Prompt

Prompt is the instruction — question, request, or context — you give an artificial intelligence system so it does something: write, summarize, classify, generate an image, or kick off a workflow.

The word means a cue or nudge. In practice, a good prompt isn’t magic: it’s clarity. The more precisely you spell out role, goal, format, and limits, the better the output tends to be. That’s why people talk about prompt engineering: crafting useful requests without endless trial and error.

A real-life example of a prompt

Telling an assistant “do something with marketing” is like asking a designer “make it pretty”: vague. Better: “You’re a copywriter for a bakery in Atlanta. Write 3 email subject lines under 40 characters for a Friday croissant promo, friendly tone, no emojis.” That’s a worked prompt.

AI agents also start from prompts (or goals), then may use tools and take several steps. The prompt is still the starting point: input quality shapes almost everything that follows.