I WONDER as AI becomes more integrated into our strategic toolkits, are we at risk of losing the human touch, the hidden truths, that are critical to our work as strategists?
At the heart of a strategist's work lies a natural curiosity and a penchant for asking questions. Prompts have always been our best friend, guiding our inquiry and helping us explore the depths of human experience to uncover hidden truths. After all, it’s the strategist’s job to understand things about people they might not even fully understand themselves, to uncover motivations they might be too afraid or too guarded to express aloud. Today, prompts have unlocked a whole new dimension of learning and distillation for my strategist brain: AI assistance in unraveling the complexities of the human mind.
A prompt is a carefully crafted question or statement designed to elicit a specific type of response. Prompts have been the strategists’ lifeblood since the advent of account planning in the 1960s. We use prompts in market research, with clients, and to help us define problems to solve, because prompts lead us to gain a greater understanding of a subject. The crafting of prompts is both a beautiful art and a challenging science. When prompting AI, this balance is even more precarious and necessary to get exactly right.
There’s an art to crafting prompts; effective prompts are often simple yet profound, capturing the essence of what we seek to understand. A strategist employs creativity when crafting prompts, framing questions in ways that resonate rationally and emotionally with those we’re trying to understand. And, the best prompts come from a place of empathy, reflecting our knowledge of the human condition and experiences.
While creativity and empathy are essential, precision is equally crucial in the realm of prompt crafting. We must make our prompts precise to avoid ambiguity and ensure that the responses are not just relevant, but insightful. To write an effective prompt, the strategist must have a thorough understanding of the subject matter. You can’t just start asking questions without a certain level of context – the saying “garbage in, garbage out” certainly applies here.
Strategists should view prompt writing as an iterative process. Like many craft skills, to create artful and scientific prompts requires iteration. We set out on the quest for knowledge by hypothesizing, testing, listening, learning, and adapting the prompts based on the responses returned until we reach the point where the feedback is incisive.
The caveat: recognizing that no matter how stellar our AI prompts, observation and interpretation gained through interaction and conversation often reveal a greater appreciation of humanness. For example, watching people around you as you sit in a doctor’s office, listening to what they say, their body language, their expressions... powerful yet intangible hints that aid the strategist as we set out to articulate our audience’s needs and motivations. Because at the end of the day, a strategist is responsible for articulating the story behind the facts.
I WONDER IF we strategists can’t find a balance here, like the balance of art and science. Seeing the potential of AI to hone and transform our Holmesian super-powers. After all, it’s a great tool to help us Wonder More but it’s also our responsibility to integrate AI into our strategy sleuthing work with context and sincerity.
If we thoughtfully integrate AI into our strategic processes and leverage a modern definition of prompts as tools for deeper inquiry, we can make more informed choices for brands. And, if we apply the language of human experience, representing the voice inside the hearts and minds of our customers, when using AI, we can ensure that our strategies are not only well-informed but also compassionate and meaningful. By balancing the precision of AI with the nuanced understanding of human experience, strategists can create prompts that not only inform but also inspire. This is especially important to the most human and personal of categories where I’m focused: healthcare and can lead to more resonant ideas to impact lives and experiences of those we serve.
