AI Prompt Engineering, Vocation or Required Business Skill?

[The image above is generated by Midjourney. The prompt I used to create the image is listed at the end of this email.]

As AI continues to improve, the ability to use that technology will be a critical skill for individuals who want to stay competitive. The Washington Post called it “Tech’s Hottest New Job,” and the New York Times called prompt engineering "a skill that those who play around with ChatGPT long enough can add to their résumés. I agree more with the latter than the former, but I think it will eventually become akin to what Microsoft Office was in the early 2000s. You won’t add it to your resume. It’s a skill that will be table stakes for knowledge workers and many others.

Prompt engineering involves creating, developing, and refining prompts to communicate with AI models. These prompts are commands or inquiries guiding the AI to produce the desired outputs. Generally, the better your prompt in huge language models, the better the outcome.

Acquiring skills in prompt engineering involves a journey through several stages. It begins with a solid grounding in AI and machine learning; you can add that expertise with my Crash Course in Artificial Intelligence presentation. Numerous online courses like Coursera and edX provide comprehensive introductions to these topics. Next, a good understanding of Natural Language Processing (NLP) is helpful as prompts are primarily text-based. This encompasses both the theoretical aspects and practical applications. Finally, the best way to sharpen your skills is through practice. Experimenting with different AI models and prompts reveals how slight variations can significantly impact the output. Since AI is a rapidly evolving field, staying updated is essential.

The benefits of becoming a prompt engineer are manifold. From a productivity perspective, effective prompts can dramatically enhance the performance of AI models, leading to more accurate results and improved efficiency. This can revolutionize various sectors, including healthcare, finance, and education. From an employability standpoint, as the demand for prompt engineers grows, individuals with these skills will find themselves in high order in the job market. This translates to attractive salary packages and offers the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of AI innovation. Here are a few resources to start building your prompt authoring chop.

Prompt Engineering Resources

There are tons of books for sale on Gumroad that range from helpful to ridiculously simplistic, and I have downloaded and read my share of them. Here’s my curated list of resources.

• AI Prompt Engineering Subreddit - This is a very active subreddit, and as it goes with Reddit, there is a lot of noise but very educational. Look for posts from rUv, one of the moderators, for some of the most in-depth and insightful posts.

• Prompt Engineering Guide - This website provides a good overview of prompt engineering. However, the hidden gem is the list of papers on the subject.

• Introduction to Prompt Engineering for Generative AI - This Linkedin Learning class overviews the skills needed for prompt engineering. However, it’s a beginner course.

• The Art of Midjourney AI: A Guide to Creating Images from Text - An excellent guide to generating images with Midjourney prompts.

• The Art of ChatGPT Prompting: A Guide to Crafting Clear and Effective Prompts - A very readable guide for creating ChatGPT prompts.

While I am not sure that prompt engineering is a new profession, gaining the skill will offer opportunities for those willing to explore this fascinating intersection of AI, linguistics, and creativity.

Tip of the Week: SuperPrompts My Top ChatGPT Prompts

The Internet is rife with people sharing their ChatGPT prompts. Unfortunately, I have probably read more terrible prompts than good ones. Nevertheless, I have a swipe file of prompts that I have seen, tried, improved upon, and saved. So here are my top prompts in a downloadable book that you can cut and paste, remix, and use to help your productivity.

What I Read this Week

• How AI Is Catapulting Nvidia Toward the $1 Trillion Club - The Wall Street Journal

• Is your language model any good? Nobody knows. - Generally Intelligent

• AI is not killing creativity – it’s enhancing it - Raconteur

• ‘I do not think ethical surveillance can exist’: Rumman Chowdhury on accountability in AI - The Guardian

• AI Investing Boom Is Not New To Tech Giants (At Least Not Their VC Arms) - Crunchbase

What I Listened to

Some of the more interesting podcasts on AI I listened to this week.

AI Tools for Enterprises and Business Users

These tools are all very much aimed at creating enterprise and business applications, and most require e of technical prowess.

AIPRM - 1-Click Prompts in ChatGPT for SEO, Marketing, Copywriting, productivity, and more.

FlowGPT - Prompt directories and lists are a dime a dozen these days, but I like this site for prompts because it’s free, and you can search by trending, popular, and most liked prompts. There are nuggets of gold; if nothing else, it may spark your creativity.

AudioPen - This is a voice-to-text recorder, but it does an excellent job of removing “ums” and other cruft from a dictated transcript. It can also be used to transcribe meetings. It’s a handy tool that was recommended to me by Erin, and it’s a handy addition when I want to dictate a thought and come up with a reasonably good summary.

FireFlies - I have been playing with a few transcription services for video meetings on Zoom. I like Fireflies because it seems to do the best job of anything. I have tried numerous solutions (Grain, Wudpecker, TL; DV), but this does the best job for me.

Midjourney Prompt for Newsletter Header Image

For every issue of the Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, I include the MIdjourney prompt I used to create this edition.