How to Write an AI Prompt: Build Your First Request

When you ask an AI assistant for help, how much detail do you need to include?

A prompt is the message you use to tell an AI what you want it to do.

This guide uses everyday tasks to show what to include in a first request and how to check the answer.

Before worrying about special wording or a fixed formula, break down what you want to accomplish.

Start with what you want the AI to do

Your first prompt does not have to be long.

Start with a sentence describing the task.

Ask a shop about repairing a chair

Imagine you want to contact a shop about a chair that needs repair.

You might begin with:

The AI may produce a general inquiry, but it has not yet been told about the chair's condition or the questions you want answered.

Build a first request

Task: ask about a repair

Available details: condition and questions

Unknown: purchase date

Add the information you have

The editors created the following example to illustrate the shape of an answer; it is not a measured AI response.

The answer includes the chair's condition and the three questions.

The notes do not give a shop name, purchase date or repair cost, so check whether anything else is needed before sending a real message.

Be clear about the reader and the question

In this example, the reader is the shop, and the owner wants to know about repair availability, estimated cost and drop-off arrangements.

Knowing that helps you ask for a message that includes questions, rather than a description of the chair alone.

A different audience or purpose can call for a different message from the same notes.

A family update about the chair, for example, would not need to be phrased as a question to a shop.

Separate purpose and source in another task

Now consider organizing information rather than writing an inquiry.

Imagine someone caring for a neighborhood flower bed wants to hand over their notes to the next person.

The next person needs to know what is done and what remains.

An illustrative response is:

The fertilizer has not been purchased, and the planting is planned, not completed.

Calling either item complete could cause the next person to miss work that remains.

The chair inquiry and garden handover have different goals, but both provide the intended use and the information available.

Two uses

Chair: inquiry to a shop

Garden: handover to another person

Break a complex request into smaller tasks

You don't have to fit everything into one prompt.

You can organize the information, check the result, and then ask for the next step.

Separate the chair's condition from the questions

The editors' fictional example:

Check the summary against the notes, then ask for the message:

An intermediate summary gives you a chance to check the material before the final draft.

Breaking up a task

Organize the notes

Check the summary

Draft the message

If it contains an error, that error may carry forward, so check it before using it in the next request.

One request or several?

For a small task, a single request followed by a careful review may be enough.

For more complicated material, an intermediate check can help you identify where an error entered the process.

Neither method is always better; choose based on the size of the task and the time you have to review it.

Separate an AI's assistance from your decision

An AI can help draft the chair inquiry, but the owner decides whether to proceed with a repair and accept a quote.

A cost estimate invented in an answer is not a quote from the shop.

Ask the shop about its actual charges and arrangements before deciding.

Likewise, the AI can organize the garden notes but cannot decide who is responsible for buying fertilizer.

If the notes do not name an owner, leave it as something to confirm rather than inventing one.

Four things to consider in a request

These four questions can help reveal what is missing from a first prompt:

• Purpose: What should the AI do?
• Audience: Who will use the result and why?
• Source: What information does it need?
• Format: Do you want a paragraph, list, table or another form?

You do not need a long description for all four every time.

Four considerations

Purpose

Audience

Source

Format

Add the details needed when the situation is clear to you but not yet clear to the AI.

State the task as an action

Be specific about the work: draft a message, organize notes or compare differences.

The sentence identifies the task and its intended use.

If you have not included the notes yet, add them so the AI has something to organize.

Treat missing information as something to confirm

The garden notes do not say who will buy fertilizer or when they will buy it.

Even if those details are useful, an AI's guess is not a decision.

The condition is not a guarantee that the AI will obey it.

Check whether any owner or deadline in the response appears in the original notes.

Choose a format that fits the use

A paragraph may suit an email; a table can make it easier to compare several tasks on the same dimensions.

For the garden handover, a task-and-status table is one option.

An illustrative table is:

Task	Status
Watering	Done on Tuesday
Buy fertilizer	Not yet purchased
Plant seedlings	Planned for Saturday

The table places each status in the same position for comparison.

From notes to a table

Notes: watering done, fertilizer not purchased

Table: compare each task and status

It is not proof of accuracy, so check each row against the original notes.

Check the first response against the source

A fluent answer can still omit information or change its meaning.

For the chair inquiry, check that the three questions remain:

Also check that a specific purchase date has not been added when the owner does not know one.

For important details, return to the source or another current information source rather than relying on the answer alone.

If something is wrong, identify it and ask for a correction

Suppose the inquiry includes:

The original notes say the purchase date is unknown, so last year is unsupported.

An illustrative revision is:

Check not only the corrected statement but also whether the questions you wanted to keep remain.

For more on spotting and correcting mismatches, see AI Prompt Writing Tips.

Use headings and delimiters to organize information

When you supply longer material, separating the request from the source can make it easier to review.

Here # marks a heading.

It is not required for a request to work, and it cannot guarantee a correct response.

For more on headings, quotation marks and other delimiters, see AI Prompt Symbols.

Show an example of the format you want

A short example can help when it is difficult to describe the desired format in words.

Suppose you want the garden handover as one task and status per line.

The editors' illustrative response is:

The sample's equipment and handout tasks are examples of formatting, not garden work.

Check that those sample facts have not appeared in the result.

Say which part of the sample to imitate

You might want to copy tone, layout or both; tell the AI which matters.

In the garden example, the sample shows the line-by-line format while the garden notes supply the facts.

Distinguish an example of presentation from the source of truth, then compare the output with the source.

Specify what should remain when shortening

Sometimes a message needs to be shorter for the place where it will be used.

A request to shorten it may cause important information to disappear, so name what needs to remain.

The example is more concise while retaining the specified details.

Brevity and preserving necessary information do not always conflict.

If a contact form has a strict character limit, check the actual result using that destination's counting rules; this example does not establish that it fits a particular form.

Ask for help with a question

You can also use a prompt to explore a question rather than draft text.

For example, before contacting a repair shop, you might ask what information could be useful to prepare.

These are illustrative possibilities, not a particular shop's requirements.

Ask the shop which information it actually needs.

Distinguish an answer from verified information

An unfamiliar shop name or price in an AI answer is not necessarily correct.

You can ask for sources, but open the links and check that they actually support the statement.

Answer and source

AI: suggests what to check

Person: verifies current conditions

For changing details such as prices, opening hours and booking arrangements, consult the official source or contact the business.

Use an AI answer as a starting point for checking, not as a substitute for the source.

Decide what you can verify before using the result

A few checks make it easier to decide when a task is complete.

For the chair inquiry, check:

• Condition: Does it still say the seat wobbles?
• Questions: Does it ask about repair availability, estimated cost and drop-off?
• Additions: Does it avoid stating an unknown purchase date as fact?

These checks cover the message's purpose; confirming the destination address or contact method is a separate step.

If the only email address you have may be outdated, check the shop's current contact information before sending.

A garden handover needs different checks: the status of the work and what the next person needs to do.

Choose checks for the actual task rather than treating one list as universal.

Stop when you need information you don't have

Rewording a prompt cannot reliably create information absent from the notes.

If you do not know who will buy fertilizer, an AI naming someone does not make them responsible.

Ask the person coordinating the handover, add the confirmed decision to the source, and then organize it again.

Asking an AI again and checking with someone who has the information are different actions.

Check whether you may enter the information

Before giving work material to an AI service, check your organization's rules and the service's settings.

This matters for personal data, contract information, credentials and confidential material.

If you are unsure whether the information may be entered, ask the person responsible before pasting it.

For practice, use fictional content instead of real names or contact details.

Prepare for the next similar task

A useful request can be saved as a starting point, but old specifics can accidentally carry over into a different task.

Separate changing details from reusable guidance

For another repair inquiry, you might retain the general instruction to ask politely about repair availability and drop-off, while replacing the item and its condition.

The square brackets mark a placeholder in this example.

Replace it with the current information, check that the previous chair's details are gone, and reconsider the reusable instructions for the new shop or item.

Consider where the template is stored

Before saving or sharing a request, check whether it contains real contact details or personal information.

Follow your organization's storage and sharing rules, and keep shared templates free of specific customer details.

A reusable prompt is a starting point for the conditions you want to check, not a magic formula that guarantees a correct answer.

Try a small task first

For a first prompt, a small task can make the result easier to check.

Try organizing a short note, then compare the result with the original:

1. Write one sentence describing what you want to do.
2. Add the audience and necessary source material.
3. Say what format is useful.
4. Compare the answer with the source.
5. Ask for a correction if something is missing or wrong.

Writing the first request is not the end of the task.

Check what this audience needs, confirm unknown information with the right person or source, and refine the result until it is fit for its intended use.