How to write your first useful AI prompt.

A useful prompt has four parts

Start with a job you recognise: plan this week's dinners, explain a letter or compare two laptops. Say what you need back, add the details that matter and tell AI what it must not assume. These steps apply to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and other assistants, not just one product.

• What you want — for example, five family dinners and one shopping list.
• Your situation — how many people, their ages, diets and allergies, and what is already in the cupboard.
• Your limits — the budget, cooking time and equipment you actually have.
• The answer you need — a daily menu, ingredient quantities and a combined shopping list, with missing details flagged.

Choose the input that the task needs

A file gives the assistant material to work from; a screenshot provides visual context; web search helps with facts that change. Tell it what to inspect and what you expect to receive. Feature availability varies by service and account.

Ask for questions before answers

If important information is missing, tell ChatGPT to ask a small number of clarifying questions before drafting. This usually improves the result more than adding a long list of generic instructions.

Check the first version against your needs. If Tuesday's meal takes too long, ask to change that meal and update the shopping list, not to start again. This is how a short conversation turns a broad idea into a usable plan.

Check what matters

Language models can sound confident when a claim is incomplete or wrong. Verify facts, quotations, calculations and professional advice with reliable sources. Never paste confidential information unless you are authorised to share it.