[TEA-T3] IDC4U Inter ...

Hands-On NLP Exercises: Applying Prompt Engineering to Startups

1. In-Context Learning: Teaching AI to Understand Your Startup Needs

📍 Scenario: Your startup is launching a new product, and you want AI to generate marketing content that aligns with your brand identity.

🔹 Task:

• Provide a few-shot example where AI learns from prior inputs to create new content.

• Use ChatGPT or DeepSeek to generate a product description by feeding it 3-5 sample descriptions from existing brands.

🔍 Example Prompt:

"Here are three successful startup product descriptions. Based on these, generate a compelling description for my new product, [Product Name]."

💡 Discussion: How does AI adapt to different styles? Can it maintain consistency across different prompts?

2. Chain-of-Thought: Guiding AI to Solve Complex Startup Problems

📍 Scenario: You want to use AI to analyze user feedback and recommend business improvements.
🔹 Task:

• Provide step-by-step reasoning for AI to analyze a customer review and suggest changes.
• Use ChatGPT to break down customer concerns into actionable business strategies.

🔍 Example Prompt:
"Here is a customer review: [Insert Review]. Analyze it step by step and suggest three key improvements my startup can implement."

💡 Discussion: How does breaking down a problem into smaller steps improve AI responses?

3. Least-to-Most Prompting: Teaching AI to Handle Gradual Complexity

📍 Scenario: Your startup needs an AI chatbot to answer customer inquiries effectively.
🔹 Task:

• Start with a simple question and then increase complexity step by step.
• Observe how AI adjusts responses based on gradual difficulty.

🔍 Example Prompt:

1. "What is NLP?"
2. "How can NLP improve customer service in a startup?"
3. "What specific NLP tools should a startup use for automated customer support?"

💡 Discussion: How does AI refine its response as complexity increases?

4.     Self-Refine: Improving AI Output for Business Applications

📍 Scenario: You are generating social media posts for your startup, but you want AI to refine them for better engagement.
🔹 Task:

• Generate a first draft of a tweet or Instagram caption.
• Ask AI to self-refine the text for better clarity, persuasion, or engagement.

🔍 Example Prompt:
"Here’s my startup’s social media post: [Insert Text]. Refine it to be more engaging and persuasive."

💡 Discussion: What changes did AI make? Did it improve tone, clarity, or engagement?

5. Tree-of-Thought: Expanding AI’s Problem-Solving Capabilities

📍 Scenario: Your startup wants to explore multiple business strategies before making a decision.
🔹 Task:

• Ask AI to generate three different strategies for solving a business problem.
• Then, evaluate each option’s pros and cons before selecting the best approach.

🔍 Example Prompt:
"My startup is facing [Challenge]. Provide three different strategies to overcome this issue, outlining the pros and cons of each approach."

💡 Discussion: Which strategy was the best? How does AI’s structured reasoning help in decision-making?

6. Maieutic Prompting: Challenging AI to Think Critically for Business Growth

📍 Scenario: Your startup is deciding whether to enter a new market.
🔹 Task:

• Use a series of prompts to make AI question and refine its reasoning.
• Challenge AI to provide counterarguments and justify its final recommendation.

🔍 Example Prompt Series:

1. "What are the benefits of expanding my startup into [New Market]?"
2. "What challenges might my startup face in this market?"
3. "Now, argue against your previous response and tell me why my startup should NOT expand into this market."
4. "Considering both perspectives, what is the best decision, and why?"

💡 Discussion: How does forcing AI to argue against itself lead to better business decisions?