AI Glossary
What is Prompt Engineering?
The skill of writing and refining prompts so an AI tool gives accurate, useful and consistent results, using techniques like giving context, examples, structure and step-by-step instructions.
Prompt engineering sounds technical, but at its core it is clear communication. It means knowing what details the AI needs, how to ask for the format you want, and how to break a big job into steps.
Common techniques:
- Giving context: audience, goal, situation and constraints
- Showing examples of the output you want (few-shot prompting)
- Asking for structure: tables, checklists or CSV
- Splitting big tasks into small steps (prompt chaining)
- Asking the AI to review and improve its own answer
- Saving good prompts as reusable templates
You do not need to be a programmer. Anyone who writes emails can learn it. Our free course Prompt Writing That Works teaches it in eight short lessons.