What is prompt engineering? Definition and business implications

Prompt engineering covers the set of techniques that turn a vague request into a structured instruction producing a reliable output. The main techniques include: assigning a role (“You are an expert in...”), providing examples (one-shot, few-shot), decomposing the task into steps (chain of thought), specifying the output format (JSON, markdown, numbered plan), and introducing negative constraints (“do not mention...”). In 2023, the term designated an emerging and well-paid profession (up to 300,000 dollars per year at some U.S. laboratories). Since 2024-2025, this segmentation has largely collapsed: models have become more tolerant of imprecise prompts, and best practices have spread. Prompt engineering is no longer a profession; it is a skill integrated into business roles (sales, legal, marketing), in the same way as Excel mastery or Google search.