Robin L. Potter
GenAI Prompting
A prompt is how human end users communicate with genAI. Prompting may be conducted using voice, text, images, and reference documents. It may also be conducted using verbal and visual modes involving two-way verbal interactions and AI camera access. Regardless of the mode used, remember that a prompt is one important way for humans to maintain agency in the process of using genAI applications. It is the way humans can direct the tools to provide output that serves human purposes.
When you direct a genAI model to analyze data and reports or to create a document, message, or image, you are engaging in an opportunity to have control over the kind of information included in the output. To exercise this control, you must apply your critical thinking, planning, and analytical skills because the more specific the prompt, the better you will be able to direct the model to deliver the output that serves your purpose. Remember that you are accountable for any genAI output that you use in your communications. For this and many other reasons, it is important to know how to prompt the model and how to analyze its output. For more on this imperative, see Miao and Holmes (2023).
This chapter will cover prompting strategies. To get started, view this video by Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick (2023) of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which covers GenAI prompting basics.
Prompting Modes
Prompt crafting is the process by which you create statements or questions that direct a genAI model to respond in a way that serves your purpose. A prompt is the statement or question that may or may not be accompanied by an image, reference text, or a data set that serves as the knowledge source so the model can respond using information that pertains to your context.
Though prompt crafting is similar to prompt engineering, prompt crafting is the activity in which most end users engage; whereas, prompt engineering is mostly performed by those with the technical skills to refine the model’s ability to process prompts or by those with advanced prompting skills who want to tighten or limit the model’s mode of response. Ramlochan (2024) mentions that prompt engineering is conducted by those with specialized encoding skills. Unfortunately, as of this writing, many who communicate on the topic of prompting do not differentiate between the two terms.
How you go about the process of prompting is up to you: You may choose to elicit an output all at once with one prompt, or you may choose to break up the prompting task into phases, proceeding in a step-by-step manner. You may also choose to create a prompt that directs the application itself to proceed using a phased approach. We can categorize prompting into three types:
- Casual
- Conversational
- Structured
With casual prompting, you can simply ask a question or give a command. This is the easiest form of prompting using a one-sentence format. You can also elicit an output using conv