AI For Business Leaders
AI For Business Leaders
A digital companion to the physical playing cards
How to prompt like a pro
As you continue experimenting with different gen AI applications, you'll quickly discover the crucial role of prompting. Developing your prompting skills is essential for achieving optimal results and tailoring generative AI to your specific needs. The key to using gen AI tooling is to ensure you get experience prompting.
Below are a few exercises to get you started.
Try it: Hands-on with the Gemini app
Try your own prompts by going to Gemini and following these steps:
- Create: Ask Gemini to write text for a new website for your product.
- Summarize: Ask Gemini to summarize a long document or email you have to read for work.
- Discover: Ask Gemini to research a topic for you.
Try it: Help desk hero
Imagine you're in charge of a help desk system overflowing with customer support tickets. Your goal is to use the power of Gemini to categorize these tickets efficiently. The categories are:
- Billing Issue
- Account Management
- Technical Support
- Feature Request
- Refund Request
Here's the tricky ticket: "Hi, I recently upgraded, but I'm still seeing the features from the basic plan. I tried logging out and back in, but that didn't fix it. Can you help?"
Open Gemini and classify this ticket using different prompting techniques below.
The task
Zero-shot prompting
Imagine Gemini has never seen a support ticket. How would you phrase a prompt to get Gemini to categorize this ticket correctly, with no prior examples? Give it your best shot!
One-shot prompting
You decide to give Gemini some help. Provide one example ticket and its correct category to guide Gemini's classification. For example:
- Ticket: "I can't reset my password." Category: Account Management.
- Now, with this single example, how would you prompt Gemini to categorize the new ticket?
Few-shot prompting
Time to unleash the full power of examples! Provide Gemini with multiple example tickets and their categories, like these:
- Example 1: Ticket: "I was charged twice for my subscription this month." Category: Billing Issue.
- Example 2: Ticket: "I need a copy of my invoice for last month." Category: Account Management.
- Example 3: Ticket: "The new feature isn't working as expected." Category: Technical Support.
Now, craft a prompt that uses these examples to guide Gemini towards the correct category for the new ticket.
Think about:
- How does the number of examples influence the prompt and Gemini's potential response?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of each prompting technique in this scenario?
This exercise will help you understand how writing effective prompts can be used to achieve desired business outcomes.
Good luck, help desk hero!
Try it: Step into the role
Open Gemini and practice assigning a persona to an AI model, and observe how it influences the output. This exercise will help you understand the power of role prompting and how it can be used to guide AI models towards desired outputs. Have fun exploring different personas.
The task
Choose your persona. Select a role or persona that interests you. This could be anything from a leader or a scientist to a poet or a stand-up comedian.
Craft your prompt. Fill in the blanks to create your role prompting prompt: "You are a [persona]. Please write a [fill in the blank]." Consider tasks like writing a poem, and generating content like a blog post or a research paper, or business-related content like an image for a marketing campaign or a product description.
Bonus: Try the same prompt as a different persona.
Try it: The chain reaction
Go to Gemini and experience the power of prompt chaining to achieve a complex outcome.
The task
Set a goal. Think of a multi-step task or a complex question that you'd like Gemini to help you with. This could be something like:
- Writing a detailed business proposal
- Planning a business trip itinerary
- Creating an image with various elements for a marketing campaign
Start the chain. Begin with an initial prompt that sets the stage for your goal. For example, if you're planning a business trip, your first prompt might be:
"I need to plan a 5-day business trip to Tokyo in August. My primary goal is to meet with clients and attend the Google Cloud Next Tokyo conference. I'd also like to explore some key landmarks if time allows. Can you help me create a preliminary itinerary?"
Build the chain. Based on Gemini's response, ask follow-up questions or provide additional instructions to refine the output. For example:
- "Can you suggest some suitable hotels near the conference center that offer business traveler amenities?"
- "Can you also add some day trips to nearby cities?"
Observe and analyze. Pay attention to how each prompt builds upon the previous one, leading to a more comprehensive and nuanced result.
Reflect and share. How did prompt chaining help you achieve your goal? Share your experiences and discuss the benefits of this technique with others.
Try it: Prompting with NotebookLM
The task
Unlock your gen AI strategy with NotebookLM.
Open NotebookLM and upload the resources provided below.
Start chatting: Ask how you can apply a gen AI strategy to your company or team.
Try it: Additional prompting exercises
Bonus Exercise 1
You're dealing with a challenging client relationship and need to de-escalate the situation and rebuild trust. What's an effective prompt to use with generative AI to draft a communication that is both professional and empathetic?
Possible prompt: Draft an email to a disgruntled client that is both apologetic and forward-looking, while suggesting three next steps to restore trust.
Bonus Exercise 2
You need to quickly synthesize recent sales performance to prepare for a leadership meeting. Write a prompt you could use with generative AI to analyze the latest data and provide a concise, actionable summary.
Possible prompt: Analyze the Q3 sales data for our top five markets and identify the key trends and growth opportunities, presented as a concise memo.
Bonus Exercise 3
Your org has developed a smart home device prototype, but it needs a new aesthetic. What is an effective prompt to deliver your desired outcome if you have a hand-drawn sketch?
