demystifying AI for finance teams: is prompt engineering just clear communication?

"Prompt engineering" sounds intimidating - like a task reserved for developers coding in dark rooms. But for finance professionals, the term is misleading.

Here is the reality: prompt engineering is simply structured thinking and clear communication.

If you have ever written a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), reviewed a variance report, or trained a junior analyst, you already possess the core skills required. You don't need to learn Python to unlock the value of AI; you just need to apply the logic you use every day during month-end close. This article will show you how to bridge the gap and turn AI into the most efficient assistant you have ever had.

why prompt engineering sounds scarier than it is.

There is a misconception floating around boardrooms and shared service centres that to use generative AI effectively, you need a technical background. This couldn't be further from the truth.

The reality is that AI models like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot don't speak code; they speak language. But they speak it rather literally.

finance professionals already think like engineers.

Think about how you operate. You live in a world of debits and credits, where everything must balance. You work with IFRS standards where definitions are precise. You build Excel models where one wrong reference breaks the sheet.

Finance professionals are trained to be specific, logical, and process-oriented. These are the exact traits required for excellent prompt engineering. The struggle for most non-finance people using AI is that they are too vague. You, however, understand the value of precision.

the overlap between SOPs and prompts.

Consider an SOP for a bank reconciliation. You wouldn't just write "Check the bank." You would write: "Download the statement from Lloyd's, match transactions against the ERP ledger for the period 01/04 to 30/04, and flag any discrepancies over £50."

That SOP is, essentially, a perfect prompt. You are already doing the work; you just need to direct it at a new tool.

it's not code - it's logic you already know.

We are seeing a shift in the market. AI is moving from a "black box" technology to an everyday finance tool, much like how Excel replaced the ledger book.

According to recent industry insights, the ability to communicate with AI is becoming a top 1% skill - not because it's hard to learn, but because few realise they already have the foundation. Writing software code requires learning a new syntax. Writing prompts requires applying your existing procedural thinking to a digital interface.

By treating AI as a logic engine rather than a magic wand, you can blend your procedural knowledge with the speed of automation. It is about taking the "what" and "how" from your head and structuring it so the machine produces the "result."

what is the “garbage in, garbage out” golden rule in finance AI?

In financial modelling, if your inputs are flawed, your forecast is useless. The same rule applies to AI. The "Garbage In, Garbage Out" principle is the single biggest reason finance teams fail to see value in their initial AI experiments.

why vague prompts fail.

If you ask an AI, "Analyse this data," you are setting yourself up for failure. The AI doesn't know if you are a CFO looking for strategic risks, or an auditor looking for compliance failures. It will guess, and it will likely give you a generic, surface-level summary that provides zero value.

how to fix this: the "junior analyst" mental model.

To fix this, treat the AI like a bright but inexperienced intern. You would never hand a raw dataset to an intern and simply say "analyse." You would tell them:

• What the data is (e.g., Q3 expense reports).
• What you are looking for (e.g., anomalies in travel spend).
• How to present it (e.g., a table comparing actuals vs budget).

You need to be specific about outcomes, assumptions, and format.

the context sandwich - a simple prompt framework.

To make this actionable, let's use a framework tailored for F&A professionals: The Context Sandwich. It ensures you never send a "naked" prompt that leads to poor results.

the 3 elements of an effective prompt.

1. The role (top bun): tell the AI who it is.
   • Example: "Act as a Senior FP&A Manager for a UK-based manufacturing firm."
2. The task (the meat): the specific instruction.
   • Example: "Review these variance comments and summarise the top 3 drivers of cost overruns."
3. The constraint (bottom bun): limits and format.
   • Example: "Keep the summary under 200 words. Format as a bulleted list. Prioritise recurring issues."

why this works for finance.

When you sandwich your request with a role and a constraint, you force the AI to adopt a specific professional tone. This is critical. If you don't specify the context, the AI might insert international terminologies (like "checking account" instead of "current account").

By adding constraints, you reduce the risk of "hallucinations" (where the AI invents facts) because you have narrowed the playing field. You get a decision-ready output, not a rambling essay.

how to turn SOPs into AI superpowers.

You can start automating tomorrow by mapping your existing procedures to prompts.

• Reconciliations: instead of manually matching descriptions, paste your dataset and use a prompt: "Act as a controller. Compare List A and List B. Identify entries in List A that do not appear in List B based on invoice number. Output the discrepancies in a table."
• Anomaly detection: "Act as an internal auditor. Review this list of vendor payments. Flag any duplicate amounts paid to different vendor names, or payments made on weekends. Reference UK banking holiday logic."

McKinsey reports that generative AI can automate up to 70% of business activities—but in finance, the real win is time savings on the first draft. If AI can get you to 80% accuracy in seconds, your expertise is only needed for the final 20% validation.

modern finance and accounting skills: prompt engineering as core competency.

The finance professionals who will thrive in the next decade are not those who can do the best manual calculations, but those who can orchestrate AI to do them.

Prompt engineering amplifies your core skills. It doesn't replace your knowledge of UK GAAP or your judgment on a provision; it simply runs the calculation or drafts the disclosure note for you to review.

Imagine a workflow where AI flags outliers in a ledger, and you validate them. The human is still in the loop, verifying 95% accuracy, but the manual grunt work is gone. That is the definition of a modern finance career.

conclusion.

Prompt engineering isn’t a technical skill; it’s a communication skill you already possess. It is simply structured thinking disguised as technology. By applying context and clarity, just as you would when briefing a junior analyst, you can unlock AI’s potential without writing a single line of code.

Ready to future-proof your finance career? Treat AI like a new team member: brief it well, review the work, and refine your approach.

FAQs.