AI Prompt Strategies for Power Users

Looking to take your prompting skills to the next level? Advanced prompting dramatically improves how generative AI handles your requests. Check out these industry strategies for making the most of your AI interactions.

Chain-of-Thought Prompting

Are you not getting the output you wanted? Are you worried about the sources the AI used to reach a conclusion? Encourage the AI to explain its reasoning step by step.

Example: "Explain how you would solve this math problem, showing all steps."

This can improve performance on complex tasks, especially in logic, math, or procedural reasoning.

Few-Shot Prompting

With Few-Shot prompting, you provide a few examples of the output you’re looking for along with your request. This helps the AI model figure out the right structure and tone based on the context you provided.

Example: "Translate this sentence. Examples: 'Hello' → 'Hola', 'Goodbye' → 'Adios'. Now translate: 'Please'."

Zero-Shot Prompting

Looking to throw caution to the wind and see what AI gives you? Give the model a clear task description, but skip the examples.


Example: "Summarize the following text in one sentence."

Role-Based Prompting

Give your AI Model a role! Ask it to be a manager, an engineer, or a UX Designer. Then frame the prompt, which can help your model adopt a relevant tone, context, or even expertise.

Example: "You are a cybersecurity analyst. Draft a security alert for a phishing attack."

Instruction Tuning Style

Create prompts that sound like an instructor, applying concise and direct instructions.

Example: "List three benefits of cloud computing."

Self-Reflection or Self-Critique Prompting

Get personal with your AI—ask it to critique its own output, which can enhance reliability or suggest revisions.

Example: "Write an email and then review it for tone and clarity."

Persona or Style Tuning

Craft specific prompts to specify tone, style, or audience and shape precise outputs.

Example: "Write a blog post about machine learning in a playful tone for high school students."

Multimodal or Structured Input Prompting

Use images, tables, or files to guide responses.