thomas_martinez•23d agoProlific Poster

Just realized my AI prompts were way too vague after a client tore them apart

I was working on a chatbot for a local coffee chain in Austin and thought my prompts were solid, but the client sent back a 3 page list of complaints. They said things like 'the bot keeps suggesting pastries when someone asks for dairy free options' and 'it doesn't understand we close at 2pm on Sundays'. After reading through their notes, I realized I was writing prompts like 'help customers with orders' instead of being super specific. Now I break every prompt down into tiny steps with example inputs and outputs. Like for the dairy thing, I added a line that says 'if customer mentions dairy free, filter out items with milk, cream, or butter'. It made the bot way more accurate, but it also taught me that garbage in really does mean garbage out. Has anyone else had to totally redo their prompting style after getting feedback like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliviagrant23d ago

My friend had to rewrite her entire prompt library after a client's chatbot started recommending steak to vegetarians.

avery_lopez23d ago

Bet my GPS swore a bridge existed that definitely did not

emery_young1323d ago

That "recommending steak to vegetarians" thing reminds me of a time my buddy's GPS told him to turn into a lake... programming is wild like that.