I was watching someone using Copilot for the first time recently and I noticed that they were struggling to get a satisfactory response. The promise of AI wasn’t living up to their expectations for a couple of reasons. Firstly, in their mind, AI was much more capable that the reality they were experiencing and secondly, they had used poorly constructed prompts. They were disappointed.

Expectations vs Reality

If you’re a Gen X like me, you would have been raised on a health does of TV shows and movies that presented a future where technology had human like capabilities and beyond. Leap forward 3 or 4 decades and we hear constant headlines about AI replacing jobs and marketing announcements that paint a vision of the future we want to believe is here now.

The reality is that while AI is advancing very rapidly, it still has a long way to go to compete with the human brain. At almost every talk I do on AI, someone makes a statement to put down the capabilities, “it’s not good at xyz”. Those comments are a good clue that many people think about AI the wrong way and miss the opportunity of how it can help. Generative AI is not here to replace you, it is here to support you and it is a two way relationship. AI needs your help too.

What does it take to make Copilot, ChatGPT or your favourite Generative AI tool useful? Firstly, you need to understand the content it is trained on and what information it has access to. Secondly, you need to use a good prompt.

Write a better prompt

Don’t be a minimalist when it comes to writing a prompt. The less information you provide in the prompt, the more general the answer will be. Beginners often start with very short prompts and get put off quickly when they don’t get exactly what they want.

I like to think of Copilot like a teenager. You need to be specific and set expectations about the type of answer you are expecting. The first response might be vague and lacking the detail you need. You need ask again, rephrasing the question to zero on the specific thing you want. This might require patience.

Structure your prompt including:

• A question or topic
• Where to get specific information
• The type of output you want

For example:

• Write a short summary of the response to our proposal from the attached document. Present as a table.
• Draft a document comparing Microsoft Dynamic CRM and SalesForce. Include a summary of features, highlighting the key differences and a table comparing pricing.
• Summarise email sent in the last two weeks related to project xyz and highlight any actions and potential risks. Highlight who the actions are for and when they are due. Create as a table.

It is important to use the right tool for the job. Third prompt above will need access to your email to answer. This is where Copilot has a real advantage, it can access your email and Teams conversations to answer questions.

You can also chain your responses, where the second prompt builds on the question you asked in the first. If you were using something similar to the first prompt above and forgot to ask for the response to be presented as a table, simply ask it as a second question. This technique helps you to narrow the scope, add additional more specific details or exclude things you don’t want.

There is a reason Microsoft call Copilot, Copilot. It is here to support you. Critical thinking is important, just because your computer told you something was true, doesn’t mean it is. Check the references it uses, read the output and make sure it is what you are expecting. You may need to do manual edits.

Remember this will be a learning journey. I’ve never met a pilot who starts out flying a JAS-39 or Airbus A380. They all start with a small training aircraft as they learn to fly. The same applies here!

More tips on writing good prompts from Microsoft. How to Build your own Prompt Book.

Happy prompting!