Video Tutorial

Supporting Notes for This Lesson

This video introduces the core foundations of prompt engineering—the skill of designing clear, structured instructions that guide AI to deliver business-ready results.

Key Takeaways

Stop treating AI like Google. Asking vague questions leads to vague answers.Think like a director, not just a user. Your job is to instruct, not just ask.

The PTCF Framework

Persona – Assign a role to the AI (e.g., “You are a senior marketing manager…”).
Task – Use clear action verbs (e.g., create, summarize, rewrite, analyze).
Context – Add the background info the AI needs (most prompts fail here).
Format – Tell the AI exactly how you want the response (e.g., bullet points, table).

Prompting Techniques Covered

• Zero-Shot Prompting: No examples needed—just a clear, structured prompt.
• Few-Shot Prompting: Include one or more examples to “show” the AI what good looks like.
• Step-Back Prompting: Start broad to help the AI gather relevant knowledge before narrowing in.
• Chain of Thought (CoT): Add phrases like “Let’s think step by step” to improve logic and reasoning.

Choosing the Right AI for the Job

• Standard Models – Fast, great for simple tasks like summaries or rewrites.
• Reasoning Models – Better for multi-step problems and strategic tasks.
• Deep Research Models – Use for high-stakes, in-depth analysis (trade speed for depth).

Best Practices

• Keep prompts clear and simple—if it’s confusing to you, it’s confusing to the AI.
• Be specific about the output (length, style, format).
• Use instructions over constraints—tell the AI what to do, not just what to avoid.