Tell AI Who the Audience Is

In the last post, we used the same project information to create two different status updates. One was for an executive sponsor, and the other was for the project team.

The facts did not change, but the audience did.

Knowing who will use the information can help AI determine what needs explanation, what level of detail may be useful, which terminology is appropriate, and what information deserves emphasis.

But simply saying “this is for an executive” or “this is for a technical audience” may not provide enough information.

Consider two directors reviewing a data model. One may have deep modeling experience and already understand the model, its terminology, and its history. Another may have little modeling experience and need the underlying concepts explained before considering the business implications.

Both have the same job level. Both may be involved in the same decision. But an explanation appropriate for one could be unnecessarily simplified—or unnecessarily technical—for the other.

An audience is more than a job title. Their knowledge, responsibilities, authority, and concerns can all affect what makes a response useful.

When the audience matters, tell AI more than who they are. Give it enough information to understand what they already know, what they need from the response, and what they may need to do with it.

Sample Prompt

Here is a simple way to see why describing the audience matters. Start with a short piece of technical information and tell AI only the audience’s job level.

Source Material

The relationship between Customer and Account was changed from one-to-many to many-to-many. The revised model allows a customer to be associated with multiple accounts and an account to be associated with multiple customers. The change introduces an associative entity between Customer and Account.

First Prompt: Job Title Only

<prompt>
Explain the following data model change for a director.
Preserve the facts in the source material.
Do not invent reasons for the change, business benefits, or implications that are not stated.
Source material:
[Paste the Source Material above here]
</prompt>

Now Describe the Audience

Next, keep the source material exactly the same but provide more information about the audience.

Second Prompt: Knowledge and Responsibilities

<prompt>
Using the source material below, explain the change for a director with extensive data-modeling experience.
The director is already familiar with this model and understands cardinality, many-to-many relationships, and associative entities.
The director is reviewing the proposed change and needs to understand what changed in the model.
Do not explain established modeling concepts unless necessary to explain the change.
Preserve the facts in the source material.
Do not invent reasons for the change, business benefits, or implications that are not stated.
If the earlier explanation is available, briefly identify what you changed because you knew more about the audience.
Source material:
[Paste the same Source Material here]
</prompt>

When trying this example, use the same source material for both prompts. That allows you to compare how additional audience information changes the explanation without changing the underlying facts.

Why This Works

Both prompts identify the audience as a director. The second prompt, however, tells AI something more useful: what the director already knows and what the director needs from the response.

Without that information, AI has to make assumptions about the audience. It may decide that a director needs a high-level explanation and spend much of the response defining concepts such as cardinality or associative entities.

That explanation might be useful for one director and unnecessary for another.

Describing the audience gives AI a better basis for deciding what to explain, what terminology it can use, how much detail may be appropriate, and what information deserves emphasis.

Audience context can include more than technical knowledge. Depending on the task, it may help to tell AI what the audience is responsible for, what decisions they can make, what concerns they have, and what they need to do with the information.

The goal is not to tell AI everything you know about the audience. It is to provide the audience information that matters for the task.

Before You Use the Results

Describing the audience can change how AI explains information. It should not change the underlying facts.

Compare the response with the original source material. Check that important facts, terminology, relationships, qualifications, and other details remain accurate.

Also watch for statements that sound reasonable but were not supported by the source.

In our example, the source says that the relationship changed from one-to-many to many-to-many and that an associative entity was introduced.

It does not explain why the change was made or what business benefits it is expected to provide.

If AI supplies a reason or benefit, that information should not be treated as fact simply because it sounds plausible.

Audience information can help AI produce a response that is better suited to the person who will use it, but it does not make unsupported information more reliable.

You remain responsible for making sure the final explanation accurately represents the source and is appropriate for the intended audience.

Next in This Series

Define the Task and the Desired Outcome

We’ll look at how clearly defining the task and desired outcome can help AI understand what you actually want it to produce.

Return to the Practical and Responsible AI Series Index