How to Use ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini: A Beginner's Guide

September 28, 2026 · Kova Core

In short: an AI assistant is only as good as what you give it. Tell it who you are, what you want, what it's for and what the answer should look like — then keep the conversation going instead of starting over. And always double-check facts that matter.

First: which AI should you use?

All the major assistants are capable general helpers, and all have a free version.

Here's the secret: the difference between the top assistants is much smaller than the difference between a vague prompt and a clear one. Pick one and learn to use it well.

The 5-part prompt formula

Good prompts usually include these five things:

1. Context — who you are, or who the AI should act as. "I run a small café in Singapore…"
2. Task — exactly what you want. "Write a reply to this customer complaint…"
3. Details — tone, length, what to include or avoid. "Polite, under 120 words, offer a free drink."
4. Example — if you want a certain style, show one. "Here's a reply I liked: …"
5. Format — how the answer should look. "Give me three versions as bullet points."

Before and after

• Weak: "write an email about the meeting"
• Strong: "Write a short email to my team of 8 moving Friday's 3pm project meeting to Monday 10am, because the client call was rescheduled. Friendly but professional, under 100 words, with a clear subject line."

The strong version takes 20 seconds longer to type — and saves five minutes of editing.

7 habits that make a big difference

1. Paste the real material. Summaries, replies and edits are far better when you paste the actual email, report or error message instead of describing it.
2. Let it ask you questions. End your prompt with "Before you start, ask me any questions you need." It will often spot things you forgot.
3. Refine, don't restart. If an answer is 70% right, say what to change: "Shorter, less formal, and put the price in the first line." The chat remembers the context.
4. Ask for options. "Give me 5 subject lines" beats asking for one and hoping.
5. Break big jobs into steps. Ask for an outline first, agree on it, then write one section at a time.
6. Ask it to check itself. "Review your answer for mistakes or anything you're unsure about." Newer "reasoning" models are especially good at this.
7. Name your audience. "Explain like I'm 12", "for a busy manager", or "in simple Chinese for my parents."

Great everyday uses

• Writing: emails, cover letters, social posts, polite ways to say no.
• Learning: "Explain how compound interest works with a simple example."
• Planning: travel itineraries, meal plans, study timetables.
• Work: summarising long documents, turning notes into slides or reports.
• Spreadsheets and code: Excel formulas, fixing error messages, small scripts. Tidy messy data first with our JSON Formatter or CSV to JSON converter.
• Languages: translating, and checking whether your own translation sounds natural.

What AI is bad at — and how to protect yourself

• Made-up facts. AI can invent statistics, quotes, laws and sources. For health, money, legal or news questions, verify with an official source. If you ask for sources, actually open them.
• Recent events. Unless the assistant is searching the web, it may not know what happened recently.
• Numbers that matter. Reasoning models are much better at maths now, but double-check important totals — our Percentage Calculator and Loan Calculator are quick ways to confirm.
• Your personal situation. It doesn't know everything about you. Treat medical, legal and financial answers as a starting point for a conversation with a professional.

Privacy: what not to paste

Treat a chatbot like an email to a company you don't know well:

• Never paste passwords, one-time codes (OTPs), NRIC numbers or bank details.
• Don't paste other people's personal information.
• Check your employer's rules before pasting company documents.
• Look in the privacy settings — many assistants let you stop your chats being used for training.
• For sensitive documents, consider running AI on your own computer instead: see How to Run AI on Your Own Computer.

Copy-and-paste starter prompts

• "Summarise this in 5 bullet points, then list any action items for me: [paste text]"
• "Rewrite this to sound friendlier and more confident. Keep it under 150 words: [paste text]"
• "I want to learn [topic]. Make me a 2-week plan with 30 minutes a day, and quiz me at the end of each day."
• "Here's my situation: [describe]. What questions should I be asking that I haven't thought of?"
• "Act as a tough interviewer for a [job] role. Ask me one question at a time and give feedback on each answer."

Want to understand how these assistants got so capable? Read The Generations of AI Explained.