Prompt writing for business users: context, examples and checks
How staff write AI prompts for real work: the context to give, examples to show, checks to run, a template to copy and a shared role prompt library.
Clever wording is the wrong place to start. Prompt writing for business users comes down to three things the assistant cannot guess on its own: the context of the task, an example of what good output looks like, and a check you run before the answer leaves your desk. Get those three right and plain sentences work well. Leave them out and no magic phrase will rescue the result.
This guide shows how staff can write prompts for real work, gives a template to copy, and explains how a team turns its best prompts into a shared role prompt library.
What the vendor guides agree on
Four major assistant vendors publish their own prompting advice. The labels differ, but the substance overlaps. We recommend teaching staff one shared structure that works across tools, rather than a separate formula for each product.
| Vendor guidance | What it asks you to include |
|---|---|
| Microsoft, Copilot prompts | Goal, context, source and expectations. Microsoft says only the goal is essential; the rest make the request more specific. |
| Google, Gemini in Workspace | Persona, task, context and format. You do not need all four every time, and Google advises reviewing output for clarity, relevance and accuracy. |
| Anthropic, Claude prompting best practices | Clear, direct instructions; the reason behind them; 3 to 5 varied examples; long documents placed above the question. |
| OpenAI, prompt engineering guide | Context the model does not have, a few diverse examples, clear sections, and tests before changing prompts used in production. |
Anthropic's guide offers a useful picture: treat the assistant as a brilliant but new employee who does not know your norms. Its key test is to show your prompt to a colleague with little context and ask them to follow it. If they would be confused, the model will be too. That test needs no technical skill, which makes it a good first test for business teams.
Step 1: give the context a new colleague would need
Context is everything the assistant would otherwise have to guess. For business work, it tends to fall into five parts:
- Who you are and who reads the result. "I am a credit analyst. The reader is the credit committee."
- The purpose. Why the output exists and what decision it supports.
- The material. The document, table or email the answer must use, pasted or attached.
- The rules. House terms, tone, length, language and anything the output must not do.
- The reason behind the rules. Anthropic's guide notes that explaining why an instruction matters helps the model aim better.
Illustrative example. A credit analyst at a mid-sized bank in Amman asks an assistant to "summarise this file". The result is a generic page. The second attempt says: "Summarise the attached financial statements for the credit committee. They read the summary in two minutes before the meeting. Lead with debt service coverage and any covenant breach. Use the bank's term 'obligor', not 'customer'. Write in English; keep figures exactly as in the source." Same tool, same file, a far more useful page.
One rule sits above all of these: only paste material your organisation allows into that tool. Personal data, client files and classified documents follow your data rules, not the convenience of the moment. Our guide to an AI acceptable use policy sets out what such rules can cover.
Step 2: show an example of good output
Describing a format in words works less well than showing it. Anthropic calls examples one of the most reliable ways to steer format, tone and structure, and OpenAI advises a diverse range of inputs with the desired outputs.
For business users, this is simple. Paste one or two past outputs that your manager accepted, then say what to copy: "Follow the structure and tone of these two memos. Do not reuse their content." Pick examples that differ from each other, so the assistant copies the pattern rather than one memo's wording.
Illustrative example. A customer service lead at a retailer in Riyadh wants replies to delivery complaints in Arabic. Instead of writing "be polite and short", she pastes three replies that customers rated well, one for a late order, one for a damaged item and one for a wrong address. The assistant now has the house voice, the length and the way the team apologises and states the next step.
Step 3: build the check into the prompt and after it
A good prompt asks for an answer you can check. Three requests do most of the work:
- Ask for the source. "Quote the clause each point comes from." Anthropic's guide recommends asking the model to quote the relevant parts of long documents before doing the task.
- Allow "I don't know". "If the file does not contain the answer, say so and list what is missing." Without that permission, the assistant may fill the gap with a plausible guess.
- Ask for the format you will review. A table with a column for the source page is faster to check than three paragraphs.
Then check the answer yourself. Figures, names, dates and legal wording are compared against the source by the person who signs the work. The assistant drafts; a person remains responsible for what goes out. We recommend teaching this as part of the task, not as a warning at the end of the session.
Prompt writing for business users: a template to copy
This template turns the three steps into five short blocks. Fill them in plain sentences. Leave a block out only when it truly adds nothing.
Role and reader: I am [your role]. The result goes to [reader], who will use it to [decision or action].
Task: [One verb and one output, e.g. "Draft a one-page reply", "Compare these two offers".]
Material: Use only the text below / the attached file. [Paste or attach.]
Rules: Language [Arabic / English]. Length [limit]. Use our terms: [list]. Do not [what to avoid], because [reason].
Example and checks: Follow the structure of the example below. Quote the source for each fact. If the material does not answer something, say so.
Illustrative example, filled in. An HR officer at a logistics company in Dubai uses it like this: "I am an HR officer. The result goes to line managers, who will use it to answer staff questions about the new leave policy. Draft a one-page FAQ in Arabic and English. Use only the attached policy. Keep each answer under 60 words. Use the term 'annual leave balance' as in the policy. Do not give advice on individual cases, because those go to HR. Quote the policy section for each answer. If the policy is silent on a question, write 'Ask HR'."
Notice what the template does not include: tricks such as threats, flattery or capital letters. The vendor guides above do not depend on them, and they make prompts harder for colleagues to read and reuse.
From personal prompts to a role prompt library
Once a prompt works, it should not live only in one person's chat history. We recommend a role prompt library: a short, shared set of tested prompts for each role, kept where the team already works. Each entry holds five things:
- The task it serves and the role that uses it.
- The prompt itself, with blanks for the parts that change.
- One good example of the output.
- The checks the user must run before using the result.
- A named person responsible for the entry and the date it was last tested.
Two habits keep the library useful. First, retest key prompts when the tool or model changes; OpenAI's guide recommends tests and evaluation checks before changing production prompts, and the same logic applies, more lightly, to a team library. Second, retire prompts nobody uses, so the library stays small enough to trust.
The trade-off is effort. We expect a library to take a few hours of a champion's time each month. We think that is worth it before you add more licences, because a tested prompt for a weekly task tends to help more than another tool that nobody has learned to brief.
Illustrative example. A ministry department in Jordan writes many of its letters in formal Arabic. Its library holds one prompt for replies to citizen requests, with the department's opening and closing formulas, a past letter as the example, and a check that every regulation cited is quoted from the attached text. New staff start from that prompt on day one.
A library for a whole organisation goes one level up: company facts, glossary, policies and tone written once and shared by every assistant, plus a role prompt for each role. That is what our Organisation Context and Role Prompts service builds.
How to start
Pick one team and one weekly task that takes real time, such as committee summaries or customer replies. Write the prompt with the template above, test it on five past cases, and fix it until a colleague could use it without help. Then add it to the library and pick the next task.
If you want this done with your teams, our Role-Based AI Training (Arabic and English) builds sessions on each team's real tasks, and the team training page explains the approach. Our earlier article on AI training for employees covers how to plan training by role. The Academy Lab page lists the related services. If you are not sure where to begin, the free AI Exposure Scan is a 45-minute conversation that ends in a written next step.
Frequently asked questions
What should a business user include in an AI prompt?
Include your role and the reader, the task as one clear verb, the material the answer must use, the rules for language, length and terms, and how you will check the result. Microsoft lists goal, context, source and expectations; Google lists persona, task, context and format. Both say not every element is needed every time, but more context can give a more useful first draft.
Do prompts need special phrases or tricks to work?
No. Current vendor guidance from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft focuses on clear instructions, context and examples, not on magic phrases. Plain full sentences work well. Tricks such as threats, flattery or capital letters make prompts harder for colleagues to read, reuse and maintain in a shared library.
How many examples should I put in a prompt?
One or two good past outputs can be enough for everyday business tasks. Anthropic's prompting guide suggests 3 to 5 varied examples for best results; for routine tasks, one or two strong examples may be a practical start. Choose examples that differ from each other, and tell the assistant to copy the structure and tone, not the content.
What is a role prompt library?
It is a short, shared set of tested prompts for each role in a team. Each entry records the task, the prompt with blanks, an example output, the checks to run, the person responsible and the date it was last tested. It lets new staff start from prompts that already work instead of writing their own from scratch.
Can I paste company documents into an AI assistant?
Only when your organisation's AI policy allows that tool to process that kind of material. Personal data, client files and classified documents follow your data rules. If you are unsure, ask the policy owner before pasting, or use a redacted version of the document for practice.
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