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How to brief an AI agent like an employee: the 5-part prompt template

By George Batchelor · Updated October 31, 2026

If AI keeps giving you bland, generic answers, the problem usually isn't the AI. It's the brief. Imagine handing a new employee a sticky note that says "write a marketing email" and walking away. You'd get something generic back too.

The fix is to brief AI the way a good manager briefs a capable new hire. Here's the five-part template I use.

The 5-part template

ROLE: You are my [job title, e.g. "email copywriter for a small bakery"].
CONTEXT: [Who the business is, who the customer is, what's happening, what's been tried.]
TASK: [One specific deliverable.]
STANDARDS: [Tone, length, must-include, must-avoid, an example of "good".]
OUTPUT: [Exact format.] Before you start, ask me up to 3 questions if anything important is missing.

1. Role

A role tells the AI which knowledge and tone to use. "You are a bookkeeper" and "you are a sales copywriter" produce very different answers to the same question. Be specific: "a patient tutor explaining this to a complete beginner" beats "an expert."

2. Context

This is where most prompts fall short. Include what you sell, who buys it, what they care about, and any constraints such as budget, deadline or brand rules. Paste in real material when you can: a past email, your product description, a customer's question. Don't paste passwords, customer personal data or anything confidential.

3. Task

One clear job per brief. "Write 5 subject lines for our holiday pre-order email" is a task. "Help with marketing" is not. For bigger jobs, break them into a sequence and run one step at a time.

4. Standards

Tell it what good looks like. For example: "Friendly but not cheesy. Under 120 words. Mention the December 20 order cutoff. No exclamation marks. No 'unlock' or 'elevate'." If you have an example you like, paste it in and say "match this style."

5. Output

Ask for the exact format you need: a table, bullet points, a ready-to-send email, three options ranked best to worst. Ending with "ask me up to 3 questions first" is a simple habit that dramatically reduces guesswork.

Before and after

Before:

Write a social post about my cleaning business.

After:

ROLE: You are a social media writer for a local residential cleaning business.
CONTEXT: We're a 2-person team serving busy families. Customers love that we bring our own supplies and send a photo checklist after every clean. We want more recurring bi-weekly clients.
TASK: Write 3 Facebook post options promoting our bi-weekly plan.
STANDARDS: Warm, plain English, under 80 words each. Mention the photo checklist. One clear call to action ("Message us for a quote"). No hashtags, no emojis.
OUTPUT: Numbered list. After the three posts, tell me which one you'd pick and why in one sentence.

The second prompt takes about a minute longer to write and usually saves several rounds of back-and-forth.

Turn good prompts into "SOPs"

When a brief works, save it. Keep a simple document of your best prompts with blanks to fill in: your weekly newsletter brief, your customer-reply brief, your product-description brief. This is how one person starts running a set of AI "employees": the same brief, reused every week, improved a little each time.

Review like a manager

• Give specific feedback: "Shorter, and cut the second paragraph" works better than "make it better."
• Check facts yourself. AI can state wrong things confidently, especially numbers, dates, prices and quotes.
• Keep the human parts human: your stories, opinions and decisions.

Copy-paste starter briefs

ROLE: You are a customer support assistant for [business].
CONTEXT: Here is our FAQ and refund policy: [paste]. Here's the customer's message: [paste, with personal details removed].
TASK: Draft a reply.
STANDARDS: Kind, clear, under 120 words, only promise what the policy allows.
OUTPUT: The reply, then one line flagging anything I should double-check.

ROLE: You are a research assistant.
CONTEXT: I'm considering selling [product idea] to [audience].
TASK: List the main existing alternatives people use today and what customers commonly complain about.
STANDARDS: Separate what you're confident about from what I should verify. Don't invent statistics.
OUTPUT: A table: alternative | what it does well | common complaints | how to verify.