"AI Prompt Engineering" is an elementary skill.

 "AI Prompt Engineering" is not a new job. 

It is an elementary skill. 

Basic "digital literacy".

For at least 20 years, "Office, email and internet" have been mandatory in all CVs.

You must now add "Prompt engineering". 

Prompt engineering is the ability to ask questions and obtain relevant, useful answers or text from GPT (and other LLM/AI tools).

I could never list " MS Office" in my CV skills. Not only that I memorized most Office shortcuts, but I've been writing VBScript macros and Java/C++ OLE automation code ever since grad school (thanks Ionut, I learned so much from you). Listing Office or Internet as a skill would be silly: I can actually write their code.

Similarly, I cannot list "prompt engineering" as a skill. I strive to become an AI expert, of course. ChatGpt says that an AI Specialist is a master in machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence; managing NLP; Python, R, or Java; ML libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-Learn.

But yes:

Prompt engineering is now the basic digital literacy skill, to add to all CVs.

 

L.e. Great comment 

from Tavi Paunescu on FaceBook: At least Office was a clearly defined suite, current AI big names are black boxes. So "engineering" against a black box :)

My reply: Any sufficiently advanced technology is not distinguishable from magic. See also Strugatki's picnick. ChatGpt says it's Arthur C Clarke.

L.e.2 Great comment 

from Smaranda Spizzico: how can I learn?

My reply: great question. Thanks!

ChatGpt says:

Prompt: How can you learn prompt engineering?

Answer: [...] Start with General Prompts: Experiment with simple, straightforward prompts. Notice how the wording, structure, and even tone can affect the output. For example, try using different formats like questions, commands, or step-by-step instructions.

Understand Prompt Types: There are descriptive prompts, directive prompts, few-shot prompts (where you give the model examples), and chain-of-thought prompts (where you guide the model step-by-step). Experimenting with each type will help you understand which works best for various tasks.[...]