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Issue #71: The Prompt Advantage for Growing Your Business

Author

Sam Woods
July 21, 2025

Good morning.

Here's why your AI outputs suck while your competitor's AI seems almost magical:

They're not using better AI models.

They're using what looks like better prompts.

But in reality, they’re simply thinking better, different, and improving on their mental structures.

Three recent research papers from Microsoft, Google, and a consortium of AI labs that fundamentally change how businesses extract value from AI.

These will separate businesses getting transformative results from those getting expensive mediocrity.

The most powerful techniques are counterintuitive. What everyone thinks matters most in prompting doesn't. What actually drives results will surprise you.

More importantly, these advances are about to become automated.

The prompt engineering moat that some businesses spent years building? It's evaporating.

Most businesses aren’t doing this yet. They're still treating AI like a magic 8-ball: ask a question, hoping for a good answer.

They have no framework, no system, no strategy.

Today, I'm giving you all three.

Let's get into it.

— Sam

IN TODAY’S ISSUE 🤖 

  • The Prompt Performance Gap - Why identical AI models produce wildly different results.

  • The Standardization Revolution - How 58 proven techniques create predictable excellence.

  • The Automation Breakthrough - Turn months of manual work into minutes.

  • The Example Paradox - Why showing beats telling.

  • Your Implementation Playbook - Specific strategies for each business model.

Let’s get into it.

(This is a shorter version of the full issue, available to free subscribers and on the web. If you’re a Cortex subscriber, you get the full issue below—if you’re reading on the web, make sure you’re logged in. Cortex opens up once a month at the end of the month).

The AI Tool Stack That's Eating Business Functions

The metric that determines business survival isn't growth rate anymore. 

The Prompt Performance Gap

Two marketing agencies. Same AI model. Same task: write product descriptions.

  • Agency A: Generic output. Conversion rate: 0.8%.

  • Agency B: Compelling copy that converts. Rate: 4.2%.

Same AI. 5x performance difference. The only variable? Their prompts.

This gap is costing businesses thousands monthly in lost productivity and missed opportunities. The issue isn't the AI—it's how you're prompting it.

The Three Levels of Prompt Maturity

Level 1: Wishful Thinkers

  • Random prompting, wildly varying results

  • ROI: Negative to break-even

Level 2: Template Followers

  • Basic consistency, decent results

  • ROI: 2-3x

Level 3: Systematic Optimizers

  • Structured frameworks, predictable excellence

  • ROI: 10-50x

Most businesses are stuck at Level 1. Here's how to climb higher.

The Standardization Revolution

Researchers from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Stanford just published the first comprehensive prompt taxonomy. Out of hundreds of techniques, only 58 proved consistently effective.

The six master categories:

  1. Zero-shot: Results without examples

  2. Few-shot: Learning from examples

  3. Thought Generation: Step-by-step reasoning

  4. Decomposition: Breaking complex tasks down

  5. Ensembling: Combining approaches

  6. Self-Criticism: AI improving its own outputs

Quick Example: Thought Generation

Before: "Write a welcome email for new SaaS customers."
Result: Generic, forgettable.

After: "Think step-by-step about what a new SaaS customer needs:

  1. What anxieties do they have after purchasing?

  2. What quick win would build confidence?

  3. What mistake do most new users make?

Now write a welcome email addressing these points."
Result: Psychologically sophisticated email that improves activation.

The Automation Breakthrough

Microsoft Research's PromptWizard makes prompt optimization autonomous:

  • Manual optimization: 2-6 months

  • PromptWizard: 15-30 minutes

  • Often exceeds human-optimized performance

One education client improved course description conversion by 76% while reducing costs by 90%.

The Example Paradox

Google's breakthrough finding: Examples matter more than instructions.

  • Perfect instructions, no examples = Mediocre results

  • Mediocre instructions, good examples = Excellent results

Why? An example encodes hundreds of implicit rules that would take pages to explain.

Key Strategies:

  • 5 diverse examples beat 20 similar ones

  • Recent examples capture current language

  • One excellent example beats ten mediocre ones

The businesses winning with AI aren't using better models, they're using better prompts (not more complicated, not silly “mega prompts”, but better thinking).. 

The standardization and automation breakthroughs mean you can now systematically build this advantage.

If you’re a Cortex subscriber, the full, expanded issue is below.

If you’re NOT a Cortex subscriber, this is the free subscriber edition of Bionic Business. Paying Cortex subscribers receive:

  • Complete implementation advice for your business type

  • Advanced optimization techniques and case studies

  • Full regular issues (3-4x per month)

  • 1x Signals issue (strategic use of AI)

  • 1x Circuits issue (tactical use of AI).

Cortex opens once a month, and is now open for a few days.

Join today and get the full issue:

The gap between businesses that thrive with AI and those that struggle is about their implementation of intelligence.

The research is clear. The tools are available. The frameworks are proven.

The only question is whether you'll implement them before your competitors do.

Start with one prompt. Apply one technique. Test one optimization. The compound effect of systematic improvement will transform how AI works in your business.

Your competitors are using the same AI models you are.

But with these prompt advances, you can make those models work 10x better for you.

If you’re a Cortex subscriber, you have the full unedited issue above.

If you’re NOT a Cortex subscriber, this is the free subscriber edition of Bionic Business. 

Paying subscribers receive, every month:

  • Complete implementation advice for your business type

  • Advanced techniques and case studies

  • Full regular issues (3-4x per month)

  • 1x Signals issue (strategic use of AI)

  • 1x Circuits issue (tactical use of AI).

Cortex opens once a month, and is now open for a few days.

Join today and get the full issue:

(After you’ve signed up, make sure you log in to your account to view the issue).

Until next time,
Sam Woods
The Editor