AI Glossary
Zero-shot prompting
What is Zero-shot prompting?
Asking an AI model to perform a task without providing any examples, relying entirely on the knowledge and instruction-following ability the model acquired during training. Often works well for simple, clearly defined tasks. Contrasts with few-shot prompting, which includes 2–5 examples.
Example in practice
An executive who asks an AI to "write a concise executive summary of this report" without providing a sample is using zero-shot prompting — relying on the model's training to interpret what "executive summary" means.
Learn more
See Zero-shot prompting applied in a professional context through this free course.
Prompt Engineering for Business →