Key points

• Specify up front who it is answering as
• Role setting is the most basic of prompt basics
• The more you treat AI as a conversation partner, the better it performs

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Define who is answering

Once you have used generative AI a little, you start to feel it: the answers are somehow shallow, you want something more specialist. The useful move at that point is

telling it what role to take

Type "work has been hard lately" and you will get a reply. But add, first,

"You are a seasoned counsellor and psychologist."

and both the feel of the reply and the way it organises things change. It weights emotional processing more heavily, listens rather than solves, brings in a psychological frame.

It is not, of course, an actual specialist. But simply specifying

"answer me from this standpoint"

changes the texture of the output considerably.

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Applying it to a therapist's work

You can set all sorts of roles:

• "You are a highly skilled physical therapist."
• "You are an experienced occupational therapist."
• "You are an excellent researcher."
• "You are a teacher of middle-school students."
• "You are a nurse in the regional liaison office of a large hospital."
• "You are a speech-language pathologist who knows dementia care well."

Asking about research? "An excellent researcher." Polishing a patient explanation? "A kind teacher." Weighting evidence? "A member of a clinical guideline committee." Switch to match the purpose.

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Thinking of AI as an agent

Increasingly, people think of generative AI not as a search tool but as

an agent

that is, as something with a role.

• this AI handles research
• this AI handles teaching
• this AI handles editing
• this AI handles admin support

Framed that way, the question shifts from "what do I ask?" to "who do I ask?"

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Role setting is the doorway to prompting

Role setting is the most basic element of prompt design.

Simply stating

"answer me on this footing"

changes the texture of the output a great deal. Adding

• purpose (what do you want the output for)
• audience (who is it for)
• situation (where will it be used)
• output format (bullets / table / prose / FAQ)

improves it further.

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Do not aim for the perfect prompt

You do not have to write a perfect prompt from the start.

• give it a bit of a role
• watch how the answer changes
• add what is missing

is enough. Adjusting as you converse matters a great deal with generative AI.

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A prompt to try (general template)

Role

You are {role}.

Purpose

I want to achieve {purpose}.

Audience

This output will be used for {audience}.

Constraints

{constraint 1} {constraint 2}

Output format

{e.g. bullet points under headings / about 300 words of prose / FAQ format}

Input

{paste the specific material here}

This template carries across almost everything in this guide.

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Chapter 7 summary

• Role setting alone changes the texture of the output considerably
• Specify purpose, audience, situation and output format alongside it
• The more you treat AI as a conversation partner, the better it performs

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