Editing Prompt Engineering Basics (section)

== The hierarchy of AI improvement ==

Before you look for a fancier tool, try a better prompt. This is the cheapest, fastest way to improve your AI output:

</code>`<code>
Most effort:  Train a custom model
              Fine-tune an existing model
              RAG (give AI access to your documents)
              Better prompts  ← start here
Least effort: Use defaults and hope for the best
</code>``

Most people are somewhere between "use defaults" and "better prompts." Moving up just one level — from vague prompts to structured, specific prompts with roles and examples — is where the biggest improvement happens.