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
- Specify Financial Context: Mention the specific financial area (e.g., investment analysis, tax planning, financial reporting) to get relevant outputs.
- Request Clarity & Simplicity: For client-facing content, ask the AI to explain complex financial concepts in simple terms without jargon.
- Include Relevant Data Points: When analyzing financial information, include key metrics or data points in your prompt for more accurate analysis.
- Maintain Professional Tone: Specify that outputs should maintain a professional, authoritative tone appropriate for financial communications.
- Request Disclaimers: For financial advice or market commentary, ask the AI to include appropriate disclaimers about the limitations of the information.
Example Prompts
"Write a brief explanation of compound interest for a new investor, using a simple example with numbers."
Client education material on financial concepts
"Create an Excel formula to calculate monthly loan payments given principal amount, interest rate, and loan term in years."
Financial calculation assistance
"Draft an executive summary for a quarterly financial report showing revenue growth of 12%, profit margin increase of 3%, and cash flow improvement of 8% compared to previous quarter."
Financial report writing assistance
"Create a client email explaining the impact of recent interest rate changes on their investment portfolio, maintaining a reassuring but honest tone."
Client communication during market changes
"List 5 key questions a financial advisor should ask a new client during their first meeting to understand their financial goals and risk tolerance."
Client onboarding process improvement