Teach AI How You Work | AI Operator Resource Library | AI Growth Partners

Resource 4 · Make AI Work Better for You

Teach AI How You Work

Turn the corrections and instructions you have already given AI into working instructions it can keep using.

You finish with
A reusable set of instructions for how AI should work with you
Time
20–30 minutes
Best for
Regular GenAI users who have accumulated prior work, corrections, or saved instructions

Every time you tell AI “that is too generic,” “lead with the conclusion,” “challenge my assumption,” or “do not change that language,” you are teaching it something. The value is lost if you have to teach the same lesson repeatedly.

Before you start

  • First ask the AI what prior history, saved memory, project context, or instructions it can actually access.
  • If it cannot see enough history, use the manual fallback: provide selected prior work, saved instructions, or examples of corrections yourself.
  • Do not assume the AI can inspect your entire account history.

The exercise

  1. Mine the lessons already there

    Ask the AI to identify recurring instructions, corrections, and preferences supported by the context it can actually access.

  2. Separate task-specific from durable

    “Make this email shorter” may be one-time feedback. “Lead with the conclusion” may be a durable instruction. Keep only patterns that recur.

  3. Group the instructions

    Organize them into presentation preferences, working preferences, decision preferences, and recurring corrections.

  4. Review the evidence

    Delete anything AI inferred without support. Add exceptions where a rule is not always true.

  5. Create the standing version

    Turn the accepted patterns into a short instruction set AI can act on.

  6. Maintain it

    When you catch yourself repeating the same correction, ask whether it belongs in the standing instructions.

Copy this prompt

Paste this into your AI tool 
Review the prior history, saved instructions, memory, project context, or other material you can ACTUALLY access from our work together.

Identify recurring instructions, corrections, preferences, standards, and decision rules I have given you.

Separate them into:
1. Communication preferences - how I want information presented
2. Working preferences - how I want you to approach tasks and problems
3. Decision preferences - recurring criteria I use when evaluating choices
4. Repeated corrections - things I have redirected more than once

For each item, briefly explain the evidence you are relying on. Do not invent a preference because it sounds reasonable.

Then separate the findings into ONE-TIME CORRECTIONS and REUSABLE WORKING INSTRUCTIONS, and draft a concise reusable instruction set for me to review.

Review your result

  • Is this actually true about how you work?
  • Is it supported by repeated behavior or only one example?
  • Would following this instruction improve future work?
  • Is there an important exception?
  • Is anything too personal or sensitive to keep in standing instructions?

Operator example

Executive example

You repeatedly tell AI to give you a recommendation rather than six equal options, distinguish facts from inference, quantify economics when possible, and challenge weak assumptions. Those are not instructions for one memo. They describe how you want an AI thinking partner to work with you.

What not to do

Do not turn every preference into a permanent rule. Too many instructions can conflict, become stale, and eventually create the drift addressed in Run an AI Checkup.

Save the result

Save the approved instructions in a location you control and, where appropriate, in the standing-instruction feature of the AI tool you use.

Ready for the next step?

Most companies are using AI too small.

Employees writing faster emails is not transformation. Real AI leverage happens when capable leaders apply it to pricing, operations, planning, forecasting, execution, and decision-making. That shift produced $650,000 in measurable business value for one executive in eight months. That is the standard we build toward.

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