The Most Useful AI Prompt You Probably Aren’t Using

May 28, 2025 / By Sean Bailey, Horsesmouth Editor in Chief
Print AAA
Add to My Archive
My Folder

My Notes
Save
AI for Advisors: You’ve used AI to write. But have you asked it to critique your work like a pro? It’s one of the most powerful and overlooked ways financial advisors can use AI.

AI for Advisors newsletter

Let’s talk about one of the most useful, versatile, and criminally underused AI techniques in the advisor toolkit: asking AI to critique your work.

I’m not talking about asking it to check your grammar or proofread for typos. I’m talking about using AI as an expert reviewer—your marketing director, presentation coach, or financial educator on demand.

Once you learn how to use this technique, you’ll never go back to flying solo.

Expert critic in your corner

Here’s an example from me: I was finalizing a script outline for the premiere of The AI for Advisors Show podcast (watch for it later this summer). Before wrapping up my draft, I uploaded the outline to ChatGPT and gave it a role:

“Act as a seasoned podcast producer with 10 years of experience. Critique my outline for clarity, flow, and audience engagement. Provide bullet-point suggestions for improvement. Ask me questions to get the best results.”

Thirty seconds later, it told me to cut a segment and open with a story—the one you’re reading now. The result? A sharper, more engaging episode. And a powerful reminder that one of the smartest moves you can make is giving your AI the red pen.

Let’s be clear: This isn’t a spellcheck feature. This is strategy. When you prompt AI to critique like an expert, you’re not just fixing errors—you’re improving tone, persuasiveness, structure, clarity, and emotional impact. Think of it this way: Editing fixes what’s wrong. Critique shows you what could be better—and how to get there. It’s a simple, powerful, repeatable method.

How advisors use the AI critique move

We teach this technique in both the AI-Powered Financial Advisor program and the AI Marketing for Advisors course. It’s easy to start—and the payoff is huge. Here are five real-world ways advisors are using this method:

1. Sharpening website copy

Prompt:

“Act as a marketing consultant who works with financial advisors. Critique my About page for clarity and client appeal. Suggest simplifications and better ways to connect with prospects. Please format your response as a prioritized list of concise, actionable recommendations. [Insert About page copy]”

Your About page is the second-most visited page on your website. Use AI to make sure it speaks to the clients you want and delivers the message you want them to hear. Make sure it’s not “you focused.”

2. Improving client emails

Prompt:

“Act as a client communications specialist who has worked for a financial advisor for 15 years. Review this market update email. How’s the tone? Clarity? Does it reassure? How can we make it better? Please format your response as a prioritized list of concise, actionable recommendations.”

You’ll walk away with tighter, warmer, more effective emails that clients appreciate—even forward to friends and colleagues.

3. Upgrading financial plan summaries

Prompt:

“Act as a CFP® with 25 years of experience working with families investing and saving for retirement. Critique this retirement plan summary. Is it clear? Does it align with the client’s goals? What’s missing? How can we make it stronger? Please format your response as a prioritized list of concise, actionable recommendations.”

Your clients may not tell you when your writing loses them—but AI will.

4. Boosting client education articles

Prompt:

“Act as a financial literacy educator. Review this IRA explainer. What’s confusing? What could be clearer or more engaging? Spot any jargon and make suggestions for replacing it. Please format your response as a prioritized list of concise, actionable recommendations.”

This helps turn dense material into content that educates and inspires.

5. Tightening internal memos

Prompt:

“Act as a business coach for leaders of financial advisory firms. Critique this quarterly update. How’s the message? Is the call to action clear? What improvements could we make? Please format your response as a prioritized list of concise, actionable recommendations.”

Whether you’re addressing clients or colleagues, most communication benefits from a smarter second opinion.

Be the ‘human in the loop’

AI can provide expert-sounding advice—but that doesn’t mean every suggestion is right for your voice, your audience, or your context. Think of the critique as a menu of possibilities, not a checklist. Your job is to sift, select, and shape the feedback. The human judgment you bring to the table is what ensures your final product is both smart and authentic.

The anatomy of a smart critique prompt

Every strong critique request includes four elements:

  1. Role—Give the AI a point of view (e.g., “presentation coach” or “marketing consultant”).
  2. Task—Define what you want critiqued (e.g., tone, clarity, persuasiveness).
  3. Context—Provide enough background so AI understands the goal.
  4. Format—Request a structured response that prioritizes recommendations.

Here’s a plug-and-play template:

“Act as a [ROLE] with [X] years of experience. [Add a phrase or sentence of CONTEXT] Review this [DOCUMENT TYPE] for [TASK]. Suggest ways to improve it and provide feedback in structured bullet point recommendations.”

Builds confidence, quality

The critique prompt turns AI becomes a second set of eyes with decades of experience and no ego. The advisors in our programs return to this method repeatedly because it saves time, improves output, and deepens the quality of their work. But it also builds your confidence before you hit send, publish, or present.

So next time you’re stuck on that email, unsure about a slide, or hesitant about your homepage copy, don’t just ask AI to rewrite it. Ask it to critique it.

AI for Advisors newsletter

Sean Bailey is editor in chief at Horsesmouth, where he has led editorial strategy for over 25 years. He is the co-author of Hack Proof Your Life Now! and has spent over 3,000 hours researching how AI can transform the way financial advisors work. Through his AI-Powered Financial Advisor and AI Marketing for Advisors programs, he helps advisors save time, deliver better client experiences, and market their services with unprecedented speed, quality, and confidence.

IMPORTANT NOTICE
This material is provided exclusively for use by Horsesmouth members and is subject to Horsesmouth Terms & Conditions and applicable copyright laws. Unauthorized use, reproduction or distribution of this material is a violation of federal law and punishable by civil and criminal penalty. This material is furnished “as is” without warranty of any kind. Its accuracy and completeness is not guaranteed and all warranties express or implied are hereby excluded.

© 2025 Horsesmouth, LLC. All Rights Reserved.