When Gemini first rolled out, it didn't stick for me at first. I gave it a shot early on, but after a few messy hallucinations and forgettable answers, I found myself defaulting to ChatGPT or Claude whenever I needed real results.
With Google refining the model and rolling out new features, I figured it deserved a second look, especially if I pushed it with prompts that went beyond basic tasks.
That’s when it started to click. Gemini wasn’t just holding its own — it was unexpectedly flexible, helpful, and even a little impressive. It's hands down one of most powerful AI models on the market right now.
Here are 7 game-changing Gemini prompts I wish I'd known sooner.
1. Summarization
Prompt: “Summarize today’s top 3 AI news stories in plain English, and include links to credible sources.”
This is one of my favorite prompts because it utilizes all of Gemini's strenghths. From real-time web access (Gemini can actually pull in fresh reporting) and then summarize multiple articles into digestible insights. Even if it's a breaking story in non-English outlets, Gemini has you covered with multilingual abilities.
And, by requiring links to credible sources, this prompt nudges Gemini to show you exactly where it got its information. This is extremely important for verifying facts directly.
2. Update images
Prompt: "Take this photo of me and turn it into a Pixar-style movie poster — keep the outfit consistent, add dramatic lighting, and bold text at the top with the title ‘The AI Adventure.’"
This prompt can be reused a number of times, but it is essentially showcasing just how well Gemini's Nano Banana works for image generation. Gemini now offers 100 free image generations per day within the free tier, so you can create a number of different images easily.
3 Video generation
Prompt: “Create a vertical 9:16 video of a futuristic city street at night, neon signs glowing, people walking, and flying cars overhead — add ambient city sounds.”
I've created a number of videos using Veo 3, both within Google's AI studio and even in Canva Pro. Whether you use this one or one of your own, it's easier than ever to create videos.
One pro tip is to be sure you choose Veo 3 and not Veo 2 when you're in Google's AI studio because the default is Veo 2 and the generation may not contain sound otherwise. Because tonkens are limited, even with Ultra, you're going to want to be sure to get your prompt right before diving in.
4. Gemini Live
Prompt: "Act as my French tutor: ask me simple questions in French, let me answer by speaking, then correct me gently and continue the conversation.”
One of the best Gemini features is Gemini Live on the app. When you use it you can speak directly to the chatbot and it delivers human-like responses. It can even see the world around you, which makes the conversation even more realistic.
Try this prompt or a similar one with Gemini Live to get the most out of the chatbot's response. It will respond like a human helping you to craft your language skills with ease.
5. Deep research
Prompt: “Do a comprehensive literature review on how AI assistants are affecting workplace productivity. Summarize at least 5 peer-reviewed studies from the past 3 years, highlight key findings, note any conflicting results, and include links or citations to the original sources.”
Gemini Deep Research is a way to go even deeper than the surface level responses from the chatbot. Now, when you want to research a topic, you can easily do so with a single prompt. Deep reseraching takes a little bit longer, but Gemini will let you know when it is done and even create a Google Doc with all the information organized for you to keep and peruse.
6. Coding
Prompt: “Here’s a snippet of Python code [paste code]. Explain why it’s failing, fix it, and show me how to optimize it for speed.”
This prompt is a great way to see just how well Gemini can vibe code through reasoning and models that can fine-tune with speed. So whether you want the model to completely write new code for games, websites or applications or simply troubleshoot something you currently are using, Gemini has you covered.
7. Mulitmodal abilities
Prompt: “Generate a travel itinerary for a family of five visiting Boston for 3 days. Include a daily schedule, realistic restaurant options, and create one image of what Day 2’s highlight (the Freedom Trail walk) would look like.”
Because Gemini can access information in real time, it can be very helpful when planning vacations. WIth a prompt like this you can get a detailed itinerary for just about anywhere in the world. Because Google AI can now book a table for you and make other calls for you, that's one aspect of the trip you won't even need to worry about.
Final thoughts
Gemini has quickly grown from a renamed chatbot into a sprawling AI ecosystem that now spans text, images, video, audio and code. With models like Gemini 2.5 Pro pushing reasoning benchmarks, Nano Banana redefining image editing, and Veo 3 making video generation practical for creators, Google is clearly betting big on multimodality.
While all the models and the naming itself can be confusing, the trajectory is unmistakable: Gemini is much more than a competitor to ChatGPT and in a league of it's own.
