By Dr. Aruna Dayanatha
Chartered IT Professional | Management Consultant | AI Strategist for Business Transformation
In the age of AI, professional boundaries are dissolving. What was once the exclusive domain of finance experts, legal specialists, or data scientists is now accessible to any business professional—thanks to the power of conversational AI.
We are stepping into an era where a marketing manager can perform a financial analysis, or an HR executive can analyze customer sentiment—without being formally trained in those domains. The key enabler? The ability to frame problems from a layman’s point of view and refine those problem statements into AI-understandable prompts.
This is not a theoretical idea. It’s a shift I’ve personally witnessed—and led—since November 2021, when I began intensively using conversational AI tools. What followed was a career-defining realization:
AI doesn’t just support business—it transforms it.
Proof Through Experience: Efficiency Redefined
Using conversational AI, I have completed high-level consultancy tasks allocated two weeks—in just three hours. My clients and trainees, after applying my techniques, reported reducing tasks that usually took three days down to 20 minutes. These aren’t marginal improvements—they’re quantum leaps in productivity.
This isn’t about cutting corners—it’s about thinking differently and engaging with AI effectively. And to do that, we need a practical framework.
The SPARKLE Framework: Prompting for Problem Solving
To help professionals from any discipline unlock this potential, I developed the SPARKLE Framework—a clear, repeatable method for using conversational AI tools like ChatGPT to solve real business problems, even without domain-specific knowledge.
SPARKLE stands for:
| Letter | Step | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| S | Simplify the Need | Express the problem in plain, everyday language—like explaining it to a colleague. |
| P | Prepare Knowledge | Reconcile what you know with what the AI might already know; align both. |
| A | Align the Approach | Finalize how you want the AI to help—define the output type, tone, and method. |
| R | Review Data Needs | Identify what data is needed. Decide if it exists or must be constructed. |
| K | Kick Off with Samples | Use AI-generated synthetic data to test your prompts. No need to wait for live data—AI can create realistic, structured datasets so you can test ideas immediately and refine fast. This step alone eliminates long delays and accelerates results. |
| L | Loop Through Iterations | Improve your prompt step-by-step based on what the AI returns. |
| E | Explore Presentation Styles | Request outputs in multiple formats—tables, visuals, reports—to fit your use case. |
Why This Matters to Business
The SPARKLE Framework is not just a method—it’s a strategy for unlocking efficiency, innovation, and cross-functional power in your business.
Here’s what businesses stand to gain:
- Unmatched time savings – Drastically reduce task completion times, just as I and my trainees have done.
- Immediate value without waiting for real data – Generate sample datasets and test business scenarios on demand.
- Empowered professionals – Enable your team to step beyond their job titles and tackle challenges using AI.
- Future-ready work culture – Shift from role-based work to outcome-based agility.
Final Thought: Let Your Prompts SPARKLE
Prompting is not just a technical trick—it’s the new core skill of the AI-powered professional. SPARKLE empowers anyone to solve problems outside their domain, make smarter decisions faster, and deliver results that impress.
This is not a future you have to wait for. It’s already here.
Let your ideas SPARKLE—one prompt at a time.