If You Want to Master AI, Learn Prompting!!
What is a prompt? Mastering prompts is the skill that allows you to make the most of AI 🧠
📌 What you will learn by reading this article
✅ What a prompt is (explained without jargon)
✅ The difference between people who are good and bad at prompting
✅ 3 golden rules of prompting you can use right away
✅ Information on where to learn prompting and certifications
✅ Includes specific examples you can practice starting today
"Why does that person get better results even though we use the same AI?" The answer is right here 😊
🤔 What exactly is a "prompt"?
A prompt is an "instruction" or "question" given to an AI.
In English, "prompt" means to "encourage" or "give a cue."
To put it simply—
📞 Imagine you are calling an AI. What you say (the content of the instruction) is the prompt. Instead of saying, "Um... tell me something delicious," if you say, "Tell me 3 Japanese restaurants in Osaka, under 3,000 yen, that are kid-friendly," you get the answer you want, right?
This is the essence of prompting.
Even if the AI's performance doesn't change, the results change dramatically depending on how you give instructions.
😮 The difference between people who are good and bad at prompting
Even though we use the same ChatGPT, why does a gap emerge?
Let's compare them specifically.
❌ Example of a bad prompt
"Write an email"
Even seeing this, the AI doesn't know what kind of email to write. The result is a "vague, unusable piece of text" returned to you.
✅ Example of a good prompt
"Please write a thank-you email to Mr. Yamada at the client company regarding our meeting the other day. Tone: Polite and formal. Content: Thank him for last Friday's meeting, confirm the next schedule, and provide future contact information. Length: Around 200 characters."
With just this, you can complete a ready-to-use email in 30 seconds.
This difference directly impacts your work efficiency.
🏆 3 Golden Rules of Prompting
🥇 Rule 1: Assign a Role
Simply telling the AI "You are a [role]" will dramatically change the quality of its response.
Ordinary: "Tell me how to save money."
When you assign a role, the AI will answer as an expert in that position.
🥈 Rule 2: Specify the Output Format
Telling the AI "how you want it to answer" will result in a response that is easier to use.
✅ "Give me 5 bullet points"
✅ "Summarize in a table format"
✅ "Summarize within 300 characters"
✅ "Explain it for a beginner without using technical jargon"
If you don't specify the output format, the AI will return it in a format it deems appropriate. Just by specifying it, it becomes significantly easier to use.
🥉 Rule 3: Provide Specific Examples and Background Information
When the AI understands the "context," it provides more accurate answers.
Ordinary: "Write a self-introduction."
The more information you provide, the closer the AI's response will be to an "answer tailored just for you."
📊 What Changes with Improved Prompting
As your prompting skills improve, these changes will occur.
Poor Prompter vs. Skilled Prompter. Email creation: Needs many revisions vs. Almost complete in one go. Document creation: Returns unusable content vs. A ready-to-use draft is completed. Idea generation: Only produces cliché ideas vs. 20 specific and usable ideas. Research: Only returns vague answers vs. Returns the necessary information pinpointed. Work time: Takes 30 minutes to 1 hour vs. Completed in 5 to 10 minutes.
📚 Where can you learn prompting?
Ways to learn for free
✅ Use ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude every day (this is the fastest way)
✅ Search for "how to write prompts" on YouTube
✅ Read prompt articles on note and Qiita and try them out immediately
✅ Read the official documentation from Anthropic and OpenAI
Ways to prove it with certifications
While there are no national certifications specifically for prompt engineering yet, private certifications are emerging one after another.
Recommended certifications (for beginners)
🥇 Generative AI Passport (11,000 yen, online exam, one of Japan's largest)
🥈 G-Certification (13,200 yen, learn about AI systematically)
🥉 IT Passport (7,500 yen, national certification, strong for career changes)
Certifications are a means to "prove" your skills. The standard route is to first build your skills through practice and then prove them with a certification.
🎯 Things you can do starting today
The fastest way to learn prompting is to "use it and get used to it" rather than just "studying" it.
Today's first step: Copy these three prompts as they are and try them out
"You are a professional writer. Please create 3 patterns of opening sentences for my note article. Theme: How to use AI. Target: AI beginners in their 30s and 40s."
"Organize the things I need to do this week in a bulleted list. Then, reorder them by priority."
"Rewrite the following text so that even an elementary school student can understand it: (Paste difficult text here)"
Summary: Prompting is the key to "AI mastery"
AI performance is constantly improving.
However, no matter how high-performance an AI you use, it will be a waste if your instructions are poor.
Getting better at prompting is one of the most important skills for surviving in the AI era.
Let's try a little bit starting today and polish your own unique prompts 🌟
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