What is Few-Shot Prompting?

Few-Shot Prompting is one of the well-known prompting techniques used to interact with artificial intelligence models.

• Prompt Type: Basic Prompting
• Definition: The AI learns a task pattern by following a few provided examples, enabling it to mimic the demonstrated format or style.
• Typical Use Case: Tasks requiring a specific format, such as translations, classifications, or structured outputs.
• Advantages: Improves accuracy over zero-shot by providing context; easy to implement with a few examples.
• Disadvantages: Requires crafting relevant examples; performance depends on example quality.
• Implementation Tips: Provide 2-3 clear, diverse examples that cover the desired output format to guide the AI effectively.
• Skill Level Required: Beginner – Requires basic understanding of how to structure examples, no advanced AI knowledge needed.

Examples:

1. “Classify: ‘I love this!’ → Positive; ‘This is terrible’ → Negative; ‘It’s okay’ → ?”
2. “Translate: ‘Hello’ → ‘Bonjour’; ‘Goodbye’ → ‘Au revoir’; ‘Thank you’ → ?”
3. “Format: ‘Product: Laptop, Price: $999’ → ‘Laptop costs $999’; ‘Product: Phone, Price: $599’ → ?”