Frame your interaction with AI as if you're onboarding a new employee. Providing deep context, clear expectations, and even a mental "salary" forces you to take the task seriously, leading to vastly superior outputs compared to casual prompting.

Current LLMs are intelligent enough for many tasks but fail because they lack access to complete context—emails, Slack messages, past data. The next step is building products that ingest this real-world context, making it available for the model to act upon.

People struggle with AI prompts because the model lacks background on their goals and progress. The solution is 'Context Engineering': creating an environment where the AI continuously accumulates user-specific information, materials, and intent, reducing the need for constant prompt tweaking.

For those without a technical background, the path to AI proficiency isn't coding but conversation. By treating models like a mentor, advisor, or strategic partner and experimenting with personal use cases, users can quickly develop an intuitive understanding of prompting and AI capabilities.

The key skill for using AI isn't just prompting, but "context engineering": framing a problem with enough context to be solvable. Shopify's CEO found that mastering this skill made him a better communicator with his team, revealing how much is left unsaid in typical instructions.

Users get frustrated when AI doesn't meet expectations. The correct mental model is to treat AI as a junior teammate requiring explicit instructions, defined tools, and context provided incrementally. This approach, which Claude Skills facilitate, prevents overwhelm and leads to better outcomes.

To get the best results from AI, treat it like a virtual assistant you can have a dialogue with. Instead of focusing on the perfect single prompt, provide rich context about your goals and then engage in a back-and-forth conversation. This collaborative approach yields more nuanced and useful outputs.

The best agentic UX isn't a generic chat overlay. Instead, identify where users struggle with complex inputs like formulas or code. Replace these friction points with a native, natural language interface that directly integrates the AI into the core product workflow, making it feel seamless and powerful.

AI development has evolved to where models can be directed using human-like language. Instead of complex prompt engineering or fine-tuning, developers can provide instructions, documentation, and context in plain English to guide the AI's behavior, democratizing access to sophisticated outcomes.