Here’s a little guide on the art of good prompting on my blog, i.e., how to communicate with Chat AI. This can be a very interesting and important topic for many people, especially those who use these services on a daily basis.

AI chat models like ChatGPT, Claude Sonnet, Copilot, etc., can be incredibly useful tools for creative writing, programming, research, or even various corporate, i.e., business task automation. However, the quality of the AI’s responses depends heavily on how we formulate the request — the prompt. In this blog post, I’ll help you write effective prompts so you get accurate, relevant, and valuable answers.

1. What is a prompt and why is it important?

A prompt is the instruction or question you give to the chat AI. I’ve written about this in several blog posts before. It determines: what you’ll talk about (topic), in what format the AI should respond (e.g., list, essay, code), and in what style (e.g., formal, humorous).
❌Example of a generally weak prompt: "Write something about coffee."
✅Strong prompt: "Write a 300-word, friendly-toned text about the history of coffee, highlighting the Italian espresso culture, the unique flavors and aromas of specialty coffees, and how they spread worldwide."

2. Core principles of a good prompt

a) Be specific! Decide exactly what you want first. The more precisely you describe what you want, the better the result will be.
❌ "Help me write a business plan."
✅ "Create a detailed business plan for an online PC game store that primarily sells online, focusing on the marketing strategy and cost estimation."

    b) Provide context The AI has no prior knowledge of what’s in your head, so explain the situation.
    ❌ "Write an email where I say no."
    ✅ "Write a polite, professional email in which I reject a job offer but express my gratitude for the opportunity."

    c) Define the format If you want the answer to be easy to use, tell the AI how to return it.
    ✅List format: "Give me 5 bullet-point tips to increase productivity in crate building."
    ✅Table: "Create a table comparing three laptops: price, performance, battery life."
    ✅Code: "Write Python code that calculates the first 10 numbers of the Fibonacci sequence."

    d) Role-based prompting Imagine the AI playing a role to adapt better. This helps the depth and style of the answer match your goal.
    ✅ "You are a professional marketer. Write a campaign plan for launching a new sports drink."
    ✅ "You are an experienced Python developer. Explain recursion in simple terms with examples."

    e) Iterative prompting You don’t need a perfect prompt the first time. Use step-by-step refinement.
    ✅ First prompt: "Write an article about the future of artificial intelligence."
    ✅ Second prompt: "Expand on AI's impact on the job market and give concrete current examples."
    ✅ Third prompt: "Rewrite it so a 10-year-old can understand."


    3. It’s important to specify what the task is for — useful prompt templates:

    Creative writing: "Write a 500-word sci-fi short story where the main character is an artificial intelligence and the story has a twist ending."
    Programming: "Write PHP code that creates a scientific calculator for the web."
    Business strategy: "You are a startup advisor. Provide a step-by-step strategy for launching a new running tracker mobile app."
    Learning and explanation: "Explain the basics of quantum mechanics as if I were 10 years old."

    4. Common mistakes to avoid

    ❌ Prompt too short – Vague instruction → generic answer
    ❌ Too much information at once – The AI may get confused. Break it into smaller parts instead.
    ❌ Unclear goal – If you don’t specify the purpose, it’s harder to get useful output.
    ❌ Ignoring context – e.g., business email, but the type of recipient isn’t clear.
    ❌Poorly worded prompt. Based on my experience, this is one of the most common mistakes in AI-assisted programming. Always think about what you want the AI to program, but think like a programmer. For example, if you tell the AI casually, "Please adjust the time on my website by +2 hours everywhere," the AI will take it literally, even the most advanced Claude Sonnet 4 or Opus 4.1, and it will mess up your code by changing the time in every file. This will create a big mess: articles will show one time, article tiles another, and the admin panel yet another... So for programming prompts, you need a programming mindset. In that case, say: "Please add +2 hours to the server time in the website configuration!" — and voila, it will modify 1 file and everything will update perfectly. That’s why I’ve said in another post that with zero programming knowledge, you won’t be able to program with AI either. The good news is, if you at least learn the basics and adopt a programmer’s mindset, you’ll be able to handle this and program above your level with AI.

    Pro tips for advanced users

    a) Chain-of-Thought: (reasoning — no need to enable the Thinking option separately, you can just ask for it in the prompt) Ask the AI to think step-by-step. "Think out loud and write down the steps as you solve the following problem: ..."
    b) Negative prompting: If there are certain things you don’t want, specify them. "Write a romantic poem, but do not mention roses or love explicitly."
    c) Multi-turn prompting: Multi-round conversation where the AI first asks questions and then refines. "First, ask me questions to clarify the project requirements, then create the plan."

      Summary

      Good prompting is essential for effectively using chat AIs. The key points are: Be specific and provide context. For programming tasks, think like a programmer, not just a user. Define the format and style. Use roles and multi-step processes. Experiment and refine. The power of AI is in your hands — you just need to ask the right questions. As said in the movie I, Robot: "The answers are already there, you just have to ask the right questions." :) Good luck to everyone!