The Art of Prompting - Why Generative-AI Starts With You

At The Cornerstone Advisory, we work with leaders, innovators, and change-makers across sectors to navigate AI adoption, digital transformation, and capability building. What we’ve seen is this: the best use AI not to replace thinking, but to deepen it.

Prompting is not just a productivity tool. It’s a lens through which we shape ideas, strategies, and even culture.

If you’ve ever asked ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude AI to help draft a message, rewrite your report outline or brainstorm ideas for a meeting, you’ve already started prompt engineering.

But here’s the catch: the difference between an average response and a powerful, actionable one almost always comes down to a single skill - how you prompt.

Prompt engineering, how you structure your input to get the right output, is fast becoming a core digital skill. But unlike traditional skills that you learn before applying, prompting is something you can build as you go.

Prompt engineering is a way of thinking

Good prompting is clear, intentional, and iterative. But most of us don’t start that way—and that’s okay. In fact, one of the most underrated uses of AI platforms is using it to help you get better at prompting.

“The more you prompt, the more you realise it’s not about getting fast answers. It’s about asking better questions,” Zuleka Kaysan (Managing Director, The Cornerstone Advisory).

Let’s say you’re not sure how to ask a good question. Try prompting the AI itself:

• “What should I consider before writing this?”
• “What are five angles I haven’t thought of yet?”
• “What assumptions am I making here?”

These prompts are designed to challenge and expand your clarity of thought. You are training your brain and your prompting ability at the same time.

Learning to prompt is like learning to code…sort of

Prompting isn’t limited to text. In software engineering, a new concept is gaining traction: vibe coding. It’s the idea that engineers are no longer writing every line of code themselves. Instead, they’re collaborating with AI tools like GitHub Copilot or Cursor, describing what they want in natural language, and letting the AI model generate the logic. The focus shifts from writing syntax to describing intent clearly.

“A carefully constructed prompt can drastically alter the quality of output for an AI system" Andrej Karpathy (Cofounder, OpenAI)

Sound familiar? It’s exactly what’s happening across knowledge work: people are guiding outcomes with well-framed prompts, not technical execution. Prompting is the new interface.

And just like in vibe coding, your ability to guide the AI becomes the most valuable skill.

Governments are paying attention

If you're wondering how necessary prompt engineering is, you may be surprised to learn it's now a global capability.

The Dubai Centre for Artificial Intelligence recently launched the Global Prompt Engineering Championship, a first-of-its-kind competition that rewards individuals who can generate the most effective prompts to solve creative, technical and strategic challenges.

The goal? To build a worldwide community of prompt engineers, and to acknowledge prompting as a real, strategic skill that influences everything from creative industries to AI governance.

How to improve your prompting skills…starting now

The good news? You don’t need formal training to improve. Here’s how to sharpen your prompting skills:

• Lead with your own thinking: Don’t let the AI lead. Jot down what you really want to achieve.
• Use AI to challenge yourself: Ask it to stress-test your assumptions, explore missing angles or offer counterpoints.
• Don’t stick to one platform: Different tools are optimised for different tasks: use ChatGPT for flow and structure, Claude AI for tone and context, Gemini for research-backed synthesis.
• Experiment with style: Try the same task in three different tones or structures like “Explain X like I’m 12”, “Give me pros and cons of Y” or “Reframe this in the tone of Z” to see what resonates.
• Keep your edits human: AI can get you 80% of the way there. But the last 20% (tone, relevance, intuition) is where you come in.

The human skill behind the machine

Prompting is becoming the new interface between human ideas and machine intelligence. And like any skill, it gets better with curiosity, practice, and feedback.

It’s more than sensible to use AI to accelerate your growth, but don’t forget that you’re still the one holding the pen!