Plain English
Prompt
What you type or say to an AI: your question, instructions and any material you give it.
The input you give an AI: a question, an instruction, examples, and any text or files to work from. Prompts that set out a role, the task, the context and the format you want get noticeably better results.
Why it matters
The same AI gives very different answers to a vague prompt and a clear one. Writing a good prompt is like writing a good email: anyone can learn it.
At work
“You’re our office manager. Draft a friendly reminder to clients with invoices over 30 days late. Under 100 words, no jargon.”
Think of it like a brief to a new freelancer: the clearer the brief, the less you rewrite.
Related terms
Where it appears