Generative AI (GenAI) has the ability to transform the way we surface and utilize information and Moody’s is pioneering its applications across the financial services landscape. Moody’s Research Assistant is an AI tool that leverages Moody’s extensive proprietary data creating a powerful, time-saving solution for generating holistic risk insights and accelerating analytical workflows.

The exact insights relevant to your specific workflow have never been more accessible, and crafting an effective prompt that surfaces the information you need in the format best suited for your requirements is a skill that can be quickly learned using the tips below.

Tip #1: Determine your objective

One of the most important steps in crafting a prompt to get the result you want is to understand what workflow or objective you are trying to achieve so you can structure the prompt accordingly.

Moody’s Research Assistant can help you accelerate the following workflows:

• Screening and idea generation
• Thematic research or strategy pivoting
• In-depth credit analysis and monitoring
  
• Reporting and communication

Want to learn more about these workflows? Check out our How Research Assistant can accelerate your workflows blog post.

After you understand the objective, you can get into crafting the prompt.

Here's an example of a prompt with the necessary components highlighted:

Let’s look at tips for these components so you know how to craft an effective prompt for Research Assistant.

Tip #2: Be clear and specific on what data to include

When creating prompts, it's essential to be clear about what you're asking for. Vague requests can lead to less granularity and may not surface the most relevant information.

When crafting a prompt, you should specify the data you want returned and any details around timeframe to generate the most relevant responses.

We only include Moody’s proprietary data, meaning that Research Assistant has access to:

• All reports across all segments published since 2020
• 10 years of rating history and 3 years of key indicators for the Corporate, Banking, Insurance and Sovereign market segments
  
• 3 years of adjusted and as-reported financials for all Moody’s rated corporate entities
  
• 3 years of financials, peers and firmographic information on over 12,000 corporates that do not have an active public rating from Moody’s Ratings

Let’s look at a real prompt example so you can see the difference between a prompt that is vague and a prompt that provides enough detail.

Rather than:

Write a credit memo on [company]

Try:

Write me a credit memo on [company] that includes the company description, its peers with their key challenges and key ratings drivers in 3 bullet points each, graph debt/EBITDA over the last 3 years, and include the sector outlook.

Tip #3: The structure of your prompt matters

Structuring your prompt allows Research Assistant to understand not just the task at hand but how you want the information organized and summarized. This is crucial for tasks that involve comparisons or aggregating information from multiple sources.

Specifying the format or deliverable that you expect to receive is particularly important when thinking about how you need to present or analyze the information.

With Moody’s Research Assistant, you can indicate you want the output in the following formats:

• Table
• Chart
• List
• Credit Memo
• SWOT analysis

Let’s look at a real prompt example so you can see the difference between a prompt that doesn’t indicate format and a prompt that does.

Rather than:

Create a SWOT analysis for [company]

Try:

Perform a SWOT analysis for [company] and its peers in table format

Tip #4 Review the Moody’s Sector Taxonomy

Ensuring consistency between your inputs and what is seen on Moodys.com will help reduce ambiguity and ensure that Moody’s Research Assistant is looking at the correct sector and returning the most helpful responses.

Research Assistant does its best to match Moody’s taxonomy based on your inputs, but we want to ensure you get the most accurate answers to your questions. If you’re unsure of Moody’s sector or sub-sector terminology, we suggest visiting the sector directory on Moodys.com.

Tip #5 Understand the difference between the Chat workspace and the Advanced Query workspace

Research Assistant consists of two workspaces, the Chat workspace and the Advanced Query workspace. You can easily determine which workspace to use based on the workflow or objective you are trying to achieve.

Advanced Query

• Use case: Builds list of entities including Moody’s detailed adjusted and as-reported financials and ratings allowing for screening and comparisons
• Workflow: Screening and Idea generation

Chat

• Use case: Allows you to get real-time answers, analyze macro, sector and issuer factors based on published research that’s available on CreditView
• Workflows:
  • Thematic research/strategy pivoting
  • In-depth credit analysis & monitoring
  • Reporting & communication

Want to understand more about the workflows Research Assistant can help accelerate? Check out our blog post to discover how Research Assistant can help transform your workflows.

Leveraging Moody's Research Assistant can provide an average time savings of 27%, and crafting the correct prompts to surface the insights you need is a critical step.

For a more a comprehensive list of prompt examples, access our user guide.

Try out your new prompting knowledge now!

Don’t have access to Research Assistant? Click on the link below.