Most people use AI wrong (this fixes it)

Published 5 months ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader,

If AI feels inconsistent, you’re not imagining it.

Sometimes it gives you something great.
Other times, it’s vague, generic, or just not useful.

The problem isn’t the tool.It’s how you’re using it.

Most people treat AI like a search box:

“Summarize this”
“Help me write this”
“Explain this”

And sometimes that works.

But most of the time, it doesn’t.

AI works best when it understands three things:

1. Context
What this is about

2. Goal
What you want as an outcome

3. Output
How you want it delivered

Here’s the difference:

❌ Basic prompt
“Summarize this document”

✅ Better prompt
“This is a 10-page report about customer churn in a SaaS business.
I want to understand the key drivers and what actions we should take.
Summarize it in 5 bullet points focused on decisions.”

Same tool.
Completely different result.

Try this today

Before your next prompt, add:

what this is about
what you actually need
how you want the answer

It takes a few extra seconds.

But it changes everything.

This approach comes from the upcoming book Mastering AI for Productivity, where we break down practical systems for writing faster and more clearly without starting from scratch.

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