Marc Andreessen shares the prompts he says turn AI into 'the world's best coach' (www.businessinsider.com)

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen told the a16z Podcast that the right prompts can turn AI into “the world’s best coach” — a flexible thought partner, mentor and advisor — if users learn how to ask. He urged people to feed models concrete inputs (staffing schedules, customer emails, recipes, ad copy) and push them to analyze, critique and iterate: for example, have a bakery ask “What’s the best cinnamon roll recipe in the world?” then follow with “How can I make it at 1/10 the cost?” He also recommended meta‑prompts such as “What questions should I be asking?” and “Teach me how to use you in the best way,” to surface blind spots and improve interaction design. The significance for AI/ML is practical: prompt engineering and context management are emerging as key skills to unlock modern models’ value. Andreessen’s advice echoes other leaders — Andrew Ng advocates extended, iterative conversations (he uses voice mode for ideation) and EY’s Matt Barrington stresses separate AI workspaces plus explicit style/depth instructions (e.g., “Provide a concise, bullet‑point summary” or “Act as a finance expert; cite credible sources”). Technical implications include treating models as evaluators of structured data, using meta‑prompts to generate better queries, and designing interaction flows that preserve context — all of which shape how teams integrate LLMs into product development and knowledge work.