This article provides best practices for optimizing and creating effective prompts for Solink's Sidekick AI.
Creating effective prompts is key to receiving valuable responses from Solink's AI so that it can directly assist with your business operations.
You can even think of the AI as an additional employee - capable of understanding your questions, monitoring your cameras and returning with clear responses to help you solve problems you and your employees do not typically have time for.
Sidekick AI features currently include:
Optimize Sidekick AI
It is highly recommended to personalize Sidekick to your business needs before creating prompts.
We can personalize the AI on our end - contact your Solink Customer Success Representative and share the following information to optimize Sidekick AI to your needs:
The industry you operate in.
Your primary business objectives, such as operation profitability, mitigating health and safety violations, store cleanliness, customer service, etc.
Any special vernacular that your company uses that you would like incorporated into the AI.
Your preference for AI responses (short, long, bullet point, etc.)
This data helps us shape your AI experience to best fit your needs.
How to Write Effective Prompts
Creating an effective prompt for Sidekick AI makes a huge difference in the quality of the response you will receive.
To create an effective prompt, consider the following:
1. Persona
Imagine a "persona" related to the goal you are trying to achieve from the AI.
Think about your goal and imagine a real person who might be the best person to achieve that goal, then instruct the AI to "think" like this ideal person.
For example, if you want the AI to check your cameras for dirty tables in a restaurant, you can start your prompt with text such as the following:
"You are a busboy who relies on clean tables for serving customers."
2. Task
Be specific in what you are asking to look for - the more detail provided the better.
Provide examples to further focus in on what you're looking for. Continuing with the example in step 1, you could ask Sidekick to scan the restaurant cameras for tables that are both vacant and dirty.
You can further define or narrow down the subject of your AI prompt with specific language - for example, providing a clearer definition of the kinds of tables you want the AI to scan.
In this case, you could say:
"Note that tables always have chairs beside them. Do not include wastebins, garbage cans, etc. with clutter on top."
3. Information Structure
Consider writing the prompt as a series of steps in a sequential order.
For example, you could write:
Look at the provided image and locate all of the dining tables.
Make sure the tables are vacant.
Verify if the vacant tables have garbage or food packaging on them.
4. Response Format
Describe the way you would like Sidekick to respond to your prompt to ensure a clear and effective response. For example, you could tell Sidekick to respond in the following format:
Provide the Location name in the response.
Location, Camera, aisle cluttered = yes or no
Provide people count = number in the response.
AI responses are not always consistent, so ensure to write an effective response format to give predictability to your answers.
Prompt Example
When it is all put together, your prompt may look something like this:
"You are a busboy who relies on clean tables for serving customers. I want you to:
Look at the provided image and locate all of the dining tables.
Make sure the tables are vacant.
Verify if the vacant tables have garbage or food packaging on them.
Note that tables always have chairs beside them. Do not include wastebins, garbage cans, etc. with clutter on top.
Respond with: Table Dirty = Yes/No"