{"id":2696,"date":"2025-06-20T17:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edwardramos.com\/?p=2696"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:34:08","slug":"what-is-prompt-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/20\/what-is-prompt-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Prompt Engineering?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Prompt engineering<\/strong> is the art and science of crafting effective inputs (prompts) to get the best possible outputs from AI models. It\u2019s especially useful when working with tools like Copilot in Microsoft 365<\/strong>, Power Platform<\/strong>, or Azure OpenAI<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Core Concepts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. Prompt Structure<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A good prompt often includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Role<\/strong>: Define who the AI should act as (e.g., \u201cAct as a project manager\u2026\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Task<\/strong>: What you want it to do (e.g., \u201cCreate a summary of this meeting\u2026\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Context<\/strong>: Provide relevant background (e.g., \u201cThis is for a client in healthcare\u2026\u201d).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Format<\/strong>: Specify the output format (e.g., \u201cGive me a bullet list\u2026\u201d).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    2. Types of Prompts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Instructional<\/strong>: \u201cSummarize this email.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Conversational<\/strong>: \u201cWhat are some ways to improve this document?\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Few-shot<\/strong>: Provide examples to guide the model.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Chain-of-thought<\/strong>: Ask the model to reason step-by-step.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      Prompt Engineering in Microsoft 365<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Word & Outlook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      • Prompt<\/strong>: \u201cRewrite this email to sound more professional and concise.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Prompt<\/strong>: \u201cGenerate a project proposal based on this outline.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Excel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        • Prompt<\/strong>: \u201cExplain this formula and suggest improvements.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Prompt<\/strong>: \u201cCreate a dashboard summarizing this data.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          Teams & Loop<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          • Prompt<\/strong>: \u201cSummarize this meeting transcript into action items.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • Prompt<\/strong>: \u201cCreate a collaborative agenda for a weekly sync.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

            Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • Use prompts to:\n
                \n
              • Generate expressions<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Create app logic<\/li>\n\n\n\n
              • Build connectors with natural language<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                \n\n\n\n

                Best Practices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                  \n
                • Be specific<\/strong>: Vague prompts lead to vague answers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Iterate<\/strong>: Refine your prompt based on the output.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Use examples<\/strong>: Show what you want.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
                • Test across tools<\/strong>: Try prompts in Word, Excel, Power Automate, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
                  \n\n\n\n

                  Quick Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
                  Goal<\/th>Prompt<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
                  Summarize a document<\/td>\u201cSummarize this document in 5 bullet points for executives.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
                  Generate ideas<\/td>\u201cGive me 10 creative campaign ideas for a product launch.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
                  Automate a task<\/td>\u201cCreate a Power Automate flow that sends a Teams message when a SharePoint file is updated.\u201d<\/td><\/tr>
                  Analyze data<\/td>\u201cExplain trends in this Excel chart and suggest actions.\u201d<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  Prompt engineering is the art and science of crafting effective inputs (prompts) to get the best possible outputs from AI models. It\u2019s especially useful when working with tools like Copilot…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2810,"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2696\/revisions\/2810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edwardramos.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}