Generative AI tools like Microsoft Copilot can help us be more creative, boost our productivity, and save a lot of our precious time. And you don’t need to be a computer expert to make the most of this tool. Just know… ASK. In fact, we only have to follow 3 simple steps to be able to create a good prompt for Copilot.
Let’s try?
Purpose | Explain what you want the Copilot to do.
Start by opening Copilot on your computer or cell phone and type or say what you want it to do and what information it needs. Contrary to what you probably do with a search engine – where you simplify your searches by reducing them to keywords – when you are asking Copilot for information, imagine that you are talking to a person, your assistant, and explain what you want.
For example:
“Give me three novel recommendations for my book club.”
“I need help scheduling 15 minutes a day to do mindfulness.”
“Help me budget for a family trip from Lisbon to Paris.”
Style | Tell him how you want the answer.
Copilot can respond to requests with simple lists or an entire page of text; can present answers in almost unlimited formats, from sonnets to rap; compose an email to a company’s customer service department; give a list of pros and cons to support a decision we need to make; or even explain in an accessible way something we don’t understand. Specify in your prompt how you want the answer.
For example:
“Give me three novel recommendations for my book club. Reply with a table that includes the book title, summary, and four discussion questions for each.”
“I need help scheduling 15 minutes a day for mindfulness. For each day of the week, I’ve included daily prompts to help me get started with meditation and journaling.”
“Helps me budget for a family trip from Lisbon to Paris. Lists all the elements of the budget for easy transfer to a spreadsheet.”
Details | Contextualize as much as possible.
How does Copilot know what kind of books you want to read? What inspires him or how does he like to travel? You have to give him this information, adding some details about yourself, your story and the specific situation. This information will provide you with context and help you narrow your search and provide a more personalized answer. The more details you provide, the better the answer. This is possible because Copilot combines the reasoning power of a large language model – a complex statistical model inputting enormous amounts of data – with the benefits of Microsoft’s technology and search index.
For example:
“Give me three novel recommendations for my book club. Reply with a table that includes the book title, summary, and four discussion questions for each. My club is made up of millennials ages 30 to 35 . We are avid readers interested in mystery, drama and romance novels. We meet in person every week, so please suggest a reading schedule that matches the cadence of meetings.”
“I need help scheduling 15 minutes a day for mindfulness. For each day of the week, I’ve included daily prompts to help me get started with meditation and journaling. I’m a nature enthusiast who loves spending time in the park.”
“Help me make a budget for a family trip from Lisbon to Paris. List all the elements of the budget for easy transfer to a spreadsheet. There are 4 of us and we are planning a five-day trip during the summer , with the intention of visiting tourist attractions and museums. I need you to plan three meals a day, at average prices, one of which is luxury.”
ASK (Purpose, Style and Details) is the 3-step rule to obtain the best results when using AI. For the Copilot, the order in which we ask him for this information is not relevant – he will understand. Working with generative AI tools is a dynamic and iterative process and the initial prompt may just be the beginning – then you may even need to have a more in-depth conversation with Copilot, asking follow-up questions, providing more context or clarifying the outcome you want to obtain. If you consider it necessary, you can also ask the Copilot to explain how they arrived at a certain answer.
Basically, you just have to ASK.
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