Does Using XML Improve AI Understanding?

When working with AI tools like ChatGPT/Claude or your own LLM, there’s a common suggestion floating around: “Use XML to make your queries clearer.”

When XML is Useful

XML excels at representing structured or hierarchical data. In an LLM context, it can be super helpful, by reducing ambiguity. XML can make complex queries easier to interpret.

For example, an XML input might look like this:

<query>
    <type>question</type>
    <topic>quantity</topic>
    <detail>
        How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?
    </detail>
</query>

You can go one step forward, and replace the it with dynamic content or wildcards:

<query>
    <type>question</type>
    <topic>{topic}</topic>
    <detail>
        {prompt}
    </detail>
</query>

This helps you write better more consistent queries, and makes it easier for the LLM to understand whats going on.

Until next time!

Paul.