You’re faced with a blank page and a deadline, and you think “AI can help!” A prompt later, voila! Aggressively mediocre content.
Most of us still treat AI like a Magic 8 Ball: shake it, ask a vague question, hope for the best. But AI? Terrible guesser. Vague prompt = vague results.
Prompt engineering, the actual art (and science) of talking to GenAI properly, has real, measurable levels that separate quick one-off requests from getting AI to match your brand voice, generate three campaign variations and more.
There’s nothing wrong with being at Level 1. But it’s imperative you structure your prompts in a way that bridges the gap between what you write and what you expect the AI to produce. By the end of this article, you’ll learn how to do that.
Level 1: The Zero-Shot Beginner
You type a one-line prompt: “write me a blog post,” “generate an image of a cat.” The results are generic at best, completely off the mark at worst, or occasionally just made up entirely.
In technical terms, you’re doing what’s called a “zero-shot prompt”, giving simple instructions without any examples or context. The AI equivalent of asking someone to bake you a cake without telling them what kind, how big or who it’s for.
It works for: Quick ideation when you truly have zero direction or context. This type of prompt generates ideas when you’re stuck and just need something to react to.
The gap? You want something intentionally created, even campaign-ready. You get AI-flavored vanilla, sometimes irrelevant, other times strange.
Level 2: The Specific Requester
You type prompts like, “Write a 500-word blog post about sustainable fashion for millennials in a casual tone.” You’re specifying length, topic, audience, even tone. This is still zero-shot prompting (no examples are provided), just better scoped instructions.
It works for: First drafts, brainstorming, beating blank page syndrome. This is where AI becomes genuinely useful for day-to-day creative work.
The gap? You want something that sounds like your brand’s cheeky, friendly voice? You get something that sounds like a TED talk. You asked for “millennials” and it gave you “eco-conscious consumers seeking sustainable alternatives in an increasingly complex marketplace.” Close, but nobody actually talks like that.
Level 3: The Context Provider
You stop treating AI like a content vending machine and start treating it like a junior creative who needs a proper brief. You’re giving context, examples, constraints and explaining what you don’t want.
“Write a product description for our organic coffee brand. We’re playful but not quirky, we care about sustainability without being preachy, and we never use the words ‘artisan’ or ‘craft.’ Our voice is more like your funny friend who happens to know a lot about coffee, not someone lecturing you at a farmer’s market. Here are three descriptions we love from competitors: [paste examples]. Now write one for our new Colombian blend.”
This is few-shot prompting (you’re providing examples), with role-based and contextual elements layered in. You’re having a conversation, not lobbing requests into the void. Whether text or images, you get an iteration and build on it: “Make it less formal,” “Add more detail,” “Remove the weird sixth finger.”
It’s good for: Actual usable content that needs minimal editing (though you’ll still need to fact-check specifics). Think: unique campaign concepts or social media assets that capture your brand voice.
Level 4: The System Designer
You’re building systems using instructional prompts with specific commands (“analyze this brief and extract three key themes”), role-based prompts (“you are a brand strategist specializing in DTC beauty”) and chaining them together into workflows.
You’re also getting meta: having AI help you write better prompts for future or repetitive tasks, creating templates, documenting what works so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel at 3 pm on a Friday.
It’s good for: Consistent output at scale. This could look like 50 product descriptions that all feel cohesive or building repeatable processes that anyone on your team can use.
Level 5: The Problem Formulator
This is the “philosophical” level where you’re not just focused on crafting the perfect textual input. You’re defining the problem itself by delineating its focus, scope and boundaries.
You’re using AI to challenge your assumptions. Having it role-play as your harshest critic or your target audience. Asking it to identify gaps. Using it to generate constraints that elevate your work (“give me five creative limitations that would make this campaign more memorable”).
You understand that as AI gets better at understanding our intentions, the real skill is knowing what problem you’re actually trying to solve.
It’s good for: Breaking through creative blocks. Getting genuinely surprising ideas. Building prompting systems that non-technical team members can use to do sophisticated work. Identifying blind spots in your thinking before you waste time executing the wrong solution.
Reality check: At this level, you’re deeply aware of AI’s limitations. It can hallucinate facts that sound perfectly plausible. It can perpetuate biases. You verify everything and use AI as a thinking partner, not a replacement for judgment.
So Where Are You?
Most of us are probably hanging out somewhere between Level 2 and 3. And that’s okay! The goal isn’t to be at Level 5 for every single task.
What you need is to match your prompting level to your output expectations. Quick brainstorm? Level 1 or 2 is perfect. Brand-ready copy? Better bring your Level 3 game. Content engine? Time to invest in Level 4 systems. Questioning whether you’re even solving the right problem? Level 5 awaits.
Prompting well just means communicating well. Teaching a robot to write like your brand requires you to understand what your brand actually sounds like. The gap closes when you get clear on what you actually want, and that clarity is valuable whether you’re talking to AI or your creative team.
Ready for AI that actually delivers? Cella’s custom AI Bootcamp turns creative and marketing teams into faster, more confident, brand-ready AI users. Contact Cella by Randstad Digital today.
