Writing Better AI Prompts at Work: A Five-Part Structure

AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot are now part of many people's working day. Yet the same tool can produce an excellent draft for one person and a generic, unusable answer for another. The difference is usually the instruction — the prompt.

Writing good prompts is not a technical skill. It is the same skill as briefing a capable new colleague: give enough context, be clear about the task and describe what a good result looks like.

The five parts

1. Role. Tell the assistant which perspective to take. "Act as an experienced customer service supervisor" produces different advice from "act as a lawyer". The role sets the vocabulary, priorities and level of detail.

2. Context. Explain the situation. Who is the audience? What has already happened? What constraints apply? An AI assistant knows nothing about your organisation unless you tell it — but share only what is appropriate (see "Protect information" below).

3. Task. State precisely what you want: draft, summarise, compare, list, rewrite or critique. One clear task works better than several mixed together.

4. Format. Describe the output: a table with three columns, five bullet points, an email under 150 words, a formal tone in Bahasa Melayu. Without format instructions, you will usually get a long, general essay.

5. Check. Ask the assistant to flag its assumptions, list what it is unsure about or ask clarifying questions before it answers. This makes weaknesses visible instead of hidden.

An example

A weak prompt: Write an email about the training.

A stronger prompt: You are an HR executive at a mid-sized logistics company. Our supervisors will attend a one-day workshop on data-driven decision-making next month. Write an email inviting them, explaining why it matters for their work and what they should prepare. Keep it under 150 words, friendly but professional, in Bahasa Melayu. Show any details I need to fill in, such as the date and venue, as placeholders.

The second prompt takes a minute longer to write and saves several rounds of correction.

Habits that improve results

• Iterate. Treat the first answer as a draft. Ask for a shorter version, a different tone or stronger examples.
• Provide samples. Showing a previous email or report you like is often more effective than describing your style.
• Break down large tasks. Ask for an outline first, agree on it, then develop each section.
• Keep a prompt library. Save prompts that work well for recurring tasks so the whole team can reuse and improve them.

Verify before you use

AI assistants can state incorrect information confidently, invent references and misread numbers. Check facts, figures, names and policy statements against reliable sources before anything leaves your desk. Responsibility for the final output remains with the person who sends it.

Protect information

Do not paste confidential business information or personal data into AI tools unless your organisation has approved the tool and the purpose. When in doubt, remove names and identifying details, or describe the situation in general terms.

Start small

Choose one task you repeat every week — a report, a summary, a standard reply — and write a prompt for it using the five parts. Refine it over two or three uses. Small, repeated wins build confidence far faster than ambitious experiments.