A prompt is the instruction you give an AI – the text that tells the model what to deliver, for whom and how.
Think of the prompt as a brief to a skilled but very literal freelancer. Everything you leave out, the model guesses – and the guess will be average. A vague prompt produces vague text; a precise prompt produces something you can work with.
The prompt is therefore not a technical detail but a piece of communication craft: it is about articulating purpose, audience and form – exactly as in any other brief.
In practice
'Write a newsletter about our new strategy' produces smooth, generic text. 'Write 200 words to staff about what the strategy means for their day-to-day work, in a calm and direct tone' produces a draft you can use.
How to explain it to senior management
»A prompt is a work instruction for the AI – the more precisely we brief it, the less we have to correct afterwards.«
I have gathered the full method in the FOCUS model – read the guide to the good prompt – the FOCUS model.