Lesson 1 of 1 · 8 min read
You need the AI tool to look for real information, rather than guess.
AI can help you by searching for information, summarising sources and turning messy notes into a table. This can save time for your team, and help you to refine your ideas or explore new ones.
Guesswork: If you ask an AI tool for a definite answer to a question such as “What do students pay for bottles?”, the tool may create an answer by predicting what sounds likely. This means that its answer may be made up or wrong.
Research: Instead, try asking the AI to research a topic using real sources. For example: “Search UK retailer sites for reusable bottles, then list five products, prices and URLs in a table.” This way the AI tool will find examples for you that you can check through.
A good prompt for AI research should include:
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The decision your team needs to make.
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The exact question you want answered.
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The location or audience, such as UK teenagers, parents, teachers or local shoppers.
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The type of sources you want, such as retailer websites, customer reviews or public statistics.
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The format you want the information in, such as a table or graph, with the fields you want included, for example price, URL and company name.
Example prompt
“We are a Young Enterprise student company considering creating pencil cases out of recycled denim for secondary school students. Search for three similar products sold in the UK, list the price, main features, target customer and url.”