Term · AI
Prompt
A prompt is the instruction you give an AI tool. The clearer the instruction, the more useful the answer.
In short
A prompt is the question or instruction you type into an AI tool, such as ChatGPT or Copilot. A good prompt names the task, gives context and says in what form you want the answer. You leave out personal data and confidential information, unless your business has agreements about it.
What is a prompt?
A prompt is the instruction you give an AI tool. It can be a question, a task or a text that the AI needs to work on. The language model uses your prompt as the starting point for its answer.
The word comes from English. To prompt means to urge or to feed someone their lines, like a prompter in the theatre.
How do you write a good prompt?
The model does not know your customer, your product or your agreements, unless you mention them. That is why it helps to name three things:
- The task. What needs to happen? For example: write a short reply to this complaint.
- The context. Who is it for, and what does the AI need to know? For example: it concerns a regular customer and the delivery was two days late.
- The form. How do you want it back? For example: three sentences, addressing the reader informally, friendly and businesslike.
Does the answer not fit? Ask a follow-up question or add to your prompt. A prompt is more a conversation than a search query.
Example in an SME
A made-up example
An employee at an accountancy firm types: "Write an email about the new rates." The answer is general and long. Then she types: "Write a short email to regular clients. Say that the rates change on 1 January and that the new list is in the attachment. Five sentences at most, friendly and businesslike." That draft fits much better.
Which data do you not put in a prompt?
What you put in a prompt goes to the provider of the AI tool. The provider often stores it. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens) received reports of data breaches because employees put data of customers or patients into an AI chatbot.
- No names, addresses or other personal data, unless your business uses a business tool with the right agreements.
- No passwords, contracts or confidential figures.
- Remove names or replace them, for example with "customer A".
Agree on this with your team, for example in an AI policy. And read the answer critically: even a good prompt does not prevent a hallucination.
Do you want your team to learn prompting on its own work? We practise that together in an AI training.
Frequently asked questions
Does a prompt have to be in English?
No. Well-known AI tools also work in Dutch. Write your prompt in the language in which you want the answer.
Is there a perfect prompt?
No. What works depends on the task and the tool. Start simple and improve your prompt step by step. Save prompts that work well, so that colleagues can use them too.
What is prompt injection?
A trick in which someone uses clever instructions to make an AI tool do something it is not meant to do. Those instructions can also be hidden in a text or website that the tool reads. The ACM (Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets) and the AP warn that people with bad intentions can reach confidential data this way via a public chatbot.
Sources: OpenAI: best practices for prompt engineering, Dutch Data Protection Authority: using an AI chatbot can lead to data breaches (in Dutch) and Call from the ACM and AP on AI chatbots (in Dutch). Consulted on 7 October 2026.
Written by Bart van Engelenhoven Founder of Uniekaiconsultancy in Ede, the Netherlands. Bart analyses how SMEs work and builds software, integrations and AI applications himself. Last updated: 7 October 2026
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