20 practical guides

AI Literacy and Prompting Guides

Learn how generative AI produces output, how to write useful instructions, and how to build evidence, review, privacy, and cost controls around real tasks.

Why this topic

Built for people using generative AI in school, work, and personal projects who need concrete methods rather than prompt tricks.

01
AI literacy fundamentals

How language models write

Understand tokens, next-token prediction, context, and sampling so you can interpret what an AI response can and cannot establish.

02
Practical prompting

Four-part prompt structure

Write prompts with enough background, a precise task, useful boundaries, and an output shape that supports the next action.

03
Prompt design choices

Zero-shot and few-shot prompts

Choose between direct instructions and worked examples by testing ambiguity, edge cases, consistency, and the cost of a longer prompt.

04
Repeatable AI workflows

Reusable prompt templates

Turn a successful one-off prompt into a documented template with named inputs, safeguards, tests, and clear ownership.

05
Structured AI output

Reliable AI JSON

Define a narrow schema, request constrained output, validate every response, and recover safely when fields are missing or invalid.

06
AI accuracy workflow

Find AI hallucinations

Break AI output into checkable claims, compare each claim with authoritative evidence, and correct the record without preserving invented details.

07
Source verification

Check AI citations

Verify that every AI-provided source is real, authoritative, current, and directly supports the claim attached to it.

08
Long-context workflows

Manage long AI context

Organize large inputs, retrieve relevant passages, control instruction placement, and test whether the model can find what matters.

09
Document summarization

Summarize long documents

Choose a summary purpose, preserve important qualifications, link statements to source locations, and audit omissions before sharing.

10
Document data extraction

Extract document data

Define fields, retain evidence coordinates, validate values and tables, and send ambiguous documents to a human review queue.

11
Document comparison

Compare documents with AI

Align sections, classify meaningful changes, quote both versions, and verify high-impact differences before acting on them.

12
Visual AI analysis

Analyze images with AI

Prepare visual inputs, ask bounded questions, preserve location evidence, and verify text, counts, and high-impact interpretations.

13
Image prompt craft

Better image prompts

Describe subject, composition, environment, visual treatment, and constraints, then revise one visible problem at a time.

14
Model selection

Choose an AI model

Translate work requirements into capability, quality, latency, cost, privacy, and operational tests before selecting a model.

15
AI cost management

Control AI token cost

Measure input and output tokens, remove waste, cap responses, route tasks, and evaluate cost per accepted result instead of per request.

16
AI quality evaluation

AI evaluation rubrics

Convert a task definition into observable criteria, severity levels, examples, reviewer guidance, and a repeatable test set.

17
AI data protection

Protect sensitive AI data

Classify data, minimize inputs, verify provider terms and settings, control access, and handle logs and outputs as sensitive records.

18
Evidence-aware AI use

Brainstorm, then verify

Use AI freely for options, then switch modes, define claims, gather independent evidence, and approve facts through a separate review.

19
AI governance at work

Workplace AI policy

Define approved uses, prohibited data and actions, review duties, incident reporting, ownership, and a practical update process.

20
Human oversight design

Human review for AI

Place accountable reviewers at meaningful decision points with evidence, authority, time, criteria, and a clear escalation path.

Demand and scope reference: NIST AI Risk Management Framework. NIST framework for governing, mapping, measuring, and managing AI risk.