A prompt is simply the input you give an AI — the request, question or instruction that tells it what to produce. "Write a friendly reminder email about an overdue invoice" is a prompt. The quality of a prompt has a big effect on the quality of the result: vague prompts get generic answers, while specific prompts with context and a desired tone get far more useful ones.
Because of this, writing good prompts has become a practical skill. Including the who, the goal, any key facts, the format you want and the tone usually turns a mediocre response into a strong one.
Example
Weak: "Write about dogs."
Strong: "Write a 100-word, friendly intro for a blog post about first-time dog ownership, aimed at nervous new owners, ending with an encouraging line."
Related terms
Prompt Engineering · Large Language Model (LLM) · Token