A Concise Guide to Writing Generative AI Prompts

Prompt: "Summarize this article in 3 sentences."

Explanation: This prompt is an excellent example of a simple, straightforward task. It is clear, and specific, and sets a precise output limit. This type of prompt is ideal for quick comprehension of large volumes of text, demonstrating the AI's ability to extract key information efficiently ^{2 3}.

Prompt: "Write a haiku about butterflies in a spring garden."

Explanation: This prompt showcases the AI's creative capabilities while providing specific constraints (haiku format) and a theme. It is a great example of how simple prompts can generate creative content, useful for writers or in educational settings ^{3 4}.

Prompt: "Write a Python function to calculate the factorial of a number. Include comments explaining each step."

Explanation: This prompt demonstrates the AI's ability to generate functional code with explanations. It specifies the programming language and task. It also requests additional clarity through comments. This type of prompt is valuable for software development and coding education ⁵.

Prompt: "Create an image of a futuristic cityscape at sunset with flying cars and holographic billboards."

Explanation: This prompt showcases the AI's ability to generate complex visual content based on detailed textual descriptions. It combines multiple elements (futuristic, cityscape, sunset, flying cars, holograms) to create a specific scene, demonstrating the power of descriptive prompts in image generation ⁶.

Prompt: "Generate a set of 5 multiple-choice questions about the water cycle, suitable for 8th-grade students. Include the correct answers and brief explanations for each."

Explanation: This prompt is an excellent example of how AI can assist in creating educational materials. It specifies the number of questions, topic, the target audience, and requests additional elements (correct answers and explanations). This type of prompt is valuable for educators in developing engaging learning activities ^{7 8}.

Prompt: "Generate a polite and empathetic response to a customer complaining about a delayed shipment. The response should apologize, explain potential reasons for the delay, and offer a solution."

Explanation: This prompt demonstrates how AI can be used in customer service scenarios. It specifies the tone (polite and empathetic), the context (delayed shipment), and the structure of the response (apology, explanation, solution). This prompt is crucial for maintaining consistent and effective customer communication ⁹.

Prompt: "Analyze this dataset of monthly sales figures for the past year. Identify any trends, calculate the average monthly sales, and suggest potential factors that might have influenced sales peaks or dips."

Explanation: This prompt showcases the AI's capability to process and interpret numerical data. It requires multiple steps (trend identification, calculation, and analysis), demonstrating how complex analytical tasks can be broken down into a single, comprehensive prompt ^{7 10}.

Prompt: "Review this employment contract and highlight any clauses that may have disadvantages for the employee. Provide a brief explanation for each highlighted clause and suggest potential revisions."

Explanation: This prompt exemplifies how AI can be used in specialized fields like law. It requires the AI to understand legal terminology, identify specific types of clauses, provide explanations, and suggest improvements. This prompt demonstrates the AI's potential to assist with complex tasks ^{3 7}.

Prompt: "Based on the provided patient symptoms, medical history, and recent test results, suggest three possible diagnoses. For each diagnosis, explain the reasoning and recommend further tests or examinations to confirm or rule out the condition."

Explanation: This prompt showcases the application of AI in healthcare. It requires the AI to process multiple types of information, apply medical knowledge, and provide structured output with explanations and recommendations. This example demonstrates how AI can assist in complex decision-making processes in specialized fields ^{10 11}.

Prompt: "Write a 500-word short story about a time-traveling detective solving a mystery in ancient Egypt. Include vivid descriptions of the setting, at least two plot twists, and end with a surprising revelation."

Explanation: This detailed prompt demonstrates the AI's capability to generate complex, creative content with specific requirements. It combines historical knowledge, creative storytelling, and structural elements (word count, plot twists, ending). This prompt showcases how AI can be used for sophisticated creative writing tasks ^{9 12}.

Prompt: "Does this image contain a cat? Respond with either true or false."

Explanation: This prompt is an excellent example of a simple, straightforward multimodal task. It is clear and specific; and requires the AI to process visual information and provide a binary response. This prompt is ideal for basic image classification tasks and demonstrates the AI's ability to understand and interpret visual content ¹³.

Prompt: "Give me a list of all the important things in this picture."

Explanation: This prompt showcases the AI's capability to identify multiple objects within an image. It is open-ended enough allowing comprehensive analysis but specific in requesting a list format. This type of prompt is valuable for inventory management or scene understanding tasks ¹³.

Prompt: "Count the number of cats in this picture. Give me only the final number in the response."

Explanation: This prompt combines visual analysis with a specific output requirement. It demonstrates the AI's ability to not only identify objects but also quantify them. The instruction for a single-number response shows how prompts can be tailored to produce precise, usable outputs ¹³.

Prompt: "Analyze this MRI scan image with the provided patient symptoms. Identify any abnormalities and suggest possible diagnoses."

Explanation: This complex prompt exemplifies the integration of visual and textual data in a critical field like healthcare. It requires the AI to process medical imagery, interpret textual information, and provide a comprehensive analysis. This type of prompt showcases the potential of multimodal AI in assisting medical professionals ¹⁴.

Prompt: "Review this scanned contract document and extract specific clauses related to payment terms. Summarize the obligations and rights of both parties."

Explanation: This prompt demonstrates the AI's ability to process visual (scanned document) and textual data in a specialized domain. It requires understanding legal terminology and document structure, showcasing how multimodal AI can assist in complex professional tasks ¹⁴.

Prompt: "Using this video of a science experiment and the accompanying text instructions, generate a detailed lesson plan for a high school chemistry class. Include key learning objectives, step-by-step instructions, and potential discussion questions."

Explanation: This prompt showcases the AI's ability to synthesize information from multiple sources (video and text) to create educational content. It demonstrates how multimodal AI can be leveraged in education to enhance teaching materials and methodologies ¹⁴.

Prompt: "Analyze this graph of stock prices over the past year along with the company's latest financial report. Predict potential future trends and provide a brief investment recommendation."

Explanation: This prompt integrates visual data (stock price graph) with textual information (financial report) to produce a complex analysis. It demonstrates the AI's capability to process financial data in multiple formats and provide insights, showcasing its potential in the financial sector ¹⁴.

Prompt: "Using this landscape image as inspiration and the phrase 'A journey begins' as a starting point, write a 500-word short story. Incorporate vivid descriptions of the scenery and a character's emotional journey."

Explanation: This prompt exemplifies how multimodal AI can be used in creative tasks. It combines visual inspiration with textual guidance to generate original content. This type of prompt showcases the AI's ability to interpret visual elements and translate them into narrative form ¹⁴.

Prompt: "Review this code snippet and the accompanying flowchart. Identify potential optimizations and suggest improvements to enhance the algorithm's efficiency. Provide your response in a bulleted list format."

Explanation: This prompt demonstrates the AI's capability to process textual (code) and visual (flowchart) information in a technical context. It requires understanding programming concepts and the ability to suggest improvements, showcasing the potential of multimodal AI in software development.

Prompt: "Create a digital artwork based on this sketch and the following style description: 'Vibrant, abstract expressionism inspired by Kandinsky'. Ensure the final image maintains the core elements of the sketch while incorporating the described style."

Explanation: This advanced prompt showcases the AI's ability to generate visual content based on visual input (sketch) and textual description. It demonstrates the potential of multimodal AI in creative fields, requiring the model to understand and apply artistic concepts ¹⁴.