Hi there,
Everyone starts in the same place. A short prompt, fingers crossed, hoping for a good answer.
When it falls flat, the usual advice is to write a better prompt. Add a role. Add context. Add constraints. The output does improve, and most people stop there and think they have cracked it.
They have not.
We learned to talk to Google. Keyword in, answer out. So we talk to AI the same way, and AI does not work like that. The real shift is not a better prompt. It is knowing what a good answer actually looks like, then finding the shortest route back to it.
Here is the question that closes the gap. Read your prompt back and ask: if I was briefing a person to do this, would they have enough to do a good job? If the answer is no, your prompt is the problem, not the AI.
I have taught this to thousands of people. The ones who get the most out of AI are not the ones with the cleverest prompts. They are the ones who know what good looks like.
This week in AI
Microsoft put working agents into Copilot Studio. The latest update makes computer-using agents generally available. They use applications the way a person would, navigating screens and clicking through interfaces. So what for you: if your team lives in Microsoft 365, the repetitive screen-based jobs are the ones to hand over first.
Google’s new agent is always on. At Google I/O the company launched Gemini Spark, an always-on agent connected across Google services and third-party apps. Instead of asking it questions one at a time, you hand it ongoing responsibilities. So what for you: same move as today’s opening. Decide what good looks like, then let it run.
The default ChatGPT changed under everyone’s feet. OpenAI made GPT-5.5 Instant the standard ChatGPT experience. So what for you: most of your team is already using a different model than they were a month ago, without knowing it. Worth a quick “has anything changed for you” in your next team chat.
The practical bit
Reverse-Engineer Your Best Answers
Predicting the holes in a prompt is hard. Spotting the holes in a result is easy. So stop trying to get it perfect first time. Run it, look at what comes back, then fix from there.
Here is the move almost nobody makes. Got an answer you love? Do not just copy the answer. Ask the AI to hand you the prompt that would have produced it in one go.
“Look back at the answer you just gave me. Write the single prompt that would get this result first time, so I can save it and reuse it.”
It hands you a clean, reusable prompt built from what already worked. That is the one you save.
Then do three things. Save it. Name it so you can actually find it again. Reuse it. A named, reusable prompt is worth far more than one clever one-off, because it does the job again next week without you starting from scratch.
Work out what good looks like. Then find the shortest route back. That is where the real time savings sit.
Free resources
This Week’s Free Resource
Where AI Actually Saves Time in Your Business
The practical time-savers every business owner should know about.
“Where do I even start with AI?” is the question we hear most. The answer is not complicated. Start where you are losing time. AI’s real strength is not being clever, it is being fast at the repetitive tasks that drain your hours.
This guide walks through ten categories where business owners are getting time back right now. No sci-fi promises, just practical wins you can put in place this week. It is free, and it lives inside our community alongside the live builds, the recordings and a room of people working AI out at the same time as you.
What’s on
The sessions below ran in June 2026. For what is coming up, see upcoming events.
The new date is locked. Thursday 9 July.
We moved Build Along and The AI Foundry Live out of early June to dodge the tube strikes. Both are now confirmed for Thursday 9 July at White City, same format, same room. Subscribers heard first, as promised.
Build Along with AI
Thursday 9 July · 11:00am to 1:00pm · White City, London
Get your AI Strategy built out before lunchtime. Hands-on and interactive workshop.
The AI Foundry Live
Thursday 9 July · 1:30pm to 4:30pm · White City, London
Our quarterly free live event. Two short talks from guest speakers, then time to compare notes with other UK business owners over an afternoon coffee.
With guest speakers
Hannah Morris
Let’s Trailblaze
Mahdi Shariff
Humble AI
Join the free Foundry community
Peer discussion, weekly resources and first access to events and sessions. No fee, no pitch.
Work out what good looks like. Then find the shortest route back.
That is the whole game this week. Pick one answer you loved recently and reverse-engineer the prompt behind it. Save it. Name it. Reuse it. That one habit compounds faster than almost anything else we teach.
Next week I will share the five prompts I actually reuse every week. The named ones that earn their keep. Steal them.
Hit reply and tell me the answer you reverse-engineered. We read every one.
Know someone still chasing the perfect prompt? Forward this on. That’s how this list grows.
Understand first. Then act.
Richard