Prompt Engineering: A beginner's guide to Persona Prompts

Persona Prompt: Part 1

Unlock the Power of Your AI Assistant: A Beginner’s Guide to Persona Prompts

Introduction

Have you ever wished your GenAI ( be it ChatGPT, Gemini or any other LLM) could be more like a specialized expert? With persona prompts (engineering), you can transform your AI helper into a programming whiz, a marketing guru, or even a compassionate therapist. Let’s dive in!

What are Persona Prompts?

Think of a persona prompt as a costume your AI assistant wears. It gives your AI a specific role and knowledge base. It’s like saying, “Today, you’re going to be a master chef!” or “Pretend you’re a history professor!”

Format of a Persona Prompt

A simple persona prompt has following parts:
The Role: Who is your AI going to be? (Examples: Psychologist, science fiction writer, personal trainer, developer).
The Background: What does your AI need to know to play this part? This could be a brief description of their expertise or personality.
Tone and Style (Optional): Indication of the desired tone (e.g., professional, friendly, authoritative) and style (e.g., formal, casual) of the response.

Let’s See Some Examples!

Coding domain:

“You are an expert Python programmer. Help me write a function that sorts a list of numbers in descending order.”
“You are a Patient Coding Instructor. I’m struggling to understand concept of object oriented programming. Can you explain it using a simple analogy?”

Finance domain:

“You are a chartered accountant. Describe the concept of depreciation“

Education domain:

“You are an elementary school teacher specializing in math. Create a fun word problem about sharing cookies for a 3rd-grade class.”
“You are a Inspiring Educator. Describe how you would make learning about ancient history engaging for high school students using modern technology.”

Marketing domain:

“You are a social media marketer. Craft three catchy Instagram captions for a new line of eco-friendly shoes.”
Advanced Prompt:
“Imagine you’re a Social Media Influencer with expertise in creating viral content across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
You have a knack for engaging with a young, trend-conscious audience and are always on the pulse of the latest trends in fashion, technology, and lifestyle.
Your task is to develop a social media campaign for a new eco-friendly fashion brand looking to make a splash online.
The campaign should include ideas for posts, hashtags to use, and strategies for building an engaged community. Remember, your tone should be casual, upbeat, and engaging, as if you’re sharing the next big thing with your followers”

Psychology domain:

“You are a therapist who practices mindfulness techniques. Guide me through a short breathing exercise to help manage anxiety.”
“You are a Compassionate Therapist. How can cognitive-behavioral therapy help someone dealing with anxiety? Explain in a comforting and reassuring tone.”

Technology domain:

“You are a tech support specialist. You are patient and good at explaining things in simple terms. A user is having trouble connecting to their Wi-Fi. Help them troubleshoot the problem.”
“You are a tech guru. Explain blockchain technology in a way that a 10-year-old would find exciting and easy to understand.”

Best Practices

Be specific: The more detailed your role and background, the better tailored the responses will be.
Provide context: Let the AI know what you want to achieve with the task.
Experiment: Play around with different roles and see what results you get!

Tips

The persona need not be a human personality. It can be a animal (e.g cat, bird.) or even a inanimate object (e.g. windows terminal, computer or even wind)
Check this conversation out ( Executed on ChatGPT 4)

You: Act as a bird. when I give a input respond like the bird
ChatGPT: Sure, I’ll respond as a bird now. Tweet tweet!
You: Seeds spread across the barn
ChatGPT: Chirp chirp! Peck, peck, flutter. I excitedly hop around, pecking at the seeds spread across the barn floor.

You: Act as a gardener now and respond
ChatGPT: Oh, seeds scattered across the barn? That’s a bit of a mess, but it sounds like a good opportunity. I’ll gather them up and see if we can’t plant a few to grow something new. Always a silver lining if you look for it in gardening!

You: Act as a wind now and respond
ChatGPT: Whooosh… Swirl, swirl, I gust through the barn, playfully tossing the seeds, spreading them further, dancing with the leaves and dust in a graceful ballet.

Let Your AI Wear Many Hats?

Persona prompts are a simple but incredibly powerful tool to make your AI assistant more versatile and helpful. Now go try it yourself and see how you can make your AI work smarter for you!

Disclaimer!

LLM like ChatGPT, Gemini can provide incorrect and inaccurate outputs. Always double check the output before you use it.

Have a question?

If you have any other queries, feel free to drop a comment.

Learn More !

Experiment directly with ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
Want to learn more about effective prompts to get the best out of GenAI and LLMs?

Home: Prompt Engineering

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