You typed “write a marketing email” into an AI, got something that sounded like every marketing email ever written, and decided AI was overhyped.
It wasn’t the AI. It was the brief.
Learning how to write AI prompts is really learning how to delegate. If you’d hand a new hire one vague sentence and expect great work, you’d be disappointed there too. Below is the structure I use, followed by twelve business prompts you can copy.
My prompt structure: seven parts
I don’t use every part every time. For anything that matters, I use most of them.
1. Role
Tell it who to be. “Act as an experienced customer service manager.” “You’re a skeptical CFO reviewing a plan.” A role sets vocabulary, priorities and point of view.
2. Context
Give it what it can’t know. Your business, your customer, the situation, what’s happened so far. Paste notes, emails, transcripts. Context is where most of the quality comes from.
3. Task
One clear job. “Draft a reply.” “List the risks.” “Turn these notes into a procedure.” If you have three jobs, write three prompts or number them.
4. Constraints
What to avoid and what limits apply. Length, tone, words not to use, claims not to make. “Don’t invent figures.” “If something is missing, write ‘unknown.’” Constraints prevent the most common failures.
5. Format
How you want it back. Bullets, a table, headings, two versions, under a set length. A format makes output usable without rework.
6. Examples
Show it what good looks like. Paste a past email you loved, a report layout, a post that performed. One good example beats a paragraph of description.
7. Verify
Ask it to check itself. “List any assumptions you made.” “Flag anything you’re unsure of.” “Tell me what information would improve this.” This turns a confident answer into an honest one.
Prompt engineering for beginners: the habits
- Talk like a manager, not a search engine. Full sentences, real context.
- Paste, don’t paraphrase. Give it the actual email, not your summary of it.
- Keep money math out. Put [PLACEHOLDERS] where figures go and fill them in yourself from your own records.
- Save winners. A shared prompt doc turns one person’s skill into the team’s.
- Verify before it leaves your desk. Every fact, figure, name and claim.
Twelve AI prompt templates for business
Fill in every [BRACKET] with your own details. They work in any major assistant.
Customer communication
1. Customer complaint reply
You are a customer service lead for [TYPE OF BUSINESS]. A customer wrote this: [PASTE MESSAGE]. Here is what actually happened on our side: [YOUR NOTES]. Draft a reply that acknowledges the problem in the first sentence, takes responsibility for what was our fault, explains the fix in plain language, and states the next step with a clear timeframe in words. Warm, direct, no corporate filler. Don’t offer anything I haven’t listed here: [WHAT YOU’RE WILLING TO OFFER]. Give me two versions, one shorter.
2. Follow-up after no response
I sent [WHO] a [PROPOSAL / QUOTE / MESSAGE] about [TOPIC] on [DAY] and haven’t heard back. Here’s what I sent: [PASTE]. Write a short follow-up that adds one new piece of value, such as [USEFUL IDEA, RESOURCE OR QUESTION], instead of just “checking in.” No guilt, no pressure, easy to answer with one line. Three versions: email, text, and a voicemail script.
Sales and marketing
3. Ideal customer profile
Act as a marketing strategist. Here’s what I know about my best customers: [DESCRIBE THREE TO FIVE OF THEM: who they are, what problem they had, why they chose us, what they said]. Build an ideal customer profile with their situation, the problem in their own words, what they’ve already tried, their objections, and where they spend attention. Then list the questions I should ask real customers to confirm or correct this. Mark anything that’s your inference rather than from my notes.
4. One idea into many pieces
Here is the transcript of a [VIDEO / PODCAST / TALK] I recorded: [PASTE]. My audience is [AUDIENCE]. Pull out the five strongest ideas. For each, write a short social post hook, a two-sentence caption, and an email subject line. Keep my voice: [DESCRIBE OR PASTE A SAMPLE]. Don’t add claims or facts that aren’t in the transcript.
5. Sales call prep
I have a call with [NAME, ROLE] at [COMPANY OR TYPE OF CUSTOMER] about [WHAT THEY’RE INTERESTED IN]. Here’s what I know: [NOTES, PAST EMAILS, WEBSITE INFO]. Prepare a one-page call plan: what they likely care about, five open-ended discovery questions, the three objections I’m most likely to hear with honest responses, and what a good next step would be. No manipulation tactics.
6. Objection role-play
Role-play as a potential customer who is [DESCRIBE THEM] considering [YOUR SERVICE]. Your main hesitation is [OBJECTION]. Stay in character and respond realistically; don’t make it easy. After eight exchanges, step out of character and give me feedback: where I talked too much, where I dodged the concern, and one better question I could have asked.
Operations
7. SOP from a voice memo
Here is a transcript of me explaining how we handle [PROCESS]: [PASTE TRANSCRIPT]. Turn it into a standard operating procedure with: purpose, owner, the trigger that starts it, numbered steps, what “done” looks like, common mistakes, and when to escalate to a person. Write it so a new hire could follow it on day one. Flag every spot where I was vague or skipped a step.
8. Meeting notes to action items
Here are notes or a transcript from our [MEETING NAME]: [PASTE]. Produce: decisions made, action items with an owner and due date for each (write “unassigned” if nobody was named), open questions, and anything that sounded like a disagreement that wasn’t resolved. Use only what’s in the notes.
9. Weekly priorities from a brain dump
Here’s everything on my mind this week, in no order: [BRAIN DUMP]. My top goals this quarter are [GOALS]. Sort this into: must do this week, delegate (and to whom, from this list: [TEAM ROLES]), schedule for later, and drop. Explain in one line why anything goes in “drop.” Then give me my top three for Monday morning.
10. Job description
I run [TYPE OF BUSINESS] with [TEAM SIZE IN WORDS] people. I’m hiring a [ROLE]. Each week this person will [RESPONSIBILITIES]. Success looks like [OUTCOMES IN WORDS]. Write a job description with the role’s purpose, weekly responsibilities, what they’ll own, the traits that fit our culture ([DESCRIBE CULTURE]), and what this role is not. Honest and specific, no hype. Use inclusive language and avoid requirements that aren’t truly necessary for the job.
Thinking and decisions
11. The skeptical advisor
Act as a skeptical, experienced advisor. I’m planning to [DECISION OR PLAN]. My reasoning: [WHY]. What I know about the risks: [WHAT YOU’VE CONSIDERED]. Tell me the strongest case against this plan, the assumptions I’m making that could be wrong, what I should test cheaply before committing, and what would make you change your mind in my favor. Rank the risks by how much they’d hurt.
12. Explain it to me simply
I need to understand [TOPIC] well enough to make a decision about [DECISION]. I’m a [YOUR ROLE] with no background in it. Explain it in plain language, then list the five questions I should ask an expert, the common mistakes people in my position make, and the terms I’ll hear and what they mean. If any part requires a licensed professional, such as an attorney or CPA, say so clearly.
How I use prompts as the first draft of a system
Every one of these started as something I typed into an assistant on a busy day. The ones that worked went into a shared document. The ones I used constantly turned into written procedures. Those procedures became instructions for the agents that run work in my businesses now.
That’s the real reason to get good at prompts. A great prompt is a process that hasn’t been written down yet. Once you see that, the jump to AI agents feels natural instead of intimidating.
Where to go next
- New to AI altogether? Start with AI for beginners.
- Want to set your assistant up properly? Read how to use ChatGPT, which applies to any assistant.
- Ready to stop pasting the same prompts? Start writing SOPs for AI.
- Invest in real estate? I wrote investor-specific ChatGPT prompts for real estate investors.
Your next step
Pick the prompt that matches something you did by hand this week. Run it on real material. Edit the output, tell the AI what you changed, and save the improved version.
Do that with three prompts and you’ve started a library your whole team can use. If you want to watch me write and refine prompts live, I do it on YouTube. And when you’re ready for prompts to run on their own, see how Chief works.
Questions people ask
What makes a good AI prompt?
A good prompt tells the AI who it’s acting as, gives it the context it needs, states the task clearly, sets limits, asks for a specific format and, where possible, shows an example. It reads like a brief to a sharp new employee, not a search query.
Is prompt engineering still worth learning?
Yes, though the name oversells it. It’s really the skill of giving clear instructions, and that skill carries straight into building agents and writing processes. Better models make good briefs more powerful, not less.
Should prompts be long or short?
As long as they need to be to remove guessing. A one-line prompt is fine for a quick question. Anything important deserves context, constraints and a format, which usually means a short paragraph or a few bullet points.