respect?
Everything in one step: It's better to break down complex tasks into sub-steps.
No material: The AI does not know your company and fills gaps with inventions.
Sensitive data in the prompt: Customer names and internal numbers only in approved tools – see Using ChatGPT in compliance with data protection regulations.
Accept the result without checking: Even a good prompt does not guarantee correct facts.

Asking instead of starting over

A prompt is rarely perfect the first time. Instead of starting over, it's worth making adjustments in the same conversation: "shorter", "more formal", "as a table", "without the second paragraph". It's also helpful to let the AI ask questions first: "Ask me three questions before you write the text."

Templates for the team

Recurring tasks deserve a fixed template that everyone uses – for example, for customer responses, minutes or offer texts. In tools such as Open WebUI, such templates can be stored centrally so that no one starts from scratch.

Learning to write prompts as a team

The fastest way for teams to learn prompting is on their own tasks: Each person brings a real task, the prompt is improved together, and at the end there are templates for everyday life. This is how the "Tools in everyday work" module works in our AI training for companies – on-site or online, with a certificate of participation.

Funding: Pure training is usually not subsidized by INQA coaching, because the program promotes consulting. If the AI introduction is accompanied as INQA coaching in its entirety, the federal government will cover 80% of the consulting costs of up to €1,200 per day for up to 12 days. The funding check shows which programs are suitable for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a prompt?

A prompt is the input you use to tell an AI tool like ChatGPT what to do. The more precisely the task, context, material, format, and boundaries are described, the better the result.

How do you learn to write good prompts?

The best way to do this is to use real tasks from your own everyday life: Write a prompt, check the result, make targeted adjustments. Fixed templates for recurring tasks help the whole team.

Do the same prompts work in ChatGPT and Copilot?

The basic rules apply to all language models. There are differences in functions such as file access or web search; the building blocks task, context, material, format and boundaries remain the same.

How long should a prompt be?

As long as necessary. For simple tasks, one sentence is sufficient, for texts with requirements for tone and format, several sentences make sense. More important than the length is that nothing decisive is missing.