How to Write the Perfect AI Prompt, According to OpenAI President Greg Brockman

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https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/how-to-write-the-perfect-ai-prompt-according-to-openai-president-greg-brockman/91150209

The best way to learn to use AI is to play with AI. An expert explains how to write great AI prompts to get you started.

FEB 25, 2025

“If I were a student today, the first thing I would do is learn AI,” Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, recently declared. What’s good advice for students is probably also good for entrepreneurs.

While no one can predict exactly how artificial intelligence will evolve, just about anyone with any knowledge of the subject agrees it is soon going to be an essential part of work for nearly all of us. You probably should do as Huang suggests and get ahead of the ball by experimenting with how to best use it now.

Top CEOs, marketers, and innovation experts all have suggestions on how to do that if you’re in the market for ideas. But the most basic skill when it comes to getting the maximum value from AI tools is learning how to talk to, or prompt, them for the best results. 

An expert explains how to prompt AI tools:

Plenty of advice has been written about how to prompt particular generative AI tools in particular contexts. Further, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has noted, best practices in this area are evolving as the technology evolves.

But if you’re looking for basic principles for how to write effective prompts that are likely to be broadly applicable, Altman’s Open AI colleague Greg Brockman has a suggestion.

An OpenAI co-founder, and currently the organization’s president, Brockman is an ideal expert to offer such advice. Helpfully, he recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the basic structure of the perfect AI prompt. Originally developed by engineer and AI company founder Ben Hylak, this formula breaks down the ideal AI prompt into four sections.

1. State your goal:

What exactly would you like the AI tool to produce for you? This first step is intuitive enough, but you’re more likely to get what you want from your session if you specify up front exactly what you’re looking for.

In the example shared by Brockman, the goal is “a list of the best medium-length hikes within two hours of San Francisco.” Furthermore, the hikes should be a “cool and unique adventure" and “lesser known.”

2. Specify your preferred format:

Do you want a simple list of options? Academic citations? Web addresses? GPS coordinates? Witty iambic pentameter? Be specific, because AI tools can structure results and conversations in nearly infinite ways based on the preference of the user.

In Brockman’s example, this prompting step specifies, “For each hike, return the name of the hike as I’d find it on AllTrails, then provide the starting address of the hike, the ending address of the hike, distance, drive time, hike duration, and what makes it a cool and unique adventure.”

3. Warnings and guardrails:

AI tools are improving but they can still make up stuff. If you’re looking for accurate factual information, tell it. The same goes if there is some other constraint you want the AI to keep in mind, like a category or ideas or a cluster of locations to avoid in its response.

In our example, the hiker does not want to drive to a trail only to discover it was an AI hallucination or 10 miles down the road, so he warns the AI, “be careful to make sure the name of the trail is correct, it actually exists, and that the time is correct.” (He probably should still double-check for accuracy before he gets in the car.)

4. Context dump:

This is a pretty broad and variable section of the prompt where you mention anything else you think might help the AI understand your particular situation and needs. There’s no need to overthink things or use special language. “Dump” is the verb here for a reason. Tell the AI anything that comes to mind like you would another human being.

This section is the longest part of Brockman’s example, and also a bit rambling.

In it, the hiker explains he and his girlfriend are regular hikers and have done all the well-known local trails. He flags one he particularly liked (Mt. Tam) and explains why (the breakfast at the end).

He adds that ocean views might be nice, and once again stresses the need for something unique and memorable.

Writing AI prompts is simpler than you think.

Looking at this four-part structure for writing AI prompts, I am struck by two things. First, completeness seems to count for a lot. If you asked your friend for hiking trail recommendations, they’d probably already have a lot of context in their head about what you like, where you’ve been before, and other details. All this needs to be explicitly spelled out to the AI. The more you give it, the better the response it can give back.

Second, and perhaps more important, I noticed  just how much the prompt resembles talking normally to another human being. One key takeaway of Brockman’s advice is that you don’t need to twist yourself into knots coming up with special language to use these tools. Which should be another nudge to start experimenting with them. Yes, there is some art to getting the most from AI tools. But prompting them well doesn’t appear to be as complex as some may fear.

All the more reason to get over your hesitation and start playing with AI tools — and preparing an AI-filled future — now.