Prompt Engineering for PR Pros
By Karan Saraf
Prompt engineering is no longer optional for communicators. It’s a strategic writing skill, one that’s quietly reshaping how we create, collaborate and communicate.
In the world of PR and corporate communications, where every word counts and every second matters, knowing how to guide AI tools like ChatGPT isn’t just a “nice to have” anymore. It is an essential workflow.
The purpose of this article is to help PR and comms professionals, and the businesses they support, make sense of prompt engineering and how it can improve how we use AI in real-world communications.
Because it saves time. And time, as we all already know, is money.
I recently attended OpenAI’s “Prompting with Purpose” event through their Academy, and it gave me a new perspective on how prompting works in real-life writing and content workflows, and applied it to my PR and comms specific workflows.
What stuck with me? Good prompts don’t just save time, but they also sharpen your ideas.
They especially help in repetitive tasks.
Imagine how much time you could free up for the greater good like brainstorming, critical thinking, or helping save money for your organization or for yourself if you work independently.
Prompting can turn vague briefs into structured outputs. And it helps you sound like you and not like a robot.
But the catch is that it only works if you prompt right.
And that’s easier than you think.
What Is a Prompt (and Why Should You Care)?
According to an OpenAI instructor, prompt engineering is about refining how you communicate with AI to get the most useful response.
A prompt is simply an instruction you give to an AI tool. It can be as basic as:
“Write a caption for Instagram about coffee.”
Or as complex as:
“Act as a social media manager for a sustainability non-profit. Write three Instagram captions in a hopeful tone about how small lifestyle changes can reduce plastic use.”
Do you see the difference?
The first gets you something generic, but the second gives context, tone, purpose and audience.
That is where the magic happens.
If you work in PR, brand strategy, digital content, or corporate comms, the quality of your prompt can make or break your output.
It’s like a creative brief which is just shorter and more literal.
Structuring Prompts Like a Pro
According to the instructor at OpenAI’s “Mastering Prompts” session, a two-part approach makes a big difference in getting clear and useful results:
- Context — Who are you, and what’s the situation?
- Expectations — What do you want the AI to produce? In what tone? For which audience?
This structure helps you cut through ambiguity.
Funny enough, I was recently at a Cision event and one of the panelists said, “Garbage in = Garbage out.”
I think there’s no better way to put it. That line is going to stay in my mind rent-free.
Let me give you an example that shows how structured prompting changes everything:
Basic prompt:
“Write a media pitch about our new app.”
Now compare that with a refined version:
“You are a PR manager at a fintech startup. Write a 150-word email pitch to a tech reporter at the Globe and Mail about our new budgeting app for Gen Z. Keep the tone informative but casual.”
See how much clearer that is?
Where Prompting Actually Helps
Here are real ways I’ve used prompting to improve my work:
- Press releases: I use prompting to break writer’s block and get a structured AI draft based on the best practices for writing a solid press release. These are things we discussed in our Foundational PR class at University of Toronto, and it genuinely helps me communicate better.
- Social media calendars: I ask the AI to list major national holidays and celebrations to generate 10 content ideas for my page 2xToronto — all while staying on brand.
- Internal comms: I feed in a rough draft of a leadership message and ask AI to help with grammar and mechanics, keeping the tone empathetic and human.
- Media pitches: I have created custom projects using AI to tailor pitches for different journalists and outlets over time. I work on the core content, and AI helps me turn that into a clean, on-target message.
Did I lose my voice in the process? No.
The message I want to send is accurate and crisp because I follow a well-designed template.
I would also suggest updating those templates regularly to meet the moment and reflect what’s relevant.
Good prompting doesn’t replace your voice, in fact it gives you a strong first draft, faster.
If you use it as a drafting tool (not an authoring tool), you stay in control.
You should be able to guide it and not the other way around.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Being too vague (e.g., “Write a good caption” — remember? Garbage in = Garbage out)
- Forgetting to specify tone or audience
- Not reviewing or editing the AI’s output (you still need to humanize it)
- Overloading the prompt with seven tasks at once
Start small, iterate, and learn what works. Prompting is a skill like any other.
Tools and Resources I Recommend
- OpenAI Academy — Especially their courses on prompt engineering, all levels
- ChatGPT Custom Instructions — Fill these in to personalize your assistant
- OpenAI’s Prompt Examples — Save and reuse prompts that work well for you
- PEARL method — Persona, Example, Audience, Role, Language (a helpful mental model)
Final Thought: AI Is a Tool — Not a Voice
AI is changing how we fast communicate. But tools are only as good as the inputs we give them.
If we want to stay sharp, efficient, and actually sound like ourselves online, we need to treat prompting as a writing skill and not a shortcut.
So no, it is not just for coders.
It’s for anyone who writes.
Especially our industry — PR and comms.
A Note on Ethical Use and Human Intent
This article was created with the help of AI, but the thoughts, structure, wordings and research are fully mine.
Through practice, and a lot of trial and error, I have learned how to use AI not as a shortcut, but as a thinking partner. I use it to help shape ideas, test angles, and speed up the drafting process.
But the voice, strategy, and intention always come from me.
Like I mentioned earlier, a good prompt sharpens your thinking.
Over time, I have figured out how to write better prompts that pull out better drafts — drafts that still sound like me.
AI helps with flow and speed, but it doesn’t replace human judgment or creative intent.
Being open about how we use these tools matters.
Ethical use of AI shows credibility, not laziness.
And it can also help us build trust with clients, colleagues, and audiences because you’re not pretending. You’re just being honest about the process.
I recently came across a video that made an interesting point (I still trying to find it, and I will tag it here once I do).
It imagined a future where purely human-created intellectual property becomes rare, and maybe even premium.
The analogy?
Just like organic food today costs more than the standard stuff, because of the care that goes into how it’s made. That stuck with me.
And honestly? It makes sense.
There is value in the knowing the how along with just the what.
So here is my take: In a world full of AI-generated content, it’s the intention behind the work that will stand out.
When we combine smart tools with our own thinking and stay honest about how we use them, we don’t just keep up with it. We lead.
Karan Saraf is a PR consultant at Amplify and a recent graduate of the Strategic Public Relations program at the University of Toronto. With a background in journalism and communications, he is especially interested in how AI can serve as a practical assistant for communicators while keeping human storytelling at the core.