Asking and Tasking

Asking and Tasking is a conversational prompting method you can use to help think through problems and improve responses from generative AI tools like Microsoft Copilot and Chat GPT.

What is an Ask?

Use Ask prompts when you hope to gather, contextualize, or learn how to apply information. 

For example, imagine you’re working on a project for an environmental science course, and you’d like to learn more about the impact of climate change on the agricultural industry. 

Using the R.E.T.I. framework, you may use the following prompts to gather information:

• Research: “Gather information on how climate change affects agriculture and industry.”
• Explore: “What are the major challenges that agriculture faces due to climate change?”
• Think: “What does a future of unmitigated climate change look like?”
• Ideate: “What are some potential solutions to mitigate the impact on agriculture?”

What is a Task?

Use Task prompts when you hope to generate actionable, specific, practical, and useful content.

Taking our previous example, imagine now you may want to generate a study guide for your environmental science course. You may Task your AI tool with a prompt like: 

“Help me draft a study guide on the impact of climate change on the agricultural industry.  Please include a list of the specific challenges climate change poses to the agriculture industry, and propose solutions to mitigate them.”

How can I use Asking and Tasking together?

While Asking and Tasking prompts are useful alone, you may use them together to solve more complex problems.

Imagine you are managing a small team and are looking for weekly strategies to help them stay productive and engaged. You may begin with an Ask prompt:

• Prompt — "What are five things I should do every week to ensure my team is as efficient, effective, and happy as they can be?”
• Response — “Hold regular meetings, set goals, check in, provide learning opportunities, and celebrate wins.”

You may then Task the AI to help you put these ideas into action with a prompt like: 

“Following your advice, I am implementing a weekly planning meeting with the team; please create a functional agenda for this meeting; there will be 12 attendees, including myself, and the duration should be no more than 60 minutes”

This guide was adapted from a workshop led by Matthew Miller from CMU's Business Innovation Office.