The best AI prompts for truly brilliant learning

AI can be an incredible colleague for the overstretched L&D professional… as long as you know how to get the best out of it. It’s not magic, and it won’t drop all the answers you need in your lap, but with the right AI prompts… well, you might just feel a little bit like a wizard. 

If you’re new to AI or looking to up your game with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bard or any of the other generative AI tools, we’ve got you covered. Take a look at our list of the very best AI prompts to help you elevate your learning in terms of better content, better organisation, better analysis and more.

Seriously – consider this our gift to you. We’re confident these AI prompts will make the world of difference to your learning in 2025.

The best AI prompts to get information when an SME isn't available

There will be times when your SMEs, whether they’re internal or external, won’t be available. This can make it tricky to get the information you need to create your learning, whether you need an in-depth interview or just a quick update to an existing course. 

Instead of endlessly waiting for your SMEs or resorting to doing your own research, knowing the best AI prompts to get the information you need quickly will give you the tools to keep things moving. You can then use the responses generated to create a draft, which your SME can then review or use as a starting point to save time.

• "Explain [topic] in simple terms suitable for [audience type]."
  For example, “Explain GDPR in simple terms suitable for a customer service team.
• "What are the latest trends in [industry/topic] that could impact [role/team]?”
  For example, “What are the latest trends in social media that could impact the marketing team?”
• "What are common mistakes people make when learning about [topic]?"
  For example: “What are common mistakes people make when learning about account-based marketing?”
• "Provide a list of key concepts or foundational knowledge needed to understand [topic]."
  For example, “Provide a list of key concepts needed to understand cryptocurrency.”
• "What are five use cases of [technology/concept] relevant to [department/role]?"
  For example, “What are five use cases of ChatGPT relevant to HR teams?”
  
  

The best AI prompts to create learning content

Creating learning content is one of the most popular use cases for AI in L&D. With just a few small tweaks, you can take your AI-generated responses and ideas from generic to genius!

• "Create a 10-question multiple-choice quiz on [topic], with answer explanations."
  For example, “Create a 10-question multiple-choice quiz on blockchain technologies, using questions from the uploaded document, along with responses for correct and incorrect answers and answer explanations.”
• "Generate a step-by-step guide for [task or skill], with examples for [specific audience]."
  For example, “Generate a step-by-step guide for creating a PowerPoint presentation, with specific examples for software salespeople who will be using it for sales pitches.”
• "Draft a script for a 2-minute microlearning video about [topic]."
  For example, “Draft a script for a 2-minute microlearning video about handling difficult conversations for new managers.”
• "Design an outline for an elearning course on [topic], including objectives and activities."
  For example, “Design an outline for a beginner-level, 30-minute elearning course on processing customer complaints. The main objective is for new customer service employees to learn the process for escalating complaints, and activities within the course should include an interactive scenario, a quiz and a game.”
• "Write a branching scenario-based learning exercise on [topic].”
  For example, “Write a branching scenario-based exercise about how to deal with vendor bribery for employees at a large UK bank. Create the copy for all of the decisions the learner needs to make along the way, as well as a graphic showing how the decisions connect with the best path highlighted.”
  
  

The best AI prompts for organising your courses and resources

Writing metadata, course descriptions and tags isn’t the most exciting part of a learning professional’s role, but it’s absolutely crucial to help your learners find what they need. If you want to make your content easier to organise, search and browse, why not let AI do the heavy lifting for you with these AI prompts?

Some of these, such as creating keywords or search engine summaries, are especially useful if you’re creating extended enterprise learning for external audiences, or selling courses via a course catalogue or ecommerce storefront.

• "Write a concise course description for [topic] aimed at [audience]. Include learning objectives."
  For example, “Write a concise course description for a health and safety course aimed at food factory employees, focused on the main objective of learning how to safely conduct their jobs in compliance with all industry regulations.”
• "Generate search-optimised tags and keywords for a training module about [topic].”
  For example, “Generate search-optimised tags and keywords for an elearning module about empathy in the workplace.”
• "Create metadata for a [format: eBook, video, etc.] on [topic], including audience level, duration, and prerequisites."
  For example, “Create metadata for a video about basic HTML for marketers, including the fact it’s for beginners, it’s 15 minutes long and the learners will need to have completed the intro module first.”
• "Summarise this course/resource in 150 characters for use as a search result snippet."
  For example, “Create a 150-character or less summary of our active listening elearning module to appear as a Google search snippet.”
• "What are some alternative titles for a course on [topic] that sound engaging and modern?"
  For example, “Please suggest 10 alternative titles for our elearning course called ‘Design Basics’ that will engage an audience of early-career marketing professionals.”
  
  

Best AI prompts for designing learning strategies and plans

While you probably have a pretty good idea about how to design a good learning plan or strategy, it’s always worth finding out if there’s room for improvement – especially if AI can help you find those answers in minutes. 

So whether your 2025 goal is to revamp your existing learning programme or to launch something completely new, how can AI help you get it right?

• "Suggest a learning plan for upskilling [audience] in [skill/topic]. Include milestones and evaluation methods."
  For example, “Suggest a 90-day learning plan for upskilling my retail employees in cross-selling. We want to achieve 30% of all transactions including a successful cross-sell by the end of Q4 2025. Please include milestones and evaluation methods to demonstrate success.”
• "What are effective blended learning strategies for [topic/skill] in a small business environment?"
  For example, “What blended learning strategies can I use to train my oncology team about emerging AI technologies? They have around one hour to learn each week, and at least half of their training should be hands-on and in person.”
• "Create a framework for assessing the impact of a training programme on [specific business metric]."
  For example, “Create a framework for assessing the impact of our onboarding programme on employee turnover. For reference, our target is <5% employee turnover a year.”
• "Provide examples of how to integrate social learning into a training program on [topic]."
  For example, “Show me ideas for integrating social learning into a training programme about ADHD for primary school teachers.”
• "Develop a full action plan for launching a [topic] training programme to [audience] by [deadline]."
  For example, “Develop a full action plan for launching a product training programme for our new range of medical devices to healthcare sales reps by the end of Q2 2025. Also create a checklist so we can ensure we’ve done everything we need to do pre-launch.”
  
  

The best AI prompts for identifying learning trends

One of the places AI excels is spotting trends in data – very often before humans can. That’s why it’s been used extensively in industries such as healthcare (to spot and predict disease development and progression), retail (for customer behavioural analysis) and finance (to identify potential fraud or suspicious transactions), to name just a few.

The good news is that it’s just as effective for learning! Discover our pick of the best AI prompts to help you better understand your data (and what to do with it).

• "Analyse this learning data [insert data] and identify key trends or patterns. I’m particularly interested in [theme]."
  For example, “Please analyse the spreadsheet uploaded from our LMS and identify the key trends and patterns from 2024. Please focus on user growth, the most popular content formats and which courses are starting to lose learners’ attention.”
• "What does this data [insert data set] suggest about [metric or initiative] over time?"
  For example, “What does this compliance data suggest about our learner engagement strategy over time? Please pay particular attention to when we sent reminder emails to drive completion.”
• "Compare the performance of learners in [group A] vs. [group B] based on this data."
  For example, “Compare the performance of our accounting team and our HR team based on this data from our recent mental health training programme. What could be the cause of any significant differences in performance and engagement?”
• "Identify seasonal or time-based trends in learning activity from this dataset [insert data]."
  For example, “August is typically the month with our lowest learner engagement rates. Identify trends in learning activity both throughout the year and between each summer for the last three years. In particular, was learner engagement higher in August 2024 than August 2023 and 2022?”
• "Summarise the key factors influencing [metric] for these courses [insert data]."
  For example, “Summarise the key factors influencing completion rates for each region’s compliance training. What could the other regions learn from the most compliant region?”

Of course, generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are getting more powerful all the time, meaning that over time, the responses they provide will evolve and become even more advanced. Right now, though, these are some of the best AI prompts for L&D professionals, and they can all be adapted and tweaked to meet your specific needs.

The great thing about generative AI tools is that you can continue to ask for edits or ask additional questions to tailor the response to your needs (such as adding a maximum word limit, asking the tool to simplify the response or adapting the response for a less technologically savvy audience).

However you're using your generative AI tools, we hope these AI prompts have given you food for thought to get more out of them. They're incredible tools, but they're even better when you know exactly how to get what you want out of them!