10 mistakes that make AI give you bad answers

The ten most common mistakes

1. You are too vague. "Make it better" - the AI does not know what better means to you. Say it specifically.
2. You ask for ten things at once. Break it into steps and go one at a time.
3. You gave no context. About you, about your business, about the goal. Without it the AI is shooting blind.
4. You did not state the format. Length, style, structure. "5 bullet points" vs "an essay" is a chasm.
5. You gave no example. One sample of "this is how I want it" works wonders.
6. You ask it for facts off the top of its head. Give it source material so it has no reason to invent.
7. You do not treat it as a conversation. You settle for the first version instead of refining it.
8. You write novels of politeness. A clear brief beats three paragraphs of waffle.
9. You leave old context lying around. A long tangled conversation confuses it - start a new chat.
10. You expect it to think for you. AI is a tool; the direction and the decisions are yours.

How to fix it fast

When you are not happy with the answer, run through this in your head: have I given a role, context, a task, a format and an example? Nine times out of ten one of those is missing. Add it and send again.

A bad answer almost never means a stupid AI. It means a missing piece of the brief.