Why We Don't Use ChatGPT Prompts

Every few weeks, someone asks us: "Can't you just use ChatGPT with good prompts?"

It's a fair question. ChatGPT is incredibly capable. With the right prompt, it can do remarkable things. So why do we spend months building custom agents instead of just writing better prompts?

The Prompt Ceiling

Here's what we've learned after thousands of hours building AI tools for creative work: prompts hit a ceiling.

A well-crafted prompt can get you 70% of the way there. Maybe 80% if you're very good. But that last 20% is where the magic happens—and it requires something prompts can't do.

Consider a simple example: checking if dialogue matches a character's established voice. You could prompt ChatGPT:

"Read this character bible and tell me if this new dialogue
sounds like the character."

It'll give you an answer. Sometimes a good one. But it can't:

• Remember previous feedback it gave
• Learn what "in character" means for your specific production
• Handle the dozens of edge cases that make creative work messy
• Run automatically across 300 pages of new script

What Agents Can Do

A purpose-built agent is different. It's not a prompt—it's a system.

Our character consistency agent, for instance, has:

1. A structured understanding of each character (not just text, but parsed attributes)
2. Memory of past judgments it made and whether the writers agreed
3. Production-specific calibration based on your tone, genre, and style
4. Batch processing that can scan entire episodes overnight
5. Confidence scores that know when to flag something vs. when to stay quiet

No prompt can do this. It requires architecture.

The Speed Difference

There's another factor: speed. When you're in a writers' room, you can't wait 30 seconds for ChatGPT to think through a complex prompt. You need answers in milliseconds.

Our agents are fast because they're specialized. They don't have to "figure out" what you're asking every time. They know exactly what they're built for.

When Prompts Are Fine

We're not anti-prompt. For early exploration, rough drafts, and one-off questions, ChatGPT is great. We use it ourselves.

But when you need reliability, speed, and production-grade consistency—when you're working on something that will be seen by millions of people—you need purpose-built tools.

That's what we build.

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Curious about the technical details? We're happy to dive deeper. Get in touch.