A lack of clarity and an overestimation of the AI's capabilities.
Here are the key mistakes and how to avoid them:
Lack of Clarity and Structure
-
Being too vague or general: Prompts like "Tell me about AI" are too broad and result in generic answers.
- Fix: Be specific. Include details about the desired scope, focus, and audience.
-
Not providing enough context: Without background information, the AI makes assumptions about your needs, tone, or industry.
- Fix: Briefly explain the situation or the goal. Assign a specific professional role to the AI (e.g., "Act as an experienced financial analyst...") to get a more tailored response.
-
Forgetting to specify output format and length: This leads to unstructured text that may not be immediately usable.
- Fix: Always include explicit formatting instructions (e.g., "Respond as a JSON object," "use a bulleted list") and length constraints (e.g., "under 500 words").
-
Not including examples (Few-Shot Prompting): Descriptions of tone or style can be subjective (e.g., "make it sound professional").
- Fix: Provide one or two examples of the desired input/output pattern to guide the AI with precision.
Misunderstanding AI Limitations
-
Overloading the prompt with multiple tasks: Trying to cram too many distinct questions or requests into one prompt (e.g., summarize, translate, and reformat all at once) can confuse the AI and degrade the quality of all outputs.
- Fix: Break down complex problems into a series of smaller, sequential prompts.
-
Expecting perfection on the first try: High-quality AI output is often the result of an iterative process.
- Fix: Treat the interaction as a conversation. Start with a draft prompt and refine it with follow-up instructions (e.g., "Make this more engaging," "Expand on the first point").
-
Ignoring the AI's limitations and shortcomings: AI models generate responses based on patterns in data, not real-time understanding or verified facts, and can "hallucinate" (provide factually incorrect information).
- Fix: Use AI as a collaborator for drafting and brainstorming, not as a definitive source of truth. Always fact-check important claims and apply critical thinking.
-
Mentioning confidential information: Do not use sensitive company or personal data in prompts, as the information may not be private.
- Fix: Use hypothetical scenarios or generalized data instead.
In addition to clarity and understanding AI limitations, you should avoid the following during the prompting process
:
- Using offensive, unethical, or dangerous prompts: Avoid any language or requests that promote hate speech, discrimination, illegal acts, or harmful content, as AIs have safeguards against these.
- Including confidential or sensitive data: Never put personal, proprietary, or client information into an AI prompt, as the data may not be private and could be used for training or exposed in a data leak.
- Employing only "negative" constraints: Telling the AI what not to do (e.g., "Do not sound formal") is less effective than telling it what to do (e.g., "Use a casual and friendly tone"). A combination of positive guidance and specific exclusions often works best.
- Using overly complex or contradictory language: Avoid jargon without definition, idioms, or sarcasm, which AIs can misinterpret. Also, avoid giving conflicting instructions, like asking for an "uplifting story" but also making it "very sad and depressing".
- Assuming the AI understands subtext or common sense: The AI takes instructions literally and does not "read between the lines" like a human. Be explicit about your assumptions.
- Expecting human-level originality or creativity: AI remixes existing information and patterns; it doesn't have natural creative flair or the capacity to "break new ground" in an artistic sense. Use it as a tool to enhance your own creativity, not replace it.
- Relying on "prompt and pray" without iteration: Avoid assuming the first generated response will be perfect. The best results come from a back-and-forth conversation, where you refine the output with follow-up instructions.
- Copying AI-generated content verbatim: AI outputs often need editing and refinement to be useful and accurate. Always apply critical thinking, fact-check the information, and add your own unique insights to the final product.