Better Prompts, Safer AI

Before You Start · Baseline Check

Pretest

Tell us who you are, then answer five quick baseline questions. This helps measure how much the lesson moves the needle. There's no passing score — just answer honestly.

Quick Reference

The whole lesson on one screen

CRAFT — five parts of a prompt that works. Name these five things and the output gets dramatically better.

Context — the situation and your goal. "I run a small clinic launching evening telehealth hours." Leave out anything private.
Role — tell the AI who to be. "You are a patient-communications writer." The single highest-leverage change you can make.
Action — one clear, verb-driven task: write, rewrite, summarize, compare, list.
Format — the shape of the output: "three captions under 30 words," "a 5-row table."
Tone & examples — how it should sound, plus a sample to match.

Common pitfalls

Starting a brand-new chat to fix a draft — iterate in the same chat instead, so you keep the context.
Pasting real names, account numbers, or health details into a public/personal AI tool.
Skipping the Role — "help me with this" gets a shrug; a role reframes the whole answer.
Giving no Format, then being surprised the output is the wrong length or shape.

See It In Action

Same task, two prompts

Click each card to reveal the prompt and the kind of output it produces. Same request for social captions — lazy vs. CRAFT.

Standard Prompt

Vague · one line

The prompt

write something about our new product

AI output

"Introducing our new product! We're so excited to share it with you. It has many great features and benefits that you'll love. Check it out today and let us know what you think!"

✗ No role, no audience, no format, no tone. Generic filler — you'll spend three more messages fixing it.

Better Prompt

CRAFT · specific

The prompt

You are a marketing copywriter. I run a small coffee subscription launching a decaf blend for evening drinkers. Write 3 Instagram captions, under 30 words each, warm and a little playful, each ending with a question.

AI output

1. "Your 9pm cup just got an upgrade — all the ritual, none of the buzz. What's your wind-down drink?"

2. "Decaf that doesn't taste like a compromise. Ready to reclaim your evenings?"

3. "Bold flavor, gentle finish, zero 2am regrets. Who's joining the evening club?"

✓ Role, Context, Action, Format, Tone — usable on the first try.

When the first draft misses, iterate — don't restart. "Make them shorter and drop the emojis. Keep the questions." A follow-up keeps all the context; a new chat throws it away.

Step-by-Step Walkthrough

Build a CRAFT prompt, one part at a time

We'll build one real prompt together — a short note telling existing patients the clinic is adding Saturday hours. Follow along in your own approved tool and swap in your details.

1 Open your approved AI tool and start a fresh chat +

Open the AI tool your organization approves and start a new chat — a fresh chat carries no leftover context from someone else's task. For anything work-confidential, use the business account, not a personal login.

What you'll see: an empty message box and, usually, a note of which account or workspace you're in. Confirm it's the approved one before you type anything.

Role variation: Clinical staff should default to the approved, HIPAA-covered tool for anything touching patient information. Front-desk and admin staff can use the general business tool for non-PHI tasks.

2 Lead with the Role and Context +

Start with who the AI should be (Role), then the situation and your goal (Context) — minus any private details. Type this as your first message:

Type this — Role + ContextYou are a patient-communications writer for a primary care clinic. We're adding Saturday morning hours, 8am to noon, starting July 12, and we want to let existing patients know.

What you'll see: the AI may acknowledge and offer to draft right away. That's fine — you'll hand it the rest in the next step.

Role variation: A scheduler might use "calm, concise front-desk coordinator"; a manager might use "operations lead briefing staff." Same structure, different voice.

3 Add the Action, Format, and Tone +

Now add the Action (one clear task), the Format (the exact shape), and the Tone (how it should sound, with a sample to match). Put together, your full CRAFT prompt reads like this:

The assembled CRAFT promptYou are a patient-communications writer for a primary care clinic. We're adding Saturday morning hours, 8am to noon, starting July 12, and we want to let existing patients know. Write a short announcement we can send as both a text and an email. Keep it under 90 words, friendly and reassuring, and end with one clear line on how to book. Match this opening tone: "A quick heads-up from your care team —"

What you'll see: a ready-to-use draft that fits the length, sounds the way you asked, and ends with a booking line — not generic filler.

Role variation: Admin staff often want a table or checklist; clinical staff more often want a plain-language patient summary. Name whichever shape fits your output.

4 Review the draft and iterate in the same chat +

Read the draft. If it's close but not quite right, reply in the same chat with a targeted fix — don't start a new chat, which throws away everything you've set up.

Type this — a follow-up, not a restartThis is close. Make it a touch warmer, drop the word "utilize," and add one line that walk-ins are welcome. Keep everything else.

What you'll see: the same announcement, revised — warmer, your edits applied, the rest intact. Repeat until it's right.

Checkpoint for every role: a person reviews the final wording before anything goes to patients. The AI drafts; you approve.

▸ Deep Dive: Why a public AI tool is like a public postcard Optional

Free and personal chatbots (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot on a personal account) may use what you type to improve their models, and you don't control where it goes. That's fine for a recipe; it's a problem for anything private.

The one-line test

If you wouldn't post it on a public bulletin board, don't paste it into a public AI tool.

Three habits that keep you safe without slowing you down

Swap in placeholders. "A patient," "Company X," "my coworker" instead of real names and numbers — the AI doesn't need the real ones to help.

Strip before you paste. Rewriting an email? Drop the signature, phone numbers, and account IDs first — paste only the part you need rewritten.

Use the approved tool for sensitive work. A provided business AI account has different data protections than a personal login.

Never paste these into a public/personal tool

Passwords and login codes; full Social Security or financial account numbers; other people's personal details (names, contact info, health information); and confidential company, client, or patient information.

Check Yourself · 3 Questions

Post-test

Answer all three. You'll get feedback on each, then a final score. 2 of 3 to pass. Your score is saved on this device.

Related Resources

Go deeper & what to do next

Handout

Next steps

Save the CRAFT template into your own prompt "swipe file" and reuse it.
Run the "would I post this publicly?" test on your next real task before pasting.
Complete the next lesson in the Beginner AI track.