What Is Prompt Engineering?
By Karthick Selvam · Published
Prompt engineering is the practice of writing instructions that get reliable, useful output from a language model.
Definition
A prompt is the input you give a language model. Prompt engineering is designing that input, including instructions, context, examples and output format, so results are accurate and consistent.
Core techniques
Be specific about the task and audience. Provide relevant context. Show one or two examples of the desired output (few-shot prompting). Ask for a defined structure such as a table or JSON. Break complex tasks into steps.
Limits
Prompting cannot add knowledge the model lacks or fully prevent errors. For company-specific facts, retrieval-augmented generation is usually needed, and outputs should be checked.
Does your organisation need it?
Anyone using AI tools benefits from basic prompting skills. Teams building AI applications need deeper skills in prompt design, testing and evaluation.
Frequently asked questions
Is prompt engineering a job title?
Sometimes, but it is more often a skill within roles like developer, analyst or AI engineer.
Related programmes
- Agentic AI with LangChain & LangGraph
- Building AI Agents with LangGraph & CrewAI
- Multi-Agent Systems: Design & Orchestration
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