Do This Instead for More Effective AI Prompting
Most of us understand how much AI can help small businesses, from organizing competitor information to analyzing data and standing out online. Now more than ever, small and medium-sized business leaders are using AI to brainstorm about business strategy, streamline workflows, and speed up processes.
While AI holds the promise of transforming the way we work, it doesn’t always work for us. We don’t always get the answers we need in the right format or length. Sometimes it feels like AI gives us everything but the kitchen sink. For busy SMBs, it’s easy to get frustrated when a simple question turns into a brain dump of information that isn’t especially useful. So how do we sharpen our AI toolset so it becomes more than a blunt instrument?
We’re cracking the code to get up to speed as an SMB. The secret sauce is all in better AI prompting.
Give AI a Clear Role, Action, Context, and Output Instructions
Getting value from AI—especially for SMBs—comes down to how well we prompt it. AI isn’t a mind reader, and it isn’t magic. It’s extremely good at following instructions—but only the instructions we give it. AI responds differently depending on how we guide it.
Take a common SMB use case: summarizing meeting notes and identifying action items. Instead of asking AI to “recap these notes and identify action items,” think of your prompt as a mini work order or creative brief.
Start by giving AI a clear role. For example:
“You are the founder of a small tech startup.”
When you assign a role to AI, you’re helping AI understand that it should draw on the aggregated experiences of tens of thousands of the most successful business minds and their perspectives as it formulates its answer for you. That’s powerful stuff.
Next, define the action you need.
“I need you to summarize the 2026 Q1 management team planning call and identify key topics discussed and action items.”
Then, provide context so AI understands what to prioritize.
“Include any strategic insights and action items related to investor relations, revenue, or operational changes.”
Finally, be explicit about the output format:
“Produce a clear, bulleted list of topics and action items by category, including owner, timeline, and success metrics for each.”
Here’s how it all comes together:
Old prompt:
Recap these notes and identify action items.
New prompt:
You are the founder of a small tech startup. I need you to summarize the 2026 Q1 management team planning call and identify key topics discussed and action items. Include any strategic insights and action items related to investor relations, revenue, or operational changes. Produce a clear, bulleted list of topics and action items by category, including owner, timeline, and success metrics for each.
Now when you prompt AI, instead of a way-too-long paragraph as an answer, you’ll get something closer to what you were looking for.
Better Prompts, Better Answers
Remember to be specific when prompting AI, such as by including a word limit in your prompt when it makes sense. Instead of asking AI to “give me a boilerplate,” try:
“Give me a 25-word boilerplate.”
Being specific can also help us ask better questions of AI and get better answers:
Vague prompt:
What are the five biggest benefits of cloud-managed networking?
Specific prompt:
What are the five biggest benefits of cloud-managed networking to a small or medium-sized business, ranked in order of impact?
The second prompt produces a more thoughtful, useful response.
Give Your AI a Little Attitude
Like a candid friend who cuts straight to the chase with the take you need, opinionated AI responses can be far more helpful than neutral ones. For example, in retail, they say that location is everything. When you’re researching new markets or locations, don’t just ask AI to compare two options side by side. Ask it to defend a position and make the case.
Neutral prompt:
Compare Location A with Location B.
You’ll get a bland list of technical pros and cons—technically correct, but not especially useful. Try asking AI to assume a role and formulate a strong position.
Prompt that asks AI to take a position:
You are a retail site selector. Defend Location A over Location B in an argument considering household income, growth rate, and walkability scores.
The response to the opinionated prompt will be more nuanced, interesting, and useful. Always do your due diligence by flipping the script and asking AI to argue the opposing position too.
Good AI Prompting is Just Good Communication
One final suggestion: it’s okay not to accept the first response you get from AI. Keep tweaking your prompt until you get a more useful answer. The clearer and more specific your prompts are, the more useful the response. It’s a little bit like communicating with other humans: the more effort and thoughtfulness we put into it, the better the conversation will be.
Listen as I chat AI prompting, how AI helped me prepare for an upcoming marathon (and no, it can’t yet do our running for us), and more in the latest episode of the 404 Script Not Found podcast with my co-host Kat Macomson. Listen now.
We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with #CiscoPartners on social!
Cisco Partners Facebook | @CiscoPartners X | Cisco Partners LinkedIn
