AIPTDEst. 1995
Workshop · Half-Day Fundamentals

Prompt Engineering Fundamentals

Communication is an essential skill, whether you are working with humans or AIs. Learn the ins and outs of working with AI, from prompting to the systems that live around an AI and catapult its capabilities.


In many cases, asking the right questions is the key to getting great results, and AI is no different. Unlocking the full potential of an AI assistant means understanding the model's preferences, capabilities, and available tools. This workshop also looks at how the interfaces we use to access AI can expand what it can do while adding constraints of their own. You will learn how to ask better questions, work with these systems, and get the most out of your AI assistant.

We recommend this class if you're completely new to AI. It gives you a strong foundation for future workshops, along with practical skills you can use in your work right away. Not sure if this is the right session for you? Reach out through the form below and we'll help you find the right match!


Participants will learn to:

  • Apply the four levers of a strong prompt: clarity, context, constraints, and examples
  • Give an assistant a role and an audience, and control tone, length, and format
  • Iterate on output deliberately instead of re-rolling and hoping
  • Spot and avoid the common anti-patterns that produce generic or wrong answers
  • Build a personal prompt kit of five reusable prompts for your own recurring tasks

Topic Outline

One Session In Four Parts

Three hours · hands-on throughout

Part 01Anatomy

The Anatomy of a Great Prompt

  • Why the same model gives one person gold and another mush
  • The four levers: clarity, context, constraints, and examples
  • Telling the assistant who it is and who it is writing for
  • Live practice: transform a weak prompt into a strong one, three times
Part 02Control

Controlling the Output

  • Format control: structure, length, tone, and templates
  • Examples as steering: one-shot and few-shot prompting in plain terms
  • Breaking a big ask into steps the model can nail
  • Live practice: produce a deliverable to spec on the first response
Part 03Iteration

Iteration & Anti-Patterns

  • What to change when the output misses
  • The anti-patterns: vague asks, kitchen-sink prompts, and leading questions
  • Matching the checking effort to the stakes
  • Live practice: rescue a failing conversation without starting over
Part 04Kit

Your Personal Prompt Kit

  • Identify five recurring tasks from your real week
  • Build, test, and refine a reusable prompt for each
  • Where to keep them so you actually use them
  • Where to go next: the AIPTD pathways that build on this foundation

Upcoming Sessions

Cohort 01Live online

September 4, 2026

Schedule
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Tuition
US$295
Instructors
Josh Alpert
Cohort 02Live online

October 2, 2026

Schedule
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Tuition
US$295
Instructors
Josh Alpert
Cohort 03Live online

November 6, 2026

Schedule
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Tuition
US$295
Instructors
Josh Alpert
Cohort 04Live online

December 4, 2026

Schedule
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Tuition
US$295
Instructors
Josh Alpert
Cohort 05Live online

February 5, 2027

Schedule
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Tuition
US$295
Instructors
Josh Alpert

Programs can be customized for your organization. Delivered on-site, in-person, live-online, or asynchronously as a course library.
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