Hey Prompt Buddy! How to achieve Prompt Excellence

When we use Copilot in our daily work, besides a solid foundation, prompting is of course one of the most important skills we need. The way we prompt has a significant impact on the output.

The most effective prompt is around 30 words upwards and most of the prompts are kind of in the region around 7 to 8 words

So who better to talk to than one of the creators of the world-famous Prompt Buddy?, Stuart Ridout ??

In this conversation, I spoke with Stuart Ridout from 微软 about his role as global customer success technical strategy lead, AI and Modern Work, and the challenges of AI adoption, particularly with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

He highlights the importance of prompt excellence and introduces PromptBuddy, a tool designed to improve the prompt experience for users. The discussion also covers the future of PromptBuddy in the context of Copilot Lab, and a live demo showcases its features and functionality. The conversation concludes with insights into the importance of creating effective prompts for better AI outcomes.

With that said, welcome to Copilot Your Day, your weekly Copilot newsletter on LinkedIn ? We are slowly approaching 2700 subscribers, thank you for your engagements, reshares, likes, comments and just for taking the time to read the newsletter - I really appreciate it. ??

Watch the full epsiode on Youtube ????

Challenges in AI Adoption and Prompt Excellence

The low hanging fruit with Copilot is, of course, the meeting. It's super easy to use Copilot during the meeting or even with the recap features. "Create me a spreadsheet with this and that" - but the real challenge is to have that broader approach. What are you going to do with the output, how can you make sure that it really supports you in your daily work in the workflow.

So instead of creating the spreadsheet and copy and pasting it into an email. You need to rethink your approach. Why not just start in the email and prompt me to create an email to all participants with this and that.

With any AI, what you put in, is what you get out

So one of the main goals is to expand the purpose of your prompts and try to make them bigger.

That is why Stuart invests a lot in Prompt Excellence. If you haven't seen them yet, be sure to check out the five video series from Microsoft. You will also find other valuable videos there!

Remember to prompt accurate

Another great example is "Summarize my important emails" and many people get frustrated with the output. However, you have to keep in mind that importance can look different. For example, to the people who are sending you an email, it's an important email, but maybe not to you.

What you need to do: Tell Copilot a little more about your definition of importance. "Summarize my important emails. I prioritize any email that comes from a client or my manager, and anything related to deadlines within the next two weeks."

Introducing Prompt Buddy: A Tool for AI Prompting

And of course (!) we talked a lot about Prompt Buddy, which I am pretty sure most of you have already heard about, this great and freely available PowerApp. Stuart created Prompt Buddy together with Erik Olsson

???????????? at this point: THANK YOU to both of you! It's just an outstanding application that helps so many customers!

Prompt Buddy is a PowerApps that you can use in PowerApps in Teams. It's an enterprise-wide prompt library that's also getting even more functionality that Stuart told us about in the interview.

It's all about sharing, exploring and voting on prompts within your M365 ecosystem. But there is also the gamification approach where you have leaderboards for the most active contributors.

What will Prompt Buddy look like in the future, since Copilot Lab is evolving rapidly?

First and foremost, what I REALLY like about Prompt Buddy. First, since it's a PowerApps, any organization can extend and modify the application and workflow as they need.

Second, you are not tied to Prompt Buddy, you can easily export and import the existing prompt library. So even if you had it set up in SharePoint, you can super easily move those libraries to Prompt Buddy.

Speaking of Copilot Lab and Prompt Buddy, both teams work super closely together. So Stuart is in exchange with the Copilot Lab team to talk about features they have already implemented in Prompt Buddy. And Stuart emphasizes that he sees a day in the future when Prompt Buddy may disappear, but in the meantime it's a great way to get your prompts.

And Microsoft is also discussing what an easy migration path from Prompt Buddy to Copilot Lab might look like in the future.

However, in my personal opinion, this is also the beauty of PowerApps, it can be used to build the bridge over a period of time.

You can access the Prompt Buddy live demo

???? Just skip to Minute 12 in the Youtube Video

Want to get started with Prompt Buddy?

They even provide you with a super short and easy to understand video on how to install it.

My Key Takeaways of my conversation with Stuart Ridout

• The challenges of AI adoption include understanding and effectively using tools like Copilot.
• Prompt excellence is key to maximizing AI performance.
• Prompt Buddy serves as an enterprise prompt library for users.
• The tool enables community sharing and collaboration on prompts.
• Future developments will enhance the integration of PromptBuddy and Copilot Lab.
• Effective prompts can significantly improve AI results.
• Investing time in prompt design leads to better results.
• The importance of leadership in AI strategy is highlighted.
• Continuous learning and adaptation are essential in the AI landscape.

Thank you Stuart!

And of course a huge shout out to Stuart for taking the time to share so many valuable insights, demonstrating Prompt Buddy, and last but not least for your work with Prompt Buddy. It was a real pleasure talking to you!

Be sure to follow Stuart on LinkedIn and subscribe his Youtube channel ????

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