Chain-of-Thought

Chain-of-thought prompting transforms AI from answer machine to reasoning partner by explicitly modeling the problem-solving process within the prompt itself. Born from Google Research's 2022 breakthrough, this technique demonstrates that showing your work isn't just good practice—it fundamentally improves AI performance.

Rather than jumping to conclusions, chain-of-thought breaks complex problems into logical steps, creating a cognitive roadmap the AI can follow and extend. It's the difference between asking for directions and teaching someone to read a map.

Using chain-of-thought:

Decompose complex queries into sequential reasoning steps
Include intermediate calculations and logical transitions
Make implicit thinking explicit through worked examples

The technique's elegance lies in its universality—any process that can be articulated can be enhanced. Organizations that master chain-of-thought prompting aren't just getting better outputs; they're documenting and scaling their collective intelligence.

Related terms:

Zero-Shot Prompting

Zero-shot prompting is the most basic form of AI interaction where questions are posed without any examples or guidance, relying entirely on the model’s pre-trained knowledge. This baseline approach immediately tests raw capabilities, revealing both its breadth and limitations.

Few-Shot Prompting

Few-shot prompting leverages AI’s pattern recognition by providing a handful of examples in the prompt, enabling the model to identify patterns and generate responses that match your intended style or format. This real-time approach achieves consistent, domain-specific outputs without needing massive datasets or model fine-tuning.

Accretive Software

Accretive software refers to AI platforms that automatically absorb model improvements as margin expansion by treating models as interchangeable components and routing queries to the optimal model in real time. Rather than fighting obsolescence, these platforms convert every efficiency breakthrough into customer value or profit margin.