AI: Prompts v Tools – Which is better For Your Business?

June 21, 2024 AI No Comments

Which AI Route Suits Your Needs

so when it comes to using AI you have a decision to make, and it’s a choice that impacts not only the results you get, but also the time you have to invest both long term and on a daily basis, and the overall costs involved. Fortunately it’s not a decision that locks you in to just one path…

Option #1 “DIY”

– you can use the AI engine directly and ‘Do It Yourself’.
Whichever engine you use, whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Dall-E, Midjourney etc., using the engine directly means learning a new skill – “Prompt Engineering”.

This means you need to understand how to build your own prompts, and how to construct them in layers to get high quality results. The old saying ‘GIGO’ (Garbage in, Garbage out) is very applicable to LLM AI and the results you get. Understanding how to build and structure more detailed prompts is essential to get the best results.

Or you need to get hold of pre-built, high quality prompts designed to create exactly what you need, and by that I don’t mean spending a few dollars on a pack of 5,000 prompts to cover every possibility, those are VERY unlikely to give you results that you’ll actually want to use.

You need to source prompts that have been created by someone who knows what they’re doing, AND that are focused on specific results.

Option #2 “DFY”

– you can use a software app that has those prompts built in to the backend and you just pick a few settings to get the results you want, the software takes care of the ‘prompting’ for you.

The Pros & Cons:

Option #1

– doing it all yourself gives you a LOT of control, BUT there’s a BIG learning curve to understand how to build prompts properly to get high quality results.

If you have the time to spend and the inclination to learn “prompt engineering” then this will help you understand how AI works much better, and you’re more likely to get finely tuned results that fit exactly what you want.

Option #2

– using software to get it ‘done-for-you’ makes life a lot quicker & easier, you don’t need to learn how AI works or how to create prompts.
The down side is you have limited control over the quality of the prompts used and therefore the quality of the results you get.

AND you are paying for the software on top of the AI ‘fees’, some software even charge for credits to use them which can be more expensive than the AI engine itself would be charging.

Tip – look for software that lets you put your own API code in to reduce overheads.

Personally I do both, depending on what I’m trying to accomplish, but then I’m lucky enough to have the time to learn how to create prompts, as well as having a great prompt master as a partner to lean on for prompts, and a great coder who can create the software options I need long term.

Getting hold of high quality prompts that have been written for you is a great compromise, imho, as you get to see how AI works, learn from the prompts you are using, and you can then tweak them for more fine tuning and control.

But this does take more of your time to get the results, although that’s often because you can (and will) end up experimenting, and tweaking the prompts to make them fit exactly what you need and get better results that suit your requirements.

If you want the time saving option then software can be the right way to go, especially for the highly repetitive and more formulaic tasks like blog posts, tweets, social media content, video scripts, and podcasts, but make sure you get to test the software to check the results before you commit.

Here’s what I recommend if you want to go with Option 1: