Are your prompts a problem?

I’m the first to moan about rubbish AI writing.

Too wordy. Too slick. Riddled with giveaways (‘Not this…but that…’)

But half the time, AI isn’t the core problem. What really sucks are our prompts.  

(Oh god, did I just sound like AI?!)

In my ‘Write with AI without losing your voice’ masterclass, I give teams a real prompting scenario and watch what they type. It usually looks something like this:

Draft a formal email from the Compliance Team to sales colleagues asking them to complete mandatory Competition Law e-learning by 29 March.

The email should explain that the training is required for compliance purposes, that completion will be monitored, and that colleagues should contact the Compliance Team if they have any problems accessing the training.

Copilot does what it’s told. And out pops a dry-as-ac-cracker, generic and entirely forgettable email in response.

So we go back in and add the bit most people left out: their audience and their context:

Mandatory training isn't a priority for salespeople, and this'll land as another box-ticking exercise unless someone gives them a reason to care.  

So we add:

• Why this matters to them personally, not just to compliance

• How it helps in real conversations with customers and competitors

• A warm, approachable tone that builds trust rather than issuing an order

The emails are transformed. Compare:

Before: "As part of our ongoing compliance obligations, this year’s Competition Law e-learning training is being rolled out to relevant colleagues. Given the nature of activities undertaken within sales, it is important that you are aware of competition law requirements.”

After: "You probably find yourself in customer conversations where it's not always obvious where the competition law boundaries are. This short training helps you spot those situations early, so you can handle them confidently and avoid unintentionally putting yourself or the business at risk.”

The first one sounds like an edict from on high. The second is much more persuasive.

AI doesn't know your audience or their context. It only knows what you tell it about them.

If you skip that part, it'll invent something or fall back on generics – and neither of those is likely to persuade anybody of anything.

So for your next AI-drafted bit of writing: before you hit generate, include in your prompt who's reading it, what they’re likely to object to and what's actually in it for them.  

Then send me your before and after – I'd love to see the difference.