What if the fastest way to improve your AI prompts was to ask the AI to do it for you?
By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR · Strategic Communications, LLC
Prompt engineering is the practice of crafting precise, well-structured instructions for generative AI tools—specifying context, desired format, tone, audience, and output type—to produce more accurate, relevant, and useful responses. As AI tools become standard in professional workflows across every industry, the ability to write effective prompts is rapidly emerging as one of the most consequential skills in the modern workplace. And like most skills, it improves with deliberate practice not just use.
I’ve been an early adopter of AI tools. I’ve used tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity extensively in my own work and for clients, and I’ve been intentional about trying to improve my prompt writing skills along the way.
One of the big downfalls of GenAI is that it currently only draws from content it is trained on that already exists. So, the information it generates is “known.” GenAI can’t (yet) create new material; it can only consolidate and spew back what’s already been created by others. In other words, “it” cannot be innovative.