Stop wasting good prompts: why every team needs a shared prompt library

Organising your best AI prompts into shared libraries for finance, HR, compliance and other teams turns one-off experiments into repeatable, scalable value.

Article link: https://open.substack.com/pub/johanosteyn/p/stop-wasting-good-prompts-why-every?r=73gqa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Audio summary: https://youtu.be/ymFMRzK59ps

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I write about various issues of interest to me that I want to bring to the reader’s attention. While my main work is in Artificial Intelligence and technology, I also cover areas around politics, education, and the future of our children.

In almost every workshop I run, someone says, “I had an amazing prompt the other day, but I can’t remember it now.” It is a familiar problem: you stumble on wording that works brilliantly with Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini or another secure AI tool, and then it disappears into a forgotten chat history. Meanwhile, your colleagues are repeating the same trial-and-error process, trying to recreate prompts that already exist somewhere in the organisation.

My message to clients is simple: stop treating good prompts as accidents and start treating them as assets. Whether it is company-wide or specific to teams like finance, HR, compliance or legal, a shared prompt library can save time, improve quality and turn isolated AI experiments into a real capability.

CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND

Generative AI has moved into the mainstream of knowledge work. People are using it to summarise reports, draft emails, prepare board packs, translate policies and even analyse contracts. Yet most of this happens in an informal, fragmented way. One finance analyst has a brilliant prompt for month-end commentary, an HR manager has a great structure for performance reviews, and a compliance officer has figured out how to get concise summaries of new regulations linked to specific policies. None of this is captured in a reliable, shared place.

At the same time, AI tools are increasingly being connected to organisational data: SharePoint libraries, Google Drive folders, internal wikis and document repositories. The real power lies in combining well-crafted prompts with the right data sources. But if each person is inventing their own prompt every time they need to interrogate a folder or generate a report, most of that potential is lost. For leaders trying to build an AI-ready organisation, the missing piece is not just technology; it is a disciplined way of collecting, curating and sharing the prompts that actually work.

INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS

A prompt library is simply a structured home for the prompts that prove themselves in real work. I encourage teams to start with a very simple practice: when someone discovers a prompt that consistently delivers good results, they do not keep it to themselves. They copy it into a shared space: a document, a spreadsheet, a Teams or Google Space, or even a simple page on the intranet. Alongside the prompt, they note which tool it is for (Copilot, Gemini, or something else), which data sources it should be connected to (for example, “SharePoint finance folder FY2023–2025”), and any nuances the user needs to adjust each time (date ranges, client names, tone of voice).

Over time, this becomes more than a random list. Prompts can be grouped by function and task: “finance – month-end”, “finance – budgeting”, “HR – job descriptions”, “HR – performance reviews”, “compliance – regulation summaries”, “operations – project status updates”. Within each category, people can add comments: what worked, what did not, and how they tweaked the wording. The library becomes a living, evolving resource rather than a static document.

This approach has several benefits. It avoids the very human tendency to reinvent the wheel. It speeds up daily work because people can copy, paste and adapt proven prompts instead of starting from nothing. It also supports consistency: if your HR team uses shared prompts for internal communications, the tone and clarity of messages will be more aligned. In finance and compliance, shared prompts can help ensure that summaries, risk assessments and reports meet the same basic standard.

IMPLICATIONS

For business leaders, investing a little time in building prompt libraries can pay off in several ways. First, it is a low-cost productivity lever. You do not need a major project; you can start with one or two teams who are already experimenting with AI. Second, it accelerates onboarding. New team members do not have to learn AI by trial and error; they can draw on a curated set of prompts that reflect the organisation’s best practice.

There is also a governance dimension. A prompt library allows you to embed good habits into the prompts themselves: reminders not to paste highly confidential information, instructions to check outputs against policy, and notes about when human review is mandatory. In regulated sectors, prompts can include references to relevant legislation or internal controls. In this way, the library becomes not only a productivity tool but also a way to nudge users towards responsible AI use.

Perhaps most importantly, prompt libraries encourage a culture of sharing. Instead of a few “AI wizards” quietly hoarding their tricks, teams can learn from one another. This shifts the conversation from, “Who has the magic prompt?” to, “How do we collectively improve the way we work with these tools?” In a world where AI will increasingly sit at the centre of knowledge work, that cultural shift may be as valuable as any single piece of technology.

CLOSING TAKEAWAY

If you are already using AI tools in your work, you have the raw material for a prompt library. The prompts that made last month’s board report easier, helped you draft a difficult email, or summarised a dense piece of regulation do not have to vanish into yesterday’s chat history. Capturing those prompts, sharing them with your team, and organising them by function and task can turn individual experiments into a shared capability. It is a simple, pragmatic step that respects people’s time, improves the quality of AI-driven work, and helps your organisation build a more mature, collaborative relationship with these powerful new tools.

Author Bio: Johan Steyn is a prominent AI thought leader, speaker, and author with a deep understanding of artificial intelligence’s impact on business and society. He is passionate about ethical AI development and its role in shaping a better future. Find out more about Johan’s work at https://www.aiforbusiness.net