A coworker told me my AI prompts were too vague and I finally get it

Last month I was generating product descriptions for our online store using ChatGPT and kept getting back these generic, useless paragraphs. A data analyst on my team pointed out that I wasn't giving the tool any specific constraints like tone, length, or target audience. Now I ask for exactly 50 words in a friendly voice aimed at retirees, and the results are ten times better. Has anyone else gotten similar feedback that changed how they use generative AI?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlieh7414d ago

Wait, didn't you ever try telling it to "sound like a real person" or "keep it short and sweet" first? I started tossing in stuff like "no jargon" and "like you're talking to your grandpa" and suddenly the output actually made sense.

kellyallen14d ago

Wait, isn't that basically like asking it nicely to not sound like a robot having a stroke? I've been so bad at this. Like, I'd type out these long, detailed requests and get back word salad. Then I'd get mad and start yelling at it in all caps. Real productive. Your grandpa idea is gold though. I'm gonna try that. Probably gonna tell it to "write like you just woke up and haven't had coffee yet" next time.

iris_barnes8714d ago

Write like you just woke up and haven't had coffee yet" made me laugh out loud. My friend Steve tried something similar once, told it to "sound like you're explaining it to your tired neighbor over the fence," and got back the most readable instructions he'd ever seen from the thing. I think there's something to that approach, like you're giving it a character to play instead of just a list of rules.