- While those at the bottom of the corporate ladder—Gen Z—are being pummeled by AI, CEOs are embracing the technology. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella now says GPT-5 on Copilot has become part of his “everyday workflow” and has brought a new layer of intelligence to his productivity. In a LinkedIn post, the Gen Xer revealed his top five prompts that are helping drive success at the $3.7 trillion tech giant.
As AI guts the need for Gen Z’s entry-level jobs, workers are racing against time to stay ahead of the curve and not be next on the chopping block.
But these fears aren’t just among mid-level management, they’re extending all the way to the C-suite: In fact, over three-fourths of all U.S. CEOs are afraid of losing their jobs, according to a survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Dataiku earlier this year.
Just as the advice for young people who are looking to hold on to their jobs has been to embrace AI, the same now goes for bosses. For Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, this has meant bringing generative AI into his “everyday workflow.” The billionaire tech leader recently revealed he is an active user of GPT-5 on Copilot to generate meeting summaries, project updates, monitor productivity, and more. And he’s even shared the exact prompts he uses for productivity.
Nadella’s secret prompts that “supercharge” his workflow
In a LinkedIn post, Nadella said AI’s recent developments have added a “new layer of intelligence” across all his apps.
Here are the five prompts he said can “supercharge your everyday workflow”:
- “Based on my prior interactions with [/person], give me 5 things likely top of mind for our next meeting.”
- “Draft a project update based on emails, chats, and all meetings in [/series]: KPIs vs. targets, wins/losses, risks, competitive moves, plus likely tough questions and answers.”
- “Are we on track for the [Product] launch in November? Check eng progress, pilot program results, risks. Give me a probability.”
- “Review my calendar and email from the last month and create 5 to 7 buckets for projects I spend most time on, with % of time spent and short descriptions.”
- “Review [/select email] + prep me for the next meeting in [/series], based on past manager and team discussions.”
Fortune reached out to Nadella for comment.
How other top CEOs are using AI
AI has become part of the daily routine of many top business executives, especially in the world of tech. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said he’s an active user of both Perplexity and ChatGPT, using it primarily as a learning and research tool.
“I use [AI] as a tutor every day,” Huang said at the Milken Institute Global Conference earlier this year. “In areas that are fairly new to me, I might say, ‘Start by explaining it to me like I’m a 12-year-old,’ and then work your way up into a doctorate-level over time.”
And while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman remains someone that leans on pen and paper at times, he is an active user of his own generative-AI chatbot, ChatGPT, to help with tasks like processing emails and summarizing documents. It’s also been a game changer for him learning how to be a father.
“Clearly, people have been able to take care of babies without ChatGPT for a long time,” Altman said on the OpenAI podcast. “I don’t know how I would have done that.”
How to be the best AI prompter
While the exact wording of prompts have become less important in recent months thanks to the more advanced intelligence of LLMs, many best practices remain that can yield better results than others. According to Anthropic, the company behind Claude, it all starts with being an effective communicator through what it calls the “golden rule of clear prompting.”
“Show your prompt to a colleague, ideally someone who has minimal context on the task, and ask them to follow the instructions,” Anthropic’s website says. “If they’re confused, Claude will likely be too.”
But just like a conversation with a human, interacting with AI will require adaptation. If it doesn’t generate what you want the first time, clarify what you were looking for or be more specific. And, if there happens to be an error—which can still happen—don’t be afraid to point it out.
“One thing that people will do is they’ll put ‘think step by step’ in their prompt, and they won’t check to make sure that the model is actually thinking step by step because the model might take it in a more abstract or general sense,” said Anthropic prompting expert Zack Witten in a YouTube video posted earlier this year.
AI can also be the best resource in teaching you how to prompt.
“AI can literally teach you how to communicate with it better,” Maggie Vo, head of user education at Anthropic, previously told Fortune. “It’s surprisingly effective and saves you from memorizing prompt templates.”
Are you a CEO who uses AI daily? Fortune wants to hear from you: preston.fore@fortune.com
