Lesson 3 of 5 · about 5 min
Forms plus AI
When you finish, you can design a simple form that gathers the right information and feeds it to an AI step, with a human check at the end.
Stuck? Ask the AI tutorWhy use a form
Not everyone wants to write prompts. A form asks simple questions and lets the tool do the rest. A customer fills in a form, the answers become a prompt, and an AI step drafts a reply. The person using it never sees the prompt.
Many form tools and AI products can be connected, either directly or through a simple automation service. Exact features and menus change often and depend on your plan, so check each product’s current help pages. The design thinking below stays the same.
Ask only what the AI needs
Start from the end. What do you want the AI to produce? What facts does it need? Each fact becomes a question. Use choices where possible, such as a drop-down for request type, because choices give cleaner data than free text.
A weak form asks “Tell us about your problem.” A strong form asks: “What is the order number? What went wrong (choose one)? What would you like us to do? Anything else we should know?” Clear inputs lead to clear outputs. Also do not collect more personal information than you need.
Connect the answers to the prompt
In your AI step, build a prompt with the form answers dropped into place. For example: “A customer wrote about order [order number]. The problem is [problem type]. They would like [request]. Draft a polite reply that follows our shop rules: no refund promises, ask for a photo if the item is damaged.”
Test with real-looking examples, including unusual ones: empty answers, very long answers, rude wording. A form that works on neat input but fails on messy input is not ready. Decide what happens when something is missing.
Keep a human at the end
For anything that reaches a customer, send the AI’s draft to a person first, not straight to the customer. The person reads, edits and sends. This protects your reputation and catches the strange answer before it escapes.
Worked example: a tutoring center in Manila uses a form for parents to request a trial lesson. The AI drafts a confirmation email with the child’s age group and subject. The center manager gets the draft by email, checks the time slot, and presses send. Parents get a prompt reply, and the manager keeps control.
Practice now
- Choose a small job, like replying to an inquiry. List the facts the reply needs, and turn them into five or fewer form questions.
- Write the prompt that would use those answers, then test it by hand with three different made-up sets of answers, including one with missing information.
Use any AI assistant you have. Do not paste private, client or patient information into it.
Check yourself
1. How should you decide which questions go on a form?
2. Why use choices like drop-downs where possible?
3. What should happen before an AI draft reaches a customer?
Ask the AI tutor
Ask anything about this lesson, in any language. The tutor is an AI: it can be wrong, and it never needs your personal details.
AI-drafted. Checked by an automated validator and a separate AI reviewer; a person has not read every lesson. Translations and tutor answers are AI-made. Found a mistake? Tell us. AI can be wrong. General information only, not professional advice. Not affiliated with any AI company named. Current University is not accredited.