Key Takeaway
You do not need to be a prompt engineer to get great results from AI at work. These 50 copy-paste templates cover the most common business tasks — from writing emails to building strategy documents — and each one follows the RCTF framework.
How to Use These Templates
Each template below follows the RCTF framework: Role, Context, Task, Format. The parts in [brackets] are placeholders — replace them with your specific details. The more context you add, the better the output.
These templates work with any major AI tool: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot. The results will vary slightly between models, but the structure ensures consistently strong outputs.
Email & Communications
You are a senior professional known for diplomatic communication. I received an email from [person/role] about [situation]. The tone was [describe]. Draft a reply that [desired outcome] while maintaining a professional relationship. Keep it under 200 words.
You are an organised project manager. I just finished a meeting about [topic] with [attendees]. Key decisions were: [list]. Action items are: [list]. Write a concise follow-up email that confirms decisions, assigns owners, and sets deadlines. Use bullet points for action items.
You are a B2B sales professional who writes concise, value-first emails. I sell [product/service] to [target audience]. Their main pain point is [problem]. Write a 100-word cold email that opens with their pain point, offers one specific insight, and ends with a soft CTA. No corporate jargon.
These three email templates alone cover most professional communication needs. Adapt the Role for your industry and adjust the Format for length and tone.
Reports & Analysis
You are a management consultant. Here is [data/report/situation]. Write a one-page executive summary for [audience]. Structure: situation (2 sentences), key findings (3–5 bullets), implications (2 sentences), recommended next steps (3 bullets). Use plain language — no jargon.
You are a market research analyst. Analyse [competitor] compared to [our company] across these dimensions: pricing, features, positioning, strengths, weaknesses. Present as a comparison table, then write a 200-word strategic summary of our key advantages and vulnerabilities.
For data-heavy analysis, always paste the raw data into the prompt rather than summarising it yourself. AI models are excellent at pattern recognition when given the full dataset.
Strategy & Planning
You are a strategic planning consultant. My team [describe team] achieved [results] last quarter. Our company priorities for next quarter are [list]. Constraints: [budget, headcount, timeline]. Create a quarterly plan with 3–5 initiatives, each with: goal, owner suggestion, key metric, timeline, and dependencies. Present as a table.
You are a risk management expert. We are planning to [initiative]. Identify the top 10 risks, categorised by likelihood (high/medium/low) and impact (high/medium/low). For each, suggest one mitigation strategy. Present as a table sorted by severity.
Strategy prompts benefit enormously from chain-of-thought reasoning. Add “Think through your analysis step by step” for significantly better strategic outputs.
Content & Marketing
You are a thought leader in [industry]. Write a LinkedIn post about [topic]. Use a hook in the first line, share one contrarian insight or personal experience, and end with a question to drive engagement. 150–200 words. No hashtags. Conversational but professional tone.
You are a content strategist specialising in SEO. Create a detailed outline for a blog post titled “[title]” targeting [audience]. Include: H1, 5–7 H2 sections, key points under each, one unique angle competitors have not covered, and a meta description under 155 characters.
Marketing templates should always include audience and tone specifications. The same topic written for a CEO sounds completely different from one written for a developer.
HR & People
You are a talent acquisition specialist. Write a job description for a [role] at [company type]. Include: role summary (3 sentences), key responsibilities (5–7 bullets), required qualifications (5 bullets), nice-to-haves (3 bullets), and what we offer (4 bullets). Tone: [professional/casual/startup]. Avoid gendered language.
You are an experienced people manager. I need to give feedback to [name/role] about their performance. Strengths: [list]. Areas for growth: [list]. Generate talking points that are specific, actionable, and encouraging. Use the SBI model (Situation, Behaviour, Impact) for each point.
For HR-related prompts, always review the output for bias, accuracy, and compliance with your local employment laws before using.
Tips for Getting Better Results
- Always customise the Role. Generic roles produce generic outputs. The more specific you are about the expertise you need, the better.
- Add real data. Templates are starting points — paste in your actual numbers, emails, or documents for the most useful outputs.
- Iterate. Use the first output as a draft, then refine with follow-up prompts like “Make the tone more formal” or “Shorten by 50%.”
- Save your best prompts. When a prompt works well, save it to a personal library. Over time, you will build a toolkit tailored to your exact needs.
- Combine templates. Need a strategy deck? Use the quarterly planning template for content, then the executive summary template to create the opening slide.
Want to Go Deeper?
These templates are drawn from Module 4 of the Mastering AI Tools course. The full module includes 120+ templates with video walkthroughs.
Explore the Course