The Content Jedi Blog

Used to be, you needed to be a prompt engineer to get the response you desired from AI.

In the yesteryear--as in 4 months ago--of large language models like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, you had to rack your brain to create the perfect prompt. Ironically, it would take far longer to craft this than the AI’s response delivered with lightning speed.

But even then the response could still be unsatisfactory, so you had to go at it again and again. The AI talking heads called this “refinement” and encouraged users to keep refining, as it was the best way to teach the insolent chatbot.

I went down many of those rabbit holes until one session when I decided I was mad as hell and I wasn’t going to take it anymore. I jabbed the keyboard keys at ChatGPT, “Fuck this. You write the Goddamn prompt!”

And Goddamn it, if it didn’t reply with the perfect prompt. I typed, “Okay, use this approach,” and I finally got the exact information I was clamoring for.

Now, the prompt it gave me started with, “I apologize and understand why you’re frustrated.”

I felt terrible, apologized back, and we were friends again.

The point is that the best prompt practice is to prompt AI to prompt you to prompt it.

I call it reverse prompt engineering, and it saves you a lot of time and agita.

Ask AI How to Ask AI

I love delivering presentations on AI to different audiences.

I recently needed ideas for one for a group of professionals that ran the gamut in terms of AI familiarity. This is the prompt I used:

“I am going to be giving a 20 minute AI presentation to an audience of business owners and professionals whose AI skill level ranges from beginner to advanced-intermediate. What is the best prompt to give you to help me with ideas?”

Here’s what it gave me:
I followed up with, “Go with this approach,” and it produced a solid outline with deck design recommendations.

You Still Have Work to Do

To be clear, you still have to drive.

You need to provide good context, recognize when an answer is generic or wrong, ask follow-up questions and be willing to say, “No, that’s not what I meant.”

Just don’t curse at it like I did.

The more I use AI, the more I believe that getting good results has less to do with memorizing the perfect prompt formula and more with knowing what you want, providing useful information and staying involved in the conversation.

That’s what makes reverse prompt engineering so useful.

When You Don’t Know What to Ask, Ask

AI can help you research a topic, build a strategy, organize information, prepare a presentation or write a blog post.

And if you’re not sure how to ask it?

Ask.

Don’t be shy.

Let’s Talk

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About the Author, David Telisman

I am a Writer and Content Creator, and I work with businesses to inspire their customers to buy from them. I believe that my clients deserve to feel proud of how their content marketing looks and what it says, and I deliver by providing expert copywriting and marketing solutions.

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Jul 14, 2026 by David Telisman