AI Prompting Guidelines
In the age of generative AI, professionals across industries are leveraging tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, and others to boost productivity and creativity. A recent survey found 78% of organizations use AI in at least one business function, illustrating how widespread this trend has become. Below, we provide an industry-by-industry overview of how prompting can be applied, guidelines for effective prompts, and example prompts (with recommended AI tools, difficulty level, and expected outcomes).
Finance AI Prompting Guidelines
Industry Overview
Finance professionals and financial service providers use AI prompts to assist with report writing, financial analysis, and client communications. This includes drafting summaries of financial performance, explaining complex financial concepts to clients, or even generating Excel formulas. The finance sector sees the potential: for example, 97% of financial advisors believe AI can help grow their business by improving efficiency and insights. By carefully prompting, finance teams can obtain first drafts of analytical reports or creative ideas for explaining market trends, which they can then fact-check and refine.
Prompting Guidelines
- Context is Crucial: Provide context like the financial scenario, period, or any figures if you want a report or summary (e.g., "Q4 performance of X with Y% growth").
- Use the Right Tone: For client-facing outputs, ask for a reassuring and professional tone; for internal analysis, a straightforward and concise tone.
- Specify Format: If you need a report, ask for bullet points or sections (e.g., "Introduction, Findings, Recommendation"). If an email, specify that format.
- Accuracy & Caution: Clearly state that any advice or analysis should be based on factual information (and of course, always verify numbers after).
- Include Required Jargon or Simplify: Depending on the audience, either request use of proper financial terminology or ask for simplified explanations (for laypeople).
Example Prompts
"Summarize the Q4 financial report for [Company XYZ] in 5 bullet points, focusing on revenue, profit, and any notable events or trends."
Executive summary of financial results
"Explain the concept of compound interest to a client in a short paragraph, using a simple example and avoiding heavy jargon."
Client education on a financial concept
"Draft a professional email to a client detailing the performance of their investment portfolio last year, noting that it grew by X% and mentioning two contributing factors."
Client communication about portfolio performance
"Create an Excel formula to calculate the monthly mortgage payment given Principal, Annual Interest Rate, and Term in years (use PMT function format)."
Excel formula generation for a finance calculation
"Provide 3 ideas for cost-cutting measures for a small business struggling with high operational expenses, with a brief explanation for each."
Financial advisory suggestions (cost reduction)