What if you could take a piece of writing or an image you love and capture its style, tone, or structure in a way that’s easy to reuse, recreate, or adapt? What if you could say to an AI: “This is the kind of result I want. Break it down for me, so I can use it again or build something new from it.”
You know what: You can! A structured format called JSON makes this possible.
JSON looks technical, because it is mostly meant for machines.
But it’s actually much easier to use than you might think. It is also one of the best shortcuts to reliably recreate good results with AI I’ve found so far. In other words: It’s well worth your time to learn about it.
And if that hasn’t convinced you yet: You can use JSON to understand how an AI characterizes and sees a piece of content. You can use that knowledge going forward to describe more precisely and in a repeatable way what you want.
JSON is a tool for communication, experimentation, and learning.
And in this article, I will tell you all you need to know.
What is JSON?
JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation, but don’t let the name intimidate you. You don’t need to know JavaScript or any other programming language to use it.
In a nutshell: JSON is a way to organize information so that machines (like AI tools) can easily understand it.
And that makes several neat tricks possible.
Best of all: you don’t even need to write JSON by hand. Your AI will do that for you.
Having said that: It’s still good idea to have a basic understanding of how it works. Let’s have a closer look.
Think of JSON as a digital version of a neatly labeled form. Instead of writing a paragraph (or five) to explain what you want, you break your request into clearly named fields.
Something like this:
{
"tone": "friendly",
"length": "short",
"audience": "designers"
}What it means:
- Curly brackets
{}hold the entire structure together. - Each line inside is a key-value pair:
- The key (like “tone”) describes what kind of information it is.
- The value (like “friendly”) describes the specific detail.
- Quotation marks surround both keys and values.
- Commas separate the different pairs.
That’s it.
This format makes it incredibly easy for a machine to know what you want. Instead of extracting what you mean from a potentially wordy sentence, the AI sees exactly what kind of content you’re after, in a structure it understands.
Another nice thing about JSON: once you have a structure you like, you can copy it, edit it, and reuse it easily.
By the way: JSON is also used all over the internet and not just with AI. It’s how apps talk to each other, how websites get their data, and how systems stay in sync. It replaced older formats like XML because it’s simpler, cleaner, and easier to work with.
Okay, you’re still with me? It wasn’t too bad, was it? Let’s see in more detail what we can do with this!
Neat trick #1: Extract reusable templates
One of the easiest and most powerful ways to begin with JSON is by extracting reusable templates from examples you already like, whether it’s something you’ve written, an image you admire, or even a successful client project.
Simply ask your AI tool:
“Analyze this [text/image/brief] and describe its key characteristics in structured JSON format.”
The AI will break down the essential elements like tone, structure, audience, style, mood into labeled fields as shown above.
Examples
- Turn a blog post into a writing template: Ask the AI to extract tone, structure, typical word count, and pacing.
- Extract a visual style from an image: Get details like subject, mood, color palette, composition.
- Distill a creative brief into a structured template: Have the AI pull out the project goal, target audience, tone, format, and key messages.
Instead of having to invent a style guide from scratch, you can build it naturally from examples you already love or have successfully used.
It’s like having a compact shortcut to recreate the “feel” or “impact” you want.
Neat trick #2: Adapt your templates easily
Once you’ve extracted a useful template in JSON format, you can adapt it to new tasks without starting from scratch.
Because JSON organizes your creative “ingredients” so clearly, making changes is simple and fast.
Examples
- Change the tone: Switch from “professional” to “playful” if the audience is different.
- Adjust the length: Change “around 800 words” to “about 300 words” for a quick-read version.
- Tweak the audience: Shift from “creative professionals” to “marketing managers” without rebuilding the whole prompt.
- Modify the format: Instead of “blog post,” ask for a “LinkedIn carousel” or “newsletter edition.”
Because each key-value pair is easy to spot and edit, you can make tiny adjustments or complete overhauls with minimal effort.
This turns your JSON template into a living, flexible creative tool rather than something you have to rewrite each time.
Neat trick #3: Compare different styles or formats side-by-side
Once you have a few JSON templates, you can use them to explore different creative directions systematically.
Instead of guessing what might work better, you can define two or more variations and ask the AI to generate content for each. This is especially helpful if you’re experimenting with tone, structure, or format.
Example
Compare two tones for the same article idea:
{
"tone": "professional",
"length": "600 words",
"audience": "creative entrepreneurs"
}vs.
{
"tone": "casual",
"length": "600 words",
"audience": "creative entrepreneurs"
}Ask the AI to write a draft using each JSON structure. You can then compare:
- Which tone feels more on-brand?
- Which version is more engaging or clear?
- What gets better feedback from readers or clients?
More examples
- Different content formats: blog post vs. email newsletter
- Different visual styles: clean minimalism vs. vintage collage
- Different audiences: beginners vs. advanced users
This helps you make creative decisions based on output. It’s like A/B testing for your ideas, but faster and easier.
You could of course copy and paste your human written prompts and descriptions without using JSON. But by working with this format, you can quickly swap out key elements.
Neat trick #4: Learn how to express your vision
Another great use of JSON is that it helps you learn how to describe what you want more clearly and precisely.
When you ask an AI to analyze a piece of writing, a visual style, or even a project brief and return the result in structured JSON, you get to see how the AI “understands” creative work.
This is valuable for two reasons:
1. You discover useful vocabulary
- The AI might label a tone as “conversational” or “authoritative.”
- It might describe an image as having a “muted color palette” or a “dynamic composition.”
- These are terms you can borrow and use when crafting your own prompts, creative briefs, or even when discussing ideas with clients.
2. You sharpen your creative communication
- Seeing how an AI breaks down a piece of content helps you think more systematically about your own style and preferences.
- It encourages you to be more specific: not just “write a blog post,” but “write a blog post with a playful tone, aimed at tech-savvy beginners, around 500 words, structured as problem-solution-outcome.”
In short: working with JSON isn’t just about reusing templates, it’s about getting better at articulating your creative vision, both for yourself and for others.
Where can you use JSON with AI?
By now you might be wondering: Which AI tools actually understand JSON? And where is it still helpful, even if the tool doesn’t accept it directly?
Tools that understand and use JSON directly
The following tools can generate and interpret JSON without extra effort. You can copy and paste a JSON structure into your prompt, or ask them to return results in that format.
- ChatGPT: Works with JSON naturally for both text and image tasks.
- Claude, Gemini, Mistral, etc.: Most large language models (LLMs) understand JSON and can respond in structured formats.
- Automation tools: Platforms like Zapier or Make often use JSON in the background for connecting different services.
Tools that don’t support JSON directly, but where it still helps
Some AI tools won’t accept JSON as input, but you can still use it to your advantage.
- Image generators (like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion):
- Use JSON to define what you want: subject, style, color palette, composition.
- Then rewrite that structure into a natural language prompt the model understands (or ask an AI like ChatGPT to do it for you!).
- Audio tools: Similar idea. Use JSON to outline the tone, pacing, voice, and mood—then turn it into a regular prompt.
When JSON isn’t the right tool
As helpful as JSON can be, it’s not always the best fit. Here are a few cases where it might slow you down instead of helping:
When you’re brainstorming freely: If you’re in an early idea phase and just want to throw thoughts on the page, JSON can feel too rigid. Let your creativity flow first. Structure can come later.
When the task is too vague or abstract: If you don’t yet know what you want, trying to put it into structured fields can be frustrating. You may need to explore first and define later.
When the tool doesn’t support it at all: Some AI tools (especially visual ones) don’t work well with structured input. In those cases, JSON is better used as a planning or learning aid and not something you feed directly into the system.
When it adds complexity instead of clarity: If a simple sentence gets the job done (“make this into an Instagram post”), there’s no need to translate it into JSON. Use the tool that’s appropriate for the moment.
When collaborating with people unfamiliar with JSON: If you’re working with clients or team members who aren’t familiar with structured formats, sharing JSON templates might create confusion. In these cases, you might want to “translate” your JSON insights into more narrative guidance or simpler bullet points for collaboration.
Try it for yourself
The best way to understand the capabilities of working with JSON is to start experimenting.
You don’t need to memorize any rules. You don’t need to learn how to code. And you don’t need to build anything complicated.
All you need is curiosity.
Pick something you like, i.e. an article, an image, a project brief, and ask your favorite AI tool:
“Please describe the key characteristics of this in structured JSON format.”
Then look at the result. See how it breaks down the style, the tone, the structure, the important elements.
From there, you can:
- Adapt a detail or two and generate a variation.
- Compare two different versions side-by-side.
- Learn new ways to describe your ideas more clearly.
I hope I was able to show you: JSON is not about being technical. It’s about turning your ideas into something reusable, adaptable, and scalable.
So go ahead: Try it out today!
P.S.
Claude gave me an example of its JSON capabilities by analyzing the style of this article you just read. Here’s the result:
{
"contentType": "instructional article",
"tone": "conversational and encouraging",
"structure": {
"introduction": "problem and promise statement",
"body": "concept explanation followed by practical applications",
"sections": "organized as numbered 'neat tricks'",
"conclusion": "call to action with encouragement"
},
"audience": "creative professionals with limited technical background",
"stylistic_elements": [
"frequent use of bold text for emphasis",
"short paragraphs for readability",
"direct address to the reader",
"simplified explanations of technical concepts",
"practical examples"
],
"length": "comprehensive but concise"
}As you can see: This is a great starting point for a template that can potentially save me time in the future.