Welcome back! In the last lesson, you learned how to use system prompts to expand abbreviations in your audio transcriptions, making your transcripts clearer and more professional. Now, we'll build on that skill by exploring how prompts can also control the format of your transcription output. This is especially useful when you need transcripts for different business purposes, such as meeting notes or action item lists, all from the same audio file.

In this lesson, you will:

• See how prompts can shape the structure and style of your transcription output.
• Learn to write prompts that produce professional meeting notes or clear action item lists.
• Understand how to use the Whisper API to apply these formatting prompts in practice.
• Discover how to adapt your prompts for different business needs.

By the end, you'll be able to guide the AI to produce transcripts in the exact format you need, saving time and improving communication.

A system prompt is more than just a way to expand abbreviations — it's a tool for telling the AI how you want your transcript to look and feel. With the right prompt, you can:

• Set the structure (such as using bullet points or numbered lists).
• Define sections (such as "Key Discussion Points" and "Action Items").
• Control the tone (professional, casual, technical, etc.).
• Instruct the AI to extract or highlight specific information.

This is powerful because the same audio can be turned into different types of documents, depending on your needs. For example, you might want a detailed summary for your team but a simple list of tasks for your project manager. By changing the prompt, you change the output — without having to edit the transcript by hand.

Let's look at how you can use prompts to control output formatting with the Whisper API. We'll break the code into logical parts for clarity.

Now, let's see how to write prompts that produce different types of business documents.

Here, you see two different prompts:

• The first prompt tells the AI to format the transcript as professional meeting notes, with clear sections and bullet points.
• The second prompt asks for a list of action items, using a numbered list and starting each item with an action verb.

Both prompts also remind the AI to expand abbreviations, keeping the output clear and professional.

Let's see how these prompts change the output:

When you run this function with your audio file, you'll get two different outputs:

• One formatted as meeting notes, with sections and bullet points.
• One as a list of action items, ready to be assigned or tracked.

This approach lets you generate the exact document you need just by changing the prompt.

Being able to control the format of your transcripts with prompts is a major productivity boost. It allows you to:

• Automate documentation: Instantly create meeting notes, summaries, or task lists from any audio recording.
• Standardize communication: Ensure all your business documents follow the same structure and style.
• Save time: No more manual editing or reformatting — just adjust the prompt and get the output you want.
• Adapt to different audiences: Produce technical summaries for engineers, action lists for managers, or detailed notes for clients, all from the same source.

This skill is valuable in any professional setting where clear, consistent documentation is needed. It also prepares you for more advanced uses of AI in workflow automation and business process improvement.

Next, you'll get hands-on practice writing and testing your own formatting prompts. This will help you master the skill and see the impact of your changes right away. Let's get started!