How to talk to AI (and get the best results)

The short answer

Talk to AI the way you'd brief a new assistant. Say what you want, who it's for, how it should sound, and what done looks like. There are no special words to learn, and there's no wrong way to start. If the first answer misses, you just say so.

What is a prompt? (You already know how to write one)

You'll hear the word "prompt". It only means what you type or say to an AI. That's it.

If you've ever left a note for a coworker, briefed a contractor or asked a friend for a favor, you already have the skill. The AI doesn't know what you didn't tell it, so give it the same details you'd give a person on their first day.

How to write a good AI prompt: the four things to include

1. The task. What you want made or answered. "Write a follow-up email."

2. The context. Who or what it's about. "To Maya at Riverbend Cafe, who hasn't replied to my proposal in a week."

3. How it should sound. "Friendly, short, no pressure."

4. What done looks like. "Three sentences, ending with a question about timing."

Here's the difference it makes.

• Before: "Write a follow-up email."

• After: "Write a follow-up email to Maya at Riverbend Cafe. She hasn't replied to my proposal in a week. Keep it friendly and short, no pressure. Three sentences, ending with a question about timing."

The first one gets you a generic email you'd have to rewrite. The second gets you something close to ready.

You don't need all four every time. Start short, and add the rest when the first answer misses.

How to get better answers: say what to change

Stay in the same conversation and tell it what to change:

• "Shorter."

• "Less formal."

• "Add the price from my proposal."

• "That's not quite me. I'd never say 'synergy'."

It remembers what you said earlier in the conversation, so you don't have to start over. And if it asks you a question back, answer in your own words. A good assistant asks before it guesses.

How to make AI sound like you

The quickest way to stop AI sounding like AI is to show it how you talk.

• Describe your tone in a few words: "warm and direct", "casual, no jargon".

• Paste something you wrote, like an email you were happy with, and say "write it like this".

• Name the words you never use. "No 'synergy', no 'circle back'."

Aventide picks this up as you go. It learns how you like to talk, how you like to decide and how much detail you want, and treats those as defaults. You can see and change them on your Memory page, and if what you say today is different, today wins.

Can you talk to AI with your voice?

Yes. In Aventide, tap the microphone in Think and just talk. On your phone, use the Aventide app, or message Sidekick in Telegram, WhatsApp or Slack, or send it a voice note. Speaking often works better than typing, because you naturally add the context.

The new way to learn software: ask it

The old way to learn a new tool was tutorials. YouTube videos, help articles, an onboarding call, a lot of clicking around.

The new way is to use the product and ask it how it works. In Aventide you can:

• Ask in Think, right where you're working: "Where do I find my invoices?" "How do I set up a booking page?"

• Open Sidekick and choose How do I? Ask where something is, how something works or how to do it. How do I? doesn't use AI credits, so ask as much as you like.

A good way to start is to get to know the app this way first. Click around, ask how things work, try a few things by hand. Then start asking Aventide to do them for you.

How to use AI in your small business

AI that can do what you can do

Under the hood, Aventide runs on an AI agent. That means AI that can take actions in the app, not just answer questions.

In plain words: almost anything you can do by hand in Aventide, you can ask it to do. Send an invoice. Book a meeting. Turn your call notes into a proposal. Schedule a post. Ask what needs your attention today.

You stay in charge of what reaches your clients. Anything Aventide drafts for a client waits for your approval; automations you switch on run on their own, like your morning Daily Brief or a weekly Market Research report.

Why Aventide gets your details right

AI on its own fills gaps with guesses. Aventide's AI works from your records instead.

• It starts from what you've saved. Your business details, your offers and prices, your brand, and what you've noted about each client. You don't have to explain your business every time.

• The numbers come from your records. In a proposal, the price table is filled in by the software from your offer's prices or the price you set, not typed out by the AI.

• It says when something is missing. If a detail isn't saved, it's built to ask you instead of making it up.

• You see it before your client does. Every draft for a client comes to you first, so a quick read before it goes out is built in.

AI prompts for small business owners

Copy one of these, change the details in brackets, and see what comes back.

Clients

• "Draft a follow-up to [client], who hasn't replied in a week. Friendly and short."

• "Here are my notes from today's call. Turn them into a proposal." It asks which template you want and shows you an outline to check before it writes. (More on that in our guide to writing a sales proposal.)

• "Write a welcome note for [new client] about what happens next."

Money

• "Who owes me money right now?"

• "How do I send an invoice?"

Your day and your marketing

• "What needs my attention today?" (It's the question behind Aventide's Daily Brief.)

• "Write three LinkedIn posts about the [project] we just finished." It writes the words; the images come from you or a tool like Canva.

You don't need to memorize any of this

Skip the tutorials. Open Aventide, ask how something works, and then ask it to do it. That's the whole method.

We built Aventide for people starting from ground zero. If you want the why behind that, I wrote about it in Aventide is live. Here's what we said yes to.

I'm not great at some things and while AI isn't perfect, it gives me a huge leg up having prompts refined for processes I'm still learning how to do.

Leila K., Owner and Principal Consultant, Leila Consulting. G2 review, October 7, 2026. Incentivized review.