The Day I Discovered the Art of Prompting – 5 Techniques That Changed Everything

There was a time I believed that using AI was just about typing a question and getting an answer. Simple, right? But one ordinary Tuesday, while sipping chai and half-regretting my decision to leave a stable job for law and content creation, I stumbled upon something game-changing.

I had asked ChatGPT:

"Help me write a great legal post."

The reply? Generic. Unusable.

Frustrated, I muttered to myself, “Maybe AI isn’t all that after all.” But curiosity got the better of me. I dug deeper — and that’s when I learned this golden truth:

The power of AI lies not in the tool, but in the prompt.

Here are the 5 prompting techniques that transformed the way I use AI — and they might just do the same for you:

1. Role-Based Prompting – Give AI a Hat to Wear

I typed:

“You are a senior advocate with 20 years of High Court experience. Write a guide for junior lawyers on filing bail petitions.”

Boom! The tone changed. The content had authority, clarity, and depth. That’s when I realized: AI behaves based on the role you assign.

Try this:

“Act like a law professor explaining Article 21 to a group of undergrads.”

2. Context-First Prompting – Don’t Skip the Backstory

AI is like a sharp intern: it performs best when it knows the background.

Compare:

“Write a blog about free speech.”

vs

“I’m creating content for a law-student community focused on constitutional law. Write a blog post that introduces Article 19(1)(a) and its reasonable restrictions, in an engaging tone.”

Context makes content 10x sharper.

3. Step-by-Step Prompting – Break It Down Like a Mentor

Instead of asking:

“Help me become a better legal writer,”

I asked:

“Give me a 5-step process to improve my legal writing, assuming I already understand basic grammar but want to improve structure and clarity.”

The result? A mini roadmap.

Ask AI to walk with you, not ahead of you.

4. Format-Based Prompting – Tell AI What the Output Should Look Like

Once, I asked:

“Explain bail law in India.”

and again got an essay. But when I said:

“Explain bail law in India in the form of a tweet thread (5 tweets max),”

I got something snappy, readable, and perfect for social media.

Lesson? Tell AI the format: blog, bullet points, table, tweet, script — and it delivers better.

5. Refinement Loop – Ask, Review, and Re-prompt

Your first prompt won’t always be perfect — but that’s okay.

Treat AI like a brainstorming partner:

“Make this more emotional.”

“Can you simplify this for a Class 10 student?”

“Now translate to Telugu.”

Iteration is where the real magic happens.

Final Thoughts: It’s Not Magic. It’s a Method.

That one frustrating chai-break turned into a powerful realization: AI isn’t a miracle box. It’s a mirror — and your prompts decide what you see.

So the next time you feel AI isn’t “getting” you, pause and ask: Did I prompt it right?

And may

be, just maybe, that’s how we all become prompt artists — one thoughtful line at a time.