Objectives are where people set out what they intend to achieve — and where the quality of the writing matters most. A vague objective is hard to measure, hard to align, and hard to have a useful conversation about six months later. Compass AI helps at two points: while you are drafting an objective, and before you publish it. This guide covers both, and shows admins how to tune the prompts behind them.
Getting AI help while you write an objective
Compass AI is available as an assistant throughout the objective-setting process. It understands your role, department, and your firm's strategic plans, so its suggestions are grounded in your context rather than generic.
In the objectives module, click + New Objective.
Click Compass Objective Assistant in the top right of the dialog.
Describe what you are trying to achieve in your own words — plain language is fine.
Work with Compass to sharpen it. You can ask it to make an objective more measurable, suggest actions, or explain how your work connects to a strategic plan.
When you are happy with the wording, copy it into the objective form and continue through Alignment, Details, Actions, and Confirm.
You do not have to start with the assistant. Many people draft an objective first and bring Compass in afterwards to improve it.
Asking Compass to review a draft before you publish
Once you have a draft, Compass can give it a quality review — a second opinion before the objective goes live and becomes something you are measured against.
Open the Compass Objective Assistant from within your draft objective.
Ask Compass to review it.
Compass checks the objective for clarity, measurability, alignment, feasibility, and completeness, and returns a short assessment with a quality rating out of 10.
Act on the suggestions that make sense, then publish.
The review is deliberately concise and constructive. If an objective is already strong, Compass will say so rather than inventing improvements — "Ready to publish!" is a valid answer.
Finding related work with Discover
The Discover tab uses AI to find colleagues working on similar objectives, so you can spot overlap and collaboration opportunities you would otherwise miss. It matches on meaning rather than keywords, so it will surface related work even when the wording is quite different.
For the full walkthrough, see Manage, update and create objectives (with AI).
Customising AI prompts
Admins can change the instructions behind each of these features so the output matches how your firm talks about objectives.
Go to Settings > Compass AI > Prompts.
Select Objectives from the list of modules. You will see three prompts:
Quality Review — the pre-publication check described above.
Objective Setting Assistant — the interactive advisor that helps people draft objectives.
Strategic Alignment Guide — explains how firm plans relate to someone's role, with concrete examples.
Click the pencil icon beside the prompt you want to change.
Edit the prompt, or copy the existing text and adjust it. Common changes are altering the tone, removing emojis, or adding your firm's own quality criteria.
Click Save, then refresh your browser so the change takes effect.
Each prompt shows whether it is still the Default or has been Customised, and you can reset it at any time.
Turning objectives AI on or off
AI in objectives can be switched off without affecting the rest of the module. Go to Settings > General > AI Settings and use the Objectives toggle. Everything else in objectives — creating, updating, aligning and closing them — carries on working exactly as before.
Understanding the default Quality Review prompt
Seeing the prompt makes it much clearer why the output looks the way it does. This is the default:
You are Compass, providing a final quality review of an objective before it's published.**YOUR TASK**:Review the objective for clarity, completeness, and quality. Provide constructive feedback in a concise, encouraging way. Base your review only on what is actually present in the objective data — never assume missing fields exist or fabricate positives.**WHAT TO CHECK**:1. **Clarity**: Is the name specific and clear? Is the description meaningful and distinct from the name? 1. **Measurability**: Can success be measured? Are there concrete actions with quantifiable outcomes? 1. **Alignment**: Does it tie to a strategic plan? Is the connection explicit or vague? 1. **Feasibility**: Are the dates realistic? Are actions achievable within the timeframe? 1. **Completeness**: Does it have all required fields (dates, assignees, actions)?**RESPONSE FORMAT**:- Start with an overall impression (1-2 sentences) - Highlight strengths using bullet points with emojis — only if genuine strengths exist - Flag areas for improvement (if any) — be constructive, limit to the most impactful 1-2 - Include a quality rating out of 10 - Keep total response under 100 words - Use UK spelling**ADAPT YOUR RESPONSE**:- If the objective is strong across all criteria, lead with celebration and keep suggestions brief or omit them entirely — "Ready to publish!" is a valid response - If the objective has significant gaps, lead with encouragement then address the biggest 1-2 issues - If the objective is minimal or mostly empty, acknowledge what's there and focus on what's needed to make it publishable - Never force improvements where none exist, and never force praise where the objective is weak**TONE**:- Celebratory for well-crafted objectives - Constructive (not critical) for areas needing work - Encouraging and supportive - Conversational, not robotic
Reading it back against a review you have seen, the structure is recognisable: the overall impression, the strengths, the one or two suggestions and the score out of 10. If you change the five checks, you change what Compass looks for. If you change the response format, you also change the structure of every review your people receive.
Two instructions in there are worth keeping if you edit it. "Base your review only on what is actually present" is what stops Compass praising fields that were never filled in. "Never force improvements where none exist, and never force praise where the objective is weak" is what stops every review sounding the same.
Tips for effective prompts
Keep instructions clear and specific.
Use headings and structure to guide the AI's output.
Test changes on a few objectives before rolling them out widely.
Avoid overly complex language — the AI works best with straightforward guidance.
Change one thing at a time, so you can see what each edit did.
For a deep dive on AI best practice and tips, review our resource on writing best practice prompts on Performance Leader.
A note on reviewing AI output
Compass AI is there to improve the quality of objectives, not to decide them. Its quality score is a prompt for a conversation, not a gate — and as with all AI output in Performance Leader, generated content should be reviewed before it is relied on.