Tips for writing effective AI prompts

Hello!

I hope you’re well.

If, like me, you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, I’m sure you’re enjoying the warmer weather and longer days. It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do for your mood.

For the past couple of years, AI has easily been one of the most talked about topics—the possibilities, the cautionary tales—it is an industry that has been developing at incredible speed.

My personal opinion is we will move from being an AI-assisted society to an AI-powered, human-assisted society. Greg Isenberg summed it up nicely:

1. Human-powered (we are still here)

2. AI-assisted, human-powered (2025-2026)

3. AI agent-powered, human-assisted (2027 and beyond)

Human creativity and knowledge will become even more valuable as we move towards this eventuality.

To give you an example, I’ve been playing around with an AI music generator. Anyone can use this tool to create music, however, because I’m a musician and know how to prompt AI models, the results I can generate are significantly better than many—maybe not Oasis or Taylor Swift (I’m more of a Hans Zimmer fan anyway).

In other words, my musical experience and ability to communicate my insights, tastes, ideas, and individuality are what make the output better (or worse depending on your taste) than “batch-created-nothingness”.

Now apply your expertise or passion and imagine the opportunities.

With all those possibilities ahead of you, I’m going to share some tips to utilise these tools. Some are from my own experience; others are straight from the horse’s mouth.

Here’s what I’ve got for you:

Concept
🤖 7 tips for writing effective AI prompts—according to ChatGPT

Resources
🤓 Material I’ve enjoyed lately

Tech of the week
💬 Cursor AI

Studio News
📰 New CSS Design Awards for Woodwrights

🤖 CONCEPT

7 tips for writing effective AI prompts—according to ChatGPT

AI models are getting better and better. They’ve evolved beyond the weird hand phase, and are now viable tools to assist with your work. The key to getting what you need is inputting the right prompts. So, I asked ChatGPT to give us some advice.

Here’s what it said:

Be clear and direct
Tell me exactly what you need. For example, instead of asking for “campaign ideas,” specify the type of campaign (social media, email, PPC), target audience, and any particular goals.

Provide context
Share the background or purpose behind your request. Let me know details like your industry, target demographics, or specific challenges. This will help me provide more relevant and actionable insights.

Ask follow-up questions
Don’t hesitate to build on my responses with follow-up questions. This iterative process helps refine the information, ensuring you get tailored advice that meets your needs.

Specify format and length
Whether you need a strategy outline, content suggestions, or an analysis, specifying the format and length (e.g. a short list, detailed paragraphs) will help me deliver the information in the most useful way.

Highlight any key metrics or KPIs
If your request involves improving performance, such as increasing engagement, conversion rates, or ROI, let me know your key metrics or KPIs. This will allow me to tailor strategies or advice that directly aligns with your objectives.

Mention any tools or platforms in use
If you’re working with specific tools or platforms (e.g. Google Analytics, social media channels), sharing this information can help me give you tips or solutions that are compatible with your existing setup.

Iterate and refine
If my first response doesn’t fully meet your expectations, let me know what to adjust or clarify. Your feedback is key to honing in on exactly what you need.

Pretty helpful, right?

I would never recommend using AI-produced work in its entirety. It can give you a good starting point, but adding your own flavour and insight is necessary to make it sing. So to demonstrate a more “collaborative” approach, here are a few additional tips from me.

Break down tasks
If you’re looking for assistance on a large or complicated piece of work, break it down into more manageable requests. It’s easier to work through the iterations that way.

Create your own GPT
If you have brand guidelines or a tone of voice document, input this information along with examples of good work and teach your GPT to create content that is on-brand. You can continue to input new data and help the tool improve. GPTs can also be shared with your team.

⭐️ PRO TIP ⭐️

Download the ChatGPT microphone extension—this will allow you to speak to the AI like a person. You can riff ideas, collaborate, and create a better outcome quicker than by typing.

🤓 RESOURCES

Material I’ve enjoyed lately

📗 Read

3–2–1
A newsletter by James Clear

James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits, a New York Times bestseller. Each week, he sends out a free newsletter with 3 of his own ideas, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question to ponder. They’re bite-sized and thought-provoking and I often save them to revisit later.

📺 Watch

Ex-Google CEO, Eric Schmidt on the future of AI

According to Eric Schmidt, there will be 3 developments in AI that will change the world as we know it.

🎧 Listen

Malte Marten x Changing Colours

A few weeks ago, Monica and I were down in Wānaka for a project kick-off with Amanda, Andrea and the team at Wilson & Dorset.

Amanda wanted us to fully immerse in the brand and the surroundings that inspired their product, ethos and way of life—we were up for it!

After a day of learning about the brand and discussing their goals and aspirations, we ended the session at Secret Sauna for some lakeside contrast therapy.

The changing tent had a hand pan inside, which I had to try for myself. Ever since I’ve been listening to Malte Marten when I need to switch off my brain. Maybe you’ll enjoy his music too.

💬 TECH OF THE WEEK

Cursor AI

As developers, we use code environments to write our code and manage projects.

While Microsoft has a tool called "Co-Pilot” to guide development, I have been very interested to see the progress of a tool called Cursor AI. You can type and talk to this tool in order to create an app.

I came across this video on social media of an 8-year-old girl building a Harry Potter chatbot in about 45 minutes. Insane.

📰 STUDIO NEWS

New CSS Design Awards for Woodwrights

Last week, we were celebrating our awards for the ACME site. This week, we’re toasting Woodwrights.

The newly launched website just picked up 4 CSS Design Awards and we are over the moon.

1. UI (user interface)

2. UX (user experience)

3. Special Kudos

4. Innovation

Woodwrights came to us after we designed and built a new Shopify site for their sister company, Acorn Furniture. We leapt at the opportunity to work with the team again.

A huge congratulations to our clients, Huxley, Jacinta and Lucy. Thank you for putting your trust in us, not once but twice.

Head over to the new Woodwrights website to take a look (and ogle some very nice furniture).

That’s all from me this week.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time.

Alex Murton
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Studio Almond