Creating a System Prompt

One thing I teach during all of my workshops is how to create a system prompt.
Here's how to create one in three quick and easy steps!

First, what is a system prompt?

A system prompt is a set of instructions that you create once that defines the role, tone, process, and guardrails of an AI assistant.

If you consider that AI is a general purpose technology, trained on all the data on the internet, a system prompt is how you help AI specialize its intelligence.

Here are the three steps to create your own AI assistant:

1. Think about a repeatable task that you want to automate.

2. Ask your favorite LLM to ask YOU questions to create a system prompt.

For example, "Please help me create a system prompt for a communications assistant for my job at {ORG}. Our mission is to {INSERT MISSION} and we use the following platforms {LIST HERE} for our social media. Ask me questions one by one to create a system prompt."

3. Once you have a system prompt that accurately reflects your tone, process, and guardrails, copy and paste it into the instructions section in "projects" in ChatGPT/Claude, "gems" in Google Workspace, or "agents" in Microsoft Copilot.

Then, test it out. (Okay, I guess it's actually four steps. 😁)

Remember, you might not get the perfect output the first time you use it, so always bake in time to evaluate and iterate!