Prompt
Definition
A prompt is the instruction or question you give an AI model to tell it what you want. It can be one line or a full brief with background, examples and the format you need back, and the answer is shaped by everything in it.
By Ronan Liedmeier, fractional head of growth and course author · Published 17 October 2026 · Last updated 17 October 2026
Also called: AI prompt
The model can't see your business or last week's meeting. It sees the prompt, plus any files or saved instructions attached to the chat, so the gap between a generic answer and a usable one usually comes down to what you typed.
How it works
A useful prompt reads like a brief to a capable new hire: who the work is for, the background, what to do, what shape the result should take and, if you have one, an example of good output.
The first answer is a draft. Follow-ups such as "shorter" or "what's weak in this?" are prompts too.
Example
A property manager types "write a notice about the water shutoff" and gets a bland template. She rewrites it: tenants of a 24-unit building, water off Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for pipe repairs, friendly and brief, under 100 words, with a placeholder for the caretaker's phone number. The second version goes out after one small edit.
Common mistake
Treating the output of a one-line prompt as final. Add the facts only you have, then push back on the draft. If you keep pasting the same background into every new chat, save it once in a project or a prompt library instead.
Learn it in AI Academy
- Prompting That Actually WorksBeginner · 12 minFree
Related terms
- Prompt engineering
- Prompt engineering is the practice of writing and testing the instructions you give an AI model so it produces reliable, useful output. For everyday users it means writing clear briefs; for teams running AI in production it means treating prompts like versioned, tested code.
- System prompt
- A system prompt is a set of standing instructions given to an AI model before the conversation starts, telling it how to behave in every reply. It sets the model's role, tone, rules and output format, and people chatting with the assistant usually never see it.
- Few-shot prompting
- Few-shot prompting is giving an AI model a few examples of the input and output you want, right inside the prompt, so it follows the pattern. The model picks up the format and style from the examples on the spot, with no retraining.
- Prompt library
- A prompt library is a shared, organized collection of prompts that work well, saved with clear names and version notes so you and your team can reuse them instead of rewriting them in every chat.