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real:world AI for real:work.
Practical tips, prompts, and strategies to help you use AI with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
Learn Prompting - Context Prompting
Want better AI responses? Try giving it a little background first.
I previously shared what prompting is and what prompt engineering is.
I then explained how zero-shot prompts work. That’s when you ask the AI to do something without giving it any examples. It’s a great starting point, especially for simple tasks.
Then, sometimes, you need to show what you mean. That’s where one-shot and few-shot prompting come in.
Then, I shifted from how you ask the AI to who you’re asking the AI to be. This is called role prompting, and it’s one of the most useful techniques I’ve found for getting sharper, more relevant results, especially for professional tasks.
This time, we’re looking at something even simpler. You don’t need examples. You don’t need complex formatting. You just need to say what’s going on before you ask your question. That’s contextual prompting. And to me, it is key to getting more specific results that make sense for you.
What is Contextual Prompting?
Contextual prompting means adding background before your question so the AI has the right frame of reference.
It’s the difference between saying:
“Help me write a report summary.”
Versus saying:
“I’m leading a cross-functional meeting tomorrow and I need to brief a group that’s not familiar with this project. Help me summarize this report in a way that’s clear and useful to them.”
The second version is still simple, but gives the AI enough context to tailor its response.
"I’m writing a blog post for professionals/knowledge workers/creators/entrepreneurs who feel the need and perhaps some external pressure to adopt AI to improve productivity in what they do. The goal of this post is to continue our series on more detailed prompting as outlined in the 69-page article released by Google which I shared in an earlier exchange. Please write an outline for my blog post on contextual prompting using the structure we’ve used before, and include a reflection showing how I used contextual prompting to create it."
“I’m prepping slides for a leadership meeting and need one key takeaway from this report. What should I highlight and why?”
“I’m writing a follow-up email to someone I met at a networking event. We talked briefly about their team’s hiring challenges. Draft something that feels personal but professional.”
“I’m training a new team member on our project management system. Write a short guide that walks them through how we use labels, timelines, and priorities.”
Why Contextual Prompting Works
AI models aren’t mind readers. They don’t know who you’re writing for, what you’re trying to accomplish, or why it matters unless you tell them.
A little context helps the model:
avoid irrelevant or vague responses
match the tone or purpose of your task
cut down on edits and back-and-forth
When to Use Contextual Prompting
Use it when:
You’re writing for a specific purpose or goal
You want the AI to adapt to your situation, not guess at it
You’re combining multiple elements (format + tone + outcome)
When to Avoid Contextual Prompting
If the task is straightforward or mechanical, like formatting a bullet list or converting text from one tone to another, you don’t need extra setup. But when things feel too generic or the results don’t quite land, context can turn the output from “meh” to “done.
Want Help?
Send me an email with your prompt. I'm happy to provide feedback. I reply to each and every email.
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LCopyright: Jenn Gosselin, LLC. All rights reserved. 2025
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