The single most important skill for getting value from an AI is prompt engineering. For an executive, the most effective way to think about this is as an act of delegation. You wouldn't tell a junior analyst to "look at the numbers"; you would give them a specific task. You should treat the AI with the same clarity.

A powerful prompt contains four key elements:

1. Role: Who should the AI be?
2. Task: What should the AI do?
3. Context: What information does the AI need?
4. Format: How should the AI present the output?

The Executive Prompting Template

You can use this simple template for almost any task:

"Act as a [Role]. Your task is to [Task]. Use the following context: [Context]. Provide the output as a [Format]."

Examples in Practice

Scenario 1: Evaluating a Capital Expenditure Proposal

• Role: Skeptical Chief Financial Officer
• Task: Review the attached proposal for a new factory machine and identify the top three financial risks or unstated assumptions.
• Context: [Paste the text of the proposal]
• Format: Bulleted list with a brief explanation for each risk.

Scenario 2: Preparing for a Union Negotiation

• Role: Expert labor negotiation coach
• Task: I need to negotiate a new contract with our primary labor union. My goal is a 2% wage increase cap. What are the top three arguments they are likely to make against this, and what is my strongest counter-argument for each?
• Context: Our current contract expires in two months. Inflation is running at 3.5%.
• Format: A simple Q&A format.

By framing your prompts as clear delegations, you transform the AI from a generic chatbot into a specialized, on-demand consultant. This becomes even more powerful when using an enterprise tool like Microsoft Copilot, which can securely access internal documents to fulfill your requests without you needing to copy and paste the context.