Zero-Shot
Asking a model to perform a task with no examples — just the instruction. 'Write a haiku about GPUs' is zero-shot: the model relies purely on what it learned in training. Modern models are remarkably good at zero-shot work, which is why simple prompts often just work. But when a task has a specific format, style, or nuance you care about, zero-shot results drift — that is the moment to upgrade to few-shot prompting by showing examples. Rule of thumb: start zero-shot, add examples only when the outputs miss your intent.