Whether creating content, translating text or even developing code, the best results from AI models depend on how well you formulate your prompts, your request. Creating effective prompts can to a great extent improve the quality and usefulness of the responses you will receive. 

Helvia.ai co-founders Dimi Balaouras and Stavros Vassos recently shared some tips in an interview on Flash.gr on how to write better prompts when using an AI model to perform various tasks.  

Prompting tip #1: Give  the AI ​​model a role or persona

AI models have been trained in a specific way, and giving them instructions that resemble what they have seen during their training helps them follow instructions more accurately. Even if you assign the model a role or persona that it has not encountered before, it will find clues to match it with familiar roles and choose how to proceed.    

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Example: "You are a kind digital assistant for the company 'Translation Inc', and your job is to translate what the user says to you from Greek to English.
..."

Prompting tip #2: Provide clear and specific instructions

Provide detailed instructions that outline the general direction, as well as specific steps. Avoid using self-evident language because an AI model may not interpret it as intended.  

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Example: "In a product review, if a name is mentioned, such as 'John Nicholas,' replace it with the verbal 'NAME.' If a phone number is mentioned, then..." instead of "Remove all personal information from the following product review."

Prompting tip #3: Include examples  

Provide two or three examples of input and output to give the AI model a more tangible idea of what you want. This technique, called Few-shot, helps the model produce more accurate and targeted results by allowing it to compare and correlate the provided material with what it knows.  

Prompting tip #4: Use punctuation marks

The concept is to make the prompt as readable as possible. The instructions should be presented as small bits and pieces, which are easy to pick out. If we write the instructions as we would say them, some information may be lost.  

When for example we use ChatGPT, we use plain text because there is no rich text editor to add formatting. To capture formatting, we use a simple formatting called Markdown. 

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Example: "Your instructions are as follows:

1. You must answer politely.
2. The answer should not exceed 50 words.
3. ..."

When giving a series of instructions, it helps the AI ​​model to divide the concepts into smaller units, separated by numbering and blank lines.  

Prompting tip #5: Use Imperative language

AI models follow instructions to a degree, depending on how clear they are, but not always 100% of the time. To make an AI model follow an instruction more systematically, use absolute language and "order" it to not deviate.  

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Example: "You MUST NEVER say anything that might offend the user."

Prompting tip #6: Include your own sources as bibliography

When asking an AI model for information, such as "what is the population of Greece?", it will answer based on what it has stored during training, or it will do a Google search and try to answer. If we need to rely on our own data, we must add our own sources either by uploading files or by writing along with the instructions.     

This usually requires additional tools and techniques to work well, such as the Helvia.ai platform that allows adding a knowledge base, e.g. from the customer service department and getting a digital assistant that responds based on that information alone.    

Prompting tip #7: Ask the AI model to think in logical steps (step by step)

This technique prompts the AI ​​model to write down its thoughts as it processes the query and produces the answer. It makes the AI ​​model's process of arriving at an answer more understandable to the user and enhances the accuracy in taking logical steps. As it writes them, it also uses them as a guide for continuation, almost as if it is "writing on the board" as it thinks.    

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Example: "Based on the sales data of the first quarter, and the sales team's bonus scheme, create a report that shows the bonus that will be allocated to each sales rep. Think step by step."

Prompting tip #8: Outline the steps the AI model needs to follow to answer correctly

Even if the AI model suggested the steps required to come up with the response, writing them down directs it to get closer to what we want. 

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Example: To calculate the payments of a loan with an X annual interest rate, you need to follow the below steps:
1. Convert the annual interest rate to a monthly interest rate.
2. Calculate the number of monthly installments

Prompting tip #9: Use the AI model one step at a time

When it comes to performing multiple tasks, it's best to break them into smaller pieces and ask the AI model to perform each one separately.

Example:

  • First we ask the AI model to extract the details of the conversation e.g. the project the conversation refers to, the project owner and the subject of the email.
  • Then we ask the AI model to make a summary of the email and translate it into English.
  • Finally, we ask the model, using the project details and the summary from the previous two steps, to write an email in English to send to a colleague who does not speak Greek.

If we didn't break it down into steps and asked the AI model to do it directly, the quality of the answer would be limited compared to doing it in steps.  

By following these prompting tips, you can enhance the accuracy and quality of the AI model's responses. Giving the AI model a role, providing clear instructions, including examples, using punctuation marks and imperative language, providing sources, thinking in logical steps, outlining required steps, and breaking tasks into smaller pieces are all essential components to get the most accurate and high-quality responses from AI models. Implement these tips and see the difference in the AI model's performance.

The full article in Greek  is available on Flash.gr.

If you have any questions or you would like to schedule a demo to see the helvia.ai conversational AI platform in action, contact us at hello@helvia.ai

Dimi Balaouras is the CTO and co-founder of helvia.ai and leads the technological innovation and product development of the company.

Stavros Vassos is the CEO and co-founder of helvia.ai. He is an expert in Artificial Intelligence and in particular in the fields of Conversational AI and Agentic AI.