A practical guide for producers, marketers, journalists and trade professionals to get more out of AI through better prompting

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WHY THIS GUIDE EXISTS

After posting recently about my experiences with an AI agent, I received several queries from people wondering how to use AI beyond typing simple questions into ChatGPT

There are various AI Prompting courses online, at various prices. I decided to create a simple one to give away to my Devil's Advocate followers on Linkedin.

I'm no expert, so I didn't even think of writing it myself, but I know enough about prompting to have been able to ask my AI agent to do so. And then to kick it back until I thought it seemed to be reasonably OK.

There are 8 'modules' and I'm posting them daily.

I hope you find them useful.

Robert

Introduction

Most prompting advice is written by tech people for tech people. It is full of jargon, abstract examples, and techniques that assume you want to build something.

This guide is different. It is written for people who work in wine — writers, producers, brand managers, exporters, PRs, journalists — who want AI to be genuinely useful, not just impressive at conferences.

Every example in this guide reflects real wine industry workflows. No hypotheticals.

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MODULE 1: YOU ARE ALREADY DOING IT

The most important thing to understand about prompting is that you already know how to do it.

When you brief a copywriter, you do not say "write something about our wine." You say: "We need copy for our Picpoul de Pinet that positions it as the ideal summer aperitif for restaurants. Tone is relaxed and confident. Audience is UK sommeliers. 150 words maximum."

That is a prompt. The only difference is you are saying it to AI instead of a person.

The mistake most people make is treating AI like a search engine — short, keyword-based queries — and getting search-engine quality results: thin, generic, unhelpful.

The fix is simple. Talk to it like a smart colleague, not a search box.

The rule: the more context you give, the better the output. Always.

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Tomorrow: MODULE 2: THE THREE THINGS EVERY PROMPT NEEDS

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In the spirit of this prompting course, I also asked the AI to write a few words to encourage people to look at my latest - free-to-read - Substack. This - unedited - is what it came up with after 'reading' the piece.

A French estate owner told me they can buy certified organic wine from his neighbours at €1.50 a litre — cheaper than their cost of production.

Their DTC customers are happy to pay less for wine that didn't come from their own vines.

Australia's Endeavour Group just made the same calculation at scale — cutting vineyard ownership by 80%, moving to "99% flexible sourcing."

The Champenois have been saying it for years: the brand is the asset. The land is the cost.

Free piece. Worth five minutes if you own, manage, or advise a wine business.

Substack

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