Prompts for AI: 9 practical examples for better responses

Creative and strategic commands to obtain more accurate and useful answers from artificial intelligence.

In the ever-expanding universe of artificial intelligence, one skill stands out as fundamental to unlocking the full potential of these tools: the art of creating good prompts for AIIf you've ever felt that AI didn't quite understand what you wanted, the solution might not lie in the technology itself, but in how we communicate with it.

The quality of an AI's response is directly linked to the quality of its instructions. A vague command generates a generic result, while a precise and well-structured command can generate insights, texts, and solutions of impressive complexity. Think of the prompt as the key that starts the engine of a high-performance car; without the right key, you won't go anywhere.

This guide was created to be your practical manual. We'll uncover what makes a prompt effective and present nine concrete examples that will transform the way you interact with any language model. Get ready to elevate your conversations with AI to a new level of productivity and creativity.

What are AI prompts and why are they so important?

A prompt is, in essence, an instruction, a question, or a command that you give to an artificial intelligence model so that it performs a task. It can be something as simple as "What is the capital of France?" or something as complex as "Create a business plan for a sustainable technology startup."

Its importance is crucial because the prompts for AI They function like a script for an actor. They define the context, the character, the task, and the tone of the response. Without a good script, even the best actor can seem lost. With AI, the principle is the same: the clarity of its direction determines the excellence of the execution.

Mastering prompt creation means you go from a passive user to an active collaborator with AI. You learn to guide the tool so that it not only responds, but also reasons, creates, and solves problems in a way that aligns with your goals. It's the difference between asking for a photo and directing a complete photoshoot.

The Elements of an Effective Prompt

To build a powerful prompt, it's helpful to think about its essential components. By combining these elements, you provide the AI ​​with a clear map of what it needs, minimizing ambiguity and maximizing the relevance of the response.

• Context: Provide background information. Explain the situation or information the AI ​​needs to know to understand your request. For example, instead of "Write an email," say "I'm writing an email to a client who is 15 days late on payment."
• Assignment: Be explicit about what you want the AI ​​to do. Use clear action verbs such as “create”, “summarize”, “analyze”, “compare”, “translate” or “rewrite”.
• Person: Tell the AI ​​which “character” it should assume. This adjusts the tone, style, and level of knowledge of the response. Examples: “Act like a finance expert,” “Respond like a children’s history teacher,” or “Assume the persona of a comedy screenwriter.”
• Format: Specify how you would like to receive the response. Do you want a bulleted list? A table? A paragraph? A script? Python code? Making this clear saves time on formatting later.
• Examples: If you have a specific style or format in mind, provide a small example. This is known as "close-shot prompting" and helps the AI ​​calibrate the output accurately.
• Tom: Define the emotional or stylistic tone of the response. Professional, friendly, enthusiastic, formal, humorous, serious. Each of these adjectives drastically changes the final result.

9 Practical Examples of Prompts for AI

Let's see how these elements come together in practice. For each scenario, we present a "bad" (vague) prompt and a "good" (detailed) prompt, demonstrating the monumental difference in results.

1. Creating Blog Content

• Bad Prompt: Write a post about content marketing.
• Good Prompt: Act like an SEO and content marketing expert with 10 years of experience. Write a draft blog post of approximately 1200 words on 'The Top 5 Content Marketing Trends for 2025'. Use a tone... informative and professionalStructure the text with an engaging introduction, an H2 subheading for each trend, and a conclusion. For each trend, include a practical example of how a company could apply it.

2. Idea Generation (Brainstorming)

• Bad Prompt: "Give me business ideas."
• Good Prompt: "I'm looking to start an online business with low initial investment (up to R$ 5.000), focused on sustainability and handcrafted products. Generate a list of 10 innovative business ideas. For each idea, include: a brief description, the main target audience, and a possible first step to validate the concept."

3. Writing Professional Emails

• Bad Prompt: Write an email to a client.
• Good Prompt: Write a professional and friendly email to a new client named 'Carlos Andrade' from the company 'InovaTech'. The goal is to welcome him after he signs up for our IT consulting services. Introduce yourself as 'Juliana Costa', the account manager, and suggest scheduling a 30-minute meeting next week to discuss next steps and introduce the team.

4. Summarizing Long Texts

• Bad Prompt: Summarize this article: [long text]
• Good Prompt: Summarize the following text in 5 main points, using bullet points. The summary should be concise and focus on the research results and their practical implications. The audience for the summary is C-level executives with limited time, so use clear language. direct and strategicText to be summarized: [paste the text here]

5. Creating Video Scripts

• Bad Prompt: "Script for a YouTube video."
• Good Prompt: “Create a script for a 7-minute YouTube video titled 'How to start investing with just 100 reais'. Structure the script in three acts: 1) A captivating introduction (30 seconds) addressing the myth that you need a lot of money to invest. 2) Main content (5 minutes) explaining three investment options for beginners (Treasury Selic, a daily liquidity CDB, and an Index Fund like BOVA11). 3) Conclusion (1 minute 30 seconds) with a summary and a call to action, encouraging the viewer to subscribe to the channel and leave a comment.”

6. Learning and Explaining Concepts

• Bad Prompt: “What is blockchain?”
• Good Prompt: “Explain the concept of blockchain as if I were a 16-year-old teenager who understands technology but not finance. Use an analogy with a digital diary shared among friends to illustrate the concepts of blocks, chain, and decentralization. Avoid complex technical jargon and focus on the security and transparency that the technology offers.”

7. Translation with Context

• Bad Prompt: "Translate 'it's raining cats and dogs' into Portuguese."
• Good Prompt: Translate the English idiom 'it's raining cats and dogs' into Brazilian Portuguese. Explain that a literal translation doesn't make sense and provide at least two equivalent and natural expressions in Portuguese, such as 'está chovendo canivetes' or 'o mundo está caindo em água'. Indicate which one is more common today.

8. Programming Code Generation

• Bad Prompt: "Write some code in Python."
• Good Prompt: Write a function in Python 3 called 'calculate_age'. The function should receive a string with a birthdate in the format 'DD/MM/YYYY' as an argument and return the person's age in years (integer). Include comments in the code explaining the logic for importing the 'datetime' library, converting the string to a date object, and calculating the difference from the current date.

9. Trip Planning

• Bad Prompt: "Plan a trip to Japan."
• Good Prompt: “Create a detailed 14-day Japan travel itinerary for a couple traveling for the first time, focusing on a balance between traditional culture and modernity. The budget is moderate. The itinerary should start in Tokyo (5 days), continue through Hakone (2 days), Kyoto (5 days), and end in Osaka (2 days). For each city, suggest 2 must-see activities per day and a recommendation for a local dish to try.”

Advanced Tips for Mastering the Art of Prompts

After practicing with the examples above, you can further refine your skills with some advanced techniques. These strategies help you tackle more complex tasks and obtain even more sophisticated answers.

One of the most powerful techniques is... iterationThe first prompt is rarely perfect. Approach the interaction like a conversation. If the response isn't ideal, don't give up. Add more context, refine the task, or correct course with a new prompt, such as: "That's good, but now rewrite the second paragraph with a more enthusiastic tone."

Another approach is the reverse engineeringAsk the AI ​​itself for help. You can ask: “What would be a good prompt to generate a social media marketing plan?” or “Analyze my previous prompt and suggest how I could improve it to get a more detailed answer.” This turns the tool into a teacher.

For problems that require logical reasoning, try the "Chain-of-Thought Prompting." Simply add the phrase... "Think step by step" before its instruction. This encourages the AI ​​to detail its reasoning process, which often leads to more accurate and well-reasoned answers, especially in mathematical or logical problems.

Conclusion

Master the creation of prompts for AI It's more than a technical trick; it's an essential communication skill for the future. By learning to provide clear, contextual, and well-structured instructions, you transform artificial intelligence from a passive tool into a powerful partner for creation, analysis, and problem-solving.

The quality of the answers you receive is largely in your hands. The clarity of your thinking and the precision of your language are the true catalysts for unlocking the extraordinary potential of these technologies. AI is the instrument, but you are the conductor.

Now it's your turn. Start practicing with the examples provided, experiment with your own ideas, and see how effective communication can open doors to a world of possibilities. What will be the first prompt you improve today?