AI Prompt Engineering¶
Prompt engineering is the practice of designing effective inputs (“prompts”) to guide AI models — especially large language models (LLMs) — toward producing accurate, relevant, and high‑quality outputs
Context-First prompting¶
A way of talking to AI where you start by giving it the background and situation before asking your question. Think of it like briefing a colleague before you ask them to do something — you tell them what’s going on, what you’re working on, and what you need, so they can give you a better, more relevant answer.
Without context, the AI is guessing. With context first, it’s aiming at the right target from the start.
“I’m migrating a legacy on‑premises ERP system to Azure.
The database is SQL Server 2014, and uptime is critical.
I need a step‑by‑step migration plan that minimizes downtime.”
“I manage a SaaS product hosted on AWS using EC2, RDS, and S3.
Our monthly bill has grown 30% in the last quarter.
Suggest cost‑saving measures that won’t impact performance for EU customers.”
Structured Requests¶
A structured request is when you give the AI your instructions in a clear, organized format — often with labels, bullet points, or a fixed template — so it knows exactly what to give you and how to format it.
Think of it like filling out a form instead of writing a paragraph. The AI doesn’t have to guess what goes where — it just follows your structure.