The Prompt Gap
What’s the difference between free and $0.01?
Logically, a penny.
Psychologically, a barrier.
Retail and online merchants are all too familiar with The Penny Gap. The moment you charge for something, you experience a dropoff conversion rate. It could be small: 1-2%. It could be large: 10-25%. The moment you ask someone to pull out their wallet or type in their credit card, friction begins… even if it’s for a single penny.
So, what’s the prompt gap? It’s a similar pattern with a similar question.
What’s the difference between ChatGPT and a non-AI user?
Logically, a prompt.
Psychologically, a barrier.
I know. I know. It sounds ridiculous, right?
ChatGPT was released about 2.5 years ago and quickly became the fastest-growing consumer product adoption of all time. Despite this, I know many people who have refused to try it even once. In fact, I have at least 6 family members who have never used it, and one family member who had their very first experience two weeks ago.
You would think that something as simple as taking a regular Google Search (e.g., “Top 10 new gluten-free recipes”) and just submitting it on a new website would be trivial. It’s not. However, many people have a toxic relationship with AI. It’s so toxic they refuse to even touch it.
This means their only understanding of it comes from science fiction books, mainstream media, and their own wild imaginations. To them, it’s weird, scary, and not to be trusted. After all, isn’t AI supposed to take all our jobs? Why would I join the enemy?
And even for those who don’t have these negative associations and baggage, there’s another hurdle to overcome: inertia. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… so why try?
Shockingly, in technology circles, it’s not uncommon for 10% of people within a company to refuse to use AI, while another 80% don’t know how to get started.
And yet… getting started only takes just that—starting.
When my family member had her first experience two weeks ago, she was blown away.
It was like reliving my first experience with ChatGPT when it was released in Nov 2022.
It was way more clunky then, but I was hooked on trying all sorts of weird prompts.
“Can you rewrite the Declaration of Independence in Jive?”
“Can you generate a script for a South Park crossover with the Simpsons?”
“Can you generate 20 article ideas? Generate a 500-word essay on the best one?”
I see so many people not try at all or give up after the first few attempts.
“It hallucinated a response.”
“It made an obvious mistake.”
“It didn’t guess what I wanted.”
But do you know who’s absolutely crushing it with AI? The people who quickly hopped over the first prompt gap and continued to play, experiment, and explore daily.
We’re seeing engineers compress two weeks of work into a few hours.
We’re seeing $100K app proposals getting vibe-coded for less than $1K.
Is it perfect? No. Is it messy? Yes. Does it take some lot of futzing? Yes! Do we still need senior developers, designers, and editors? YES YES YES.
But we have too many people sitting on the sidelines, still unwilling to take that tiny first leap—the prompt gap.
This is the real risk of AI.
Not that it’s going to take your job.
However, people with less experience and skills are expected to outpace others by 2x to 10x in the coming years.
There will always be more work to be done.
However, those unwilling to take the leap will be left behind.
And that gap will only widen from here.
Have you started prompting yet?
If not, take 1 minute and submit your first one today.