You need to email a customer about a project update. You know what has been completed, what still needs approval, and what you cannot promise yet. But when you sit down to write, finding the right words takes time.
“Write an email updating my customer” seems like a reasonable request for AI. It is also missing the information that makes the email useful.
Before asking AI to draft it, give it four details:
- Goal: What should the email accomplish?
- Context: Who is reading it, and what is the situation?
- Source: Which facts should the email use?
- Expectations: What should the finished draft look like?
I call this GCSE: Goal, Context, Source, Expectations. The four details help AI write a better draft. They also help you think through what you actually want to say.
Start with the decision only you can make
An email does more than pass along information. It may ask for approval, explain a change, address a concern, or preserve a relationship. Before prompting AI, decide what matters most to the reader and what you need from them.
That is the Goal. “Write an email” is a format. “Explain our progress and ask the customer to approve the homepage text” is a purpose.
Next, provide Context. Is this a first update or one of many? Does the recipient know the project well? Are they waiting on a specific answer? These details help AI choose appropriate wording, but you know the relationship. You decide whether a draft sounds considerate, too blunt, too formal, or unlike you.
Then give AI a Source: the notes or approved information it should work from. This is where the actual facts come from. AI may arrange and explain those facts, but a confident sentence is no substitute for your records.
Finally, set Expectations. Tell AI the length, tone, and format you want. Say what it should do if information is missing. For example: “Flag missing details after the draft instead of guessing.”
See GCSE in action
Here is a short fictional situation you can try. A website’s homepage layout is complete, three new photos have been added, and the contact form has been tested. The customer still needs to approve the homepage text. There is no confirmed launch date.
The vague prompt is:
Write an email updating my customer on their website.
A more useful prompt is:
Goal: Draft an email updating the customer on progress and asking them to approve the homepage text.
Context: I manage the website project. The customer wants a brief, friendly, professional update.
Source: The homepage layout is complete, three new photos have been added, and the contact form has been tested. The customer still needs to approve the homepage text. There is no confirmed launch date.
Expectations: Include a subject line, keep it under 150 words, make the approval request clear, and do not invent a launch date. Flag anything essential that is missing.
The second prompt gives AI enough to produce a focused draft. It can distinguish completed work from the customer’s next step, and it has been told where its knowledge stops.
A useful draft is not a finished decision
Suppose the resulting email says the contact form has been tested. You need to know whether that test actually succeeded. Suppose it asks for approval of the homepage text. You need to decide whether this customer is the right person to approve it and whether they have the latest version.
You also decide what the message feels like to receive. If the customer has been waiting longer than expected, a cheerful “everything is moving along” may sound evasive even if the sentence is technically true. AI does not know the history of that relationship unless you tell it, and it cannot take responsibility for the effect of the message.
Before sending, make three human checks:
- Facts: Does every claim match the latest information?
- Judgment: Is the request appropriate, and have I avoided promises I cannot make?
- Voice: Does this sound like me speaking to this person?
Then edit the draft. Change a sentence that feels off. Add a detail the reader genuinely needs. Remove wording you would never use. If the email concerns something sensitive or disappointing, take particular care with its tone.
The point of GCSE is not to hand your communication over to AI. It is to give AI enough direction to help with the writing while keeping the purpose, facts, and final judgment in human hands.
The next time you need an email, start by answering four questions: What am I trying to accomplish? Who am I writing to? What do I know? What should the draft be like? Then review the result as the person whose name will be on it.
For a fuller review before sending, read Before You Hit Send: Five Human Checks for an AI Draft.