I was creating an e-commerce customer care chatbot. Even after tweaking the settings, it responds vaguely or misses important steps when handling refund requests, product queries, and escalation concerns. The issue was not my model, but the prompt. In Prompt Engineering, how you ask determines what you get. In this blog, I have given 15 prompt engineering techniques that will help you define and understand your prompt using advanced tips and usecase.
What Is Prompt Engineering?
Prompt engineering involves creating and improving language model inpu to provide the most accurate relevant, and useful output. It requires carefully crafting questions, guidance, and context to match the model’s knowledge and aptitude.
Now moving ahead, lets see what a prompt is
What is a prompt?
A prompt is the input or instruction you give to an AI model to get a desired response. It can be a question, a command, or even a block of text that sets the context for the AI’s answer.
Example:
Write a summary of the following article in 100 words.
Why is prompt engineering important?
A prompt is the textual input fed to a ChatGPT or GPT-4 artificial intelligence language model. It could be a question, directive, command, or set of guidelines. Prompts define the model’s response.
Example:
Prompt:
“Write a 100 word summary of the Industrial Revolution”
Output:
“Beginning in the late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution changed history. In Britain and worldwide mechanized production supplanted manual labor. The steam engine spinning jenny, and power loom changed textiles and transportation. Cities grew as factory workers came in causing social and labor reforms. It laid the groundwork for the current industrial economy.”
Now lets see why prompt engineering is important
Elements of Prompt Engineering
Understanding the core elements of prompt engineering is key to building effective prompts.
- Role
Defining a role helps set the tone and context.
Example:
“You are a professional copywriter. Write an email promoting a new book on productivity.”
- Instruction/Task
Be clear and concise about what you want model to do.
Example:
“Summarize this paragraph in two sentences”
- Questions
Specific questions often yield better responses than vague prompts.
Example:
“What are the environmental benefits of using electric vehicles?”
- Context
Adding relevant background improves output relevance.
Example:
“Given that the user is a beginner in Python, explain what a for loop does.”
- Example
Demonstrations help the model mirror the pattern.
Example:
“Translate the following from English to French. Example ‘Good morning’ → ‘Bonjour’ Now translate ‘How are you?”
Having seen the key building blocks let’s discover how prompt engineering is used in real-world applications.
Application of Prompt Engineering
Prompt engineering has wide-ranging applications across various domains.
- Content generation
Prompt engineering enables tailored content creation like blog posts product descriptions and social media captions.
Businesses use this to save time and maintain brand voice. Marketers craft specific prompts to generate campaign messages or product listings quickly.
Example:
“Write a motivational LinkedIn post for remote workers about productivity”
- Language Translation
Accurate translations require clear instructions and sometimes examples.
International businesses use this to localize content communicate with global customers or translate support documents. Prompt engineering ensures contextually correct translations.
Prompt:
“Translate this sentence to Japanese ‘The weather is nice today'”
- Text summarization
Useful for condensing long texts into digestible summaries.
Used in legal academic and executive settings to extract key points from lengthy documents saving stakeholders time while maintaining clarity.
Prompt:
“Summarize the following research paper in three bullet points”
- Dialogue systems
Conversational AI benefits from carefully constructed prompts that mimic real life dialogue.
Companies use it to power chatbots or virtual assistants for customer service making interactions more natural and context-aware.
Prompt:
“Act like a customer support agent helping with a delayed package.”
- Information retrieval
Prompts can help fetch concise and relevant information from vast datasets.
Business analysts and knowledge workers use this to get quick accurate insights from documents or databases without manual searching.
Prompt:
“What are the top three causes of climate change according to the IPCC?”
- Code generation
Generate functional code with clear prompts.
Developers and tech teams save time on routine or repetitive tasks by prompting AI to write code create templates or troubleshoot bugs.
Prompt:
“Write a Python function to check if a number is prime.”
def is_prime(n):
if n <= 1:
return False
for i in range(2, int(n**0.5) + 1):
if n % i == 0:
return False
return True
- Educational tools
Design tutoring systems that adapt to learner levels.
EdTech companies use prompt engineering to personalize explanations adapting content to different age groups or knowledge levels.
Prompt:
“Explain Newtons first law of motion to a 10 year old.”
- Creative writing assistance
Boost story writing poem composition and plot ideation.
Used in media advertising and entertainment to spark ideas or co-create content helping creators overcome writer’s block or explore new styles.
Prompt:
“Write the opening paragraph of a fantasy novel set in a frozen kingdom ruled by wolves”
Now moving ahead, lets see what the benefits and limitations of Prompt Engineering are.
Benefits and Limitations of Prompt Engineering
Enhanced Control:You guide the models tone style, and output format.
Improved Relevance:Well-crafted prompts reduce off-topic or vague responses.
Increased Efficiency:Save time by minimizing trial-and-error iterations.
Versatility:Can be applied to diverse tasks from coding to storytelling.
Customization:Tailor interactions to user expertise industry needs, or personal preferences.
Limitations: Poorly framed prompts lead to suboptimal outputs.
Domain Specificity:Generic prompts may underperform in niche domains unless tailored precisely.
Potential Bias:The model may reflect biases present in training data or prompts.
Complexity and IterationEffective prompting may require testing and refining through trial and error.
Limited Scope of Control:Even with well-crafted prompts output can be unpredictable or incomplete.
What are the three types of prompt engineering?
Prompt engineering can be broadly classified into Zero-Shot, One-Shot, and Few-Shot prompting:
- Zero-Shot Prompting:
You give a task without any example. The AI relies entirely on its pre-trained knowledge.
Example:
Prompt: “Translate ‘Good morning’ into French.”
Output: “Bonjour.” - One-Shot Prompting:
You provide one example to guide the AI.
Example:
Prompt: “Translate ‘Hello’ into Spanish: Hola. Now translate ‘Good night’ into Spanish.”
Output: “Buenas noches.”
Few-Shot Prompting:
You provide multiple examples for better guidance.
Example:
yaml
CopyEdit
Prompt:
Translate the following to Spanish:
– Hello: Hola
– Good morning: Buenos días
– Good night: Buenas noches
Translate ‘See you later.’
- Output: “Hasta luego.”
These types help improve the quality of AI responses based on how much context you provide.
How to do better prompt engineering?
To improve your prompt engineering skills, follow these tips:
- Be Clear and Specific:
Avoid vague prompts. Tell the AI exactly what you want.
Example: Instead of “Write a story,” say, “Write a 100-word story about a cat that gets lost in a city.” - Provide Context:
The more background you give, the better the AI understands.
Example: “In a formal email style, write a complaint about a late delivery.” - Use Step-by-Step Prompts (Chain-of-Thought):
Break complex tasks into steps.
Example:
Prompt: “First list the ingredients of a pizza, then explain how to cook it.” - Iterate and Refine:
Test and tweak your prompts if the output isn’t what you expected.
Prompt Engineering Full Course 2025
Does ChatGPT use prompt engineering?
Yes, ChatGPT and similar AI models rely heavily on prompt engineering to generate responses. Every question you ask is a prompt, and the AI processes it to predict and create the best possible answer. Developers and users often experiment with different prompting techniques—like using clear instructions, examples, and context—to guide ChatGPT’s behavior effectively.
Example:
A simple prompt:
“Summarize the article in 100 words.”
uses prompt engineering to specify the task (summarize) and output format (100 words).
What is the salary of a prompt engineer?
The salary of a prompt engineer can vary depending on experience, location, and industry. As of recent trends:
- Entry-Level Prompt Engineers: $80,000 – $120,000/year
- Experienced Prompt Engineers: $120,000 – $200,000+/year
- Specialist Roles in Top Companies: Some senior prompt engineers in AI research labs or big tech firms can earn even higher, especially with bonuses and stock options.
Example Job Posting Snippet:
“Looking for a Prompt Engineer to develop, test, and optimize AI prompts for NLP applications. Salary: $130,000–$160,000, with remote work options.”
The growing demand for AI and generative models has made prompt engineering a highly valued skill in today’s job market.
Prompt engineering involves several key components, each critical for optimizing interactions with sophisticated models:
Clarity and Precision: Ensuring prompts are clear and unambiguous for accurate understanding and response.
Contextual Relevance: Providing sufficient background or context to guide the model’s response.
Specificity: Being specific about the desired output to enhance the accuracy of the model’s response.
Adaptability and Flexibility: Adjusting prompts based on the model’s responses for improved interactions.
Ethical Consideration: Ensuring prompts are ethically sound and do not lead to biased or harmful outputs.
As we move forward with the basics of prompt engineering, we need to know the following techniques to make a precise prompt:. The techniques are as follows:
Prompt Engineering Techniques:
- Zero-Shot Prompts: Zero-shot prompts is one of the prompt engineering techniques where you provide an AI model with a task or question without any prior examples or context. This method tests the model’s ability to understand and respond based on its pre-existing knowledge and training. It’s particularly useful for evaluating how well a model can handle novel situations or questions that it may not have been explicitly trained on. This approach is instrumental in gauging the flexibility and generalization capabilities of an AI model.
- One-Shot Prompts: The one-shot prompt is a prompt engineering technique that involves providing a single example to guide the AI model. This method helps the model understand the desired task or response style. By showing the model an example of the intended output, it can better generate similar responses for different inputs. This approach is particularly useful when you need the model to follow a specific format or style, as it gives a clear reference point for the AI to mimic or learn from.
- Data Extraction: Data extraction is a prompt engineering technique that involves creating prompts that specifically guide AI models to pull out relevant data or information from a given input. This technique is used to retrieve specific details, facts, or figures from a larger body of text. Effective data extraction prompts are clear, concise, and direct, focusing the AI’s attention on the exact piece of information needed. They are particularly useful in scenarios where quick and accurate information retrieval from large datasets or complex documents is required.
- Creative Writing: Creative writing in prompt engineering refers to formulating prompts that encourage imaginative and original content creation. This technique is used to guide AI models to generate unique and engaging narratives, stories, poems, or dialogues. It involves crafting prompts that provide a theme, setting, character, or situation, allowing the AI to explore and develop creative pieces. This approach is particularly useful in storytelling, scriptwriting, and any application where innovative and artistic expression is desired. The key is to design prompts that are open-ended yet specific enough to inspire detailed and coherent creative responses.
- Extension of Context: The Extension of Context technique in prompt engineering involves adding additional background or detailed information to a prompt, thereby guiding the AI model to generate more specific and relevant responses. This method is especially useful in scenarios where the initial prompt may be too vague or broad. By providing extended context, users can direct the AI to focus on particular aspects of a topic or to approach a question from a certain perspective, enhancing the quality and accuracy of the generated output. This technique is valuable across various applications, from content creation to data analysis, ensuring that the responses are aligned with the user’s specific needs or objectives
- Focused Content Analysis: The focused content analysis technique in prompt engineering is about crafting prompts that guide AI models to analyze specific aspects or elements within a larger set of information. This method ensures the model’s response hones in on a particular theme, detail, or question rather than providing a broad, general overview. It’s especially useful when dealing with large and complex datasets or content, where pinpointing relevant information is crucial. This technique enhances the precision and relevance of the AI’s output, making it a valuable tool for tasks requiring detailed analysis or specific insights.
- Filling Out the Template: “Filling Out the Template” is a prompt engineering technique that involves using a pre-defined structure for prompts where specific information is added to complete them. This method is effective in standardizing responses and ensuring all necessary information is included. For instance, in a book review template, you would fill in specific details like the book’s title, author, genre, a brief synopsis, personal opinion, and rating. This approach is useful in contexts where consistency and comprehensive information are key, such as data collection, surveys, or structured feedback.
- Prompt Reframing: Offering a different perspective, these prompts rephrase a question or task to clarify or approach it from a new angle. Prompt reframing in prompt engineering is a technique where an existing prompt is altered or rephrased to better suit the requirements or to yield more effective results. This process involves changing the angle or focus of the question while maintaining its core intent. For instance, a basic prompt like “Tell me about climate change” might be reframed to “Explain the impact of human activities on climate change and potential solutions.” This reframing can lead to more detailed, specific, or relevant responses from the model, making it a valuable tool in optimizing interactions with advanced digital models.
- Prompt Combination: The prompt combination technique in prompt engineering involves merging multiple queries or instructions into a single, cohesive prompt. This approach is used to extract more complex or multi-faceted responses from an AI model. By combining prompts, you can address several aspects of a topic simultaneously, enabling the AI to provide a more comprehensive and nuanced response. This technique is particularly useful when dealing with interrelated topics or when you want to generate a detailed response covering multiple angles of a subject.
- Chain-of-Thought Prompts: The Chain-of-Thought Prompting technique in prompt engineering involves creating prompts that guide AI models through a step-by-step reasoning process to arrive at an answer. This approach is particularly useful for complex problems that require multiple inferential steps. By breaking down a query into a series of logical steps, the AI can provide more detailed and accurate explanations or solutions. This technique enhances the model’s ability to handle intricate tasks by simulating a human-like thought process, leading to improved clarity and depth in responses.
- Iterative Prompting: Iterative Prompting in Prompt Engineering is a technique where the initial prompt is refined based on the responses received. This process involves a series of adjustments to the prompt, aiming to enhance the clarity, relevance, or depth of the output. Each iteration of the prompt takes into account the previous response, allowing for more accurate and targeted information retrieval or response generation. This method is particularly useful in complex scenarios where the first attempt might not yield the desired result or where a nuanced understanding is required.
- Interactive Storytelling and Role-Playing: Interactive Storytelling and Role-Playing Playing in prompt engineering involves creating scenarios where users or AI models assume specific roles or characters within a narrative. This technique enhances engagement by making the interaction more immersive. Users might be prompted to respond or make decisions as a character in a story, thereby influencing the narrative’s direction. This method is particularly effective in making AI interactions more dynamic and human-like, providing a rich, interactive experience that goes beyond standard question-answer formats. It’s widely used in gaming, education, and creative writing exercises.
- Giving Implicit Information: The “Giving Implicit Information” technique in prompt engineering involves crafting prompts that subtly incorporate underlying messages or context without stating them directly. This method is useful for guiding the AI model to make inferences or consider unstated aspects while generating a response. It’s especially effective in scenarios where the prompt aims to explore deeper meanings, encourage critical thinking, or evoke a certain perspective in the AI’s response without explicitly stating the objective. This technique leverages the AI’s ability to read between the lines and respond in a way that aligns with the implied context or message.
- Nuanced Language Translation: Nuanced language translation in prompt engineering refers to creating prompts that guide AI models to translate text while maintaining the original context, cultural nuances, and subtleties. This technique is essential when translating idioms, colloquialisms, or culturally-specific references. It involves formulating prompts that instruct the AI to consider not just the literal meaning but also the tone, intent, and cultural context behind the words, ensuring the translation captures the essence of the original text as closely as possible.
- Automatic Prompt Engineer: The “Automatic Prompt Engineer” technique in prompt engineering refers to the development and use of tools or methods that automatically generate effective prompts for interacting with advanced models. This approach utilizes algorithms and frameworks that can understand the desired output and accordingly craft prompts that are most likely to elicit the correct or most relevant response. The technique aims to streamline and optimize the process of prompt creation, making it more efficient and effective, especially in scenarios where generating a large number of high-quality prompts is necessary. This is particularly valuable in large-scale or commercial applications where consistency and precision are key.
Related Post: Prompt Engineering Technique
Future Scope
The future scope of prompt engineering techniques is promising and expansive. As technology evolves, these techniques will become more sophisticated, enabling more precise and complex interactions with models. Future applications may include enhanced natural language understanding, more personalized AI experiences, and breakthroughs in AI-assisted creativity and problem-solving. Additionally, advancements in prompt engineering could lead to more efficient data processing and interpretation, further integrating AI into diverse fields like healthcare, education, and business. The continuous refinement of these techniques will be crucial in realizing the full potential of AI technologies in various applications. Embark on your journey to becoming a prompt engineer with our comprehensive guide – uncover the essential steps and skills needed for success.
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FAQs
What are the three types of prompt engineering?
Prompt engineering can be broadly categorized into three types based on complexity and approach:
Zero-Shot Prompting: The model is asked to complete a task without any examples.
Example Prompt: “Translate this sentence to Spanish: ‘I am learning AI.’”
Few-Shot Prompting: The prompt includes a few examples to help guide the model.
Example Prompt:
“Translate English to French.
‘Hello’ → ‘Bonjour’
‘Goodbye’ → ‘Au revoir’
‘Thank you’ → ?”
Chain-of-Thought Prompting: The prompt encourages the model to break down its reasoning step by step.
Example Prompt:
“If I have 3 apples and buy 2 more, how many apples do I have? Think step-by-step.”
Each method has its strengths, and choosing the right one depends on the task complexity and desired output.
How to do better prompt engineering?
To improve prompt engineering, follow these best practices:
Be explicit: Clearly define what you want.
Use roles: Assign the model a role (e.g., “Act as a teacher”).
Provide context: Include background information if needed.
Test variations: Iterate and refine your prompt for better results.
Use examples: Guide the model with a few-shot approach.
Break it down: For complex tasks, use chain-of-thought reasoning.
Example of an improved prompt:
Basic: “Explain gravity.”
Improved: “You are a physics teacher explaining gravity to 8th grade students using simple analogies”
You might wonder if tools like ChatGPT use these techniques under the hood. Let us explore.
Does ChatGPT use prompt engineering?
Yes ChatGPT and similar models are powered by prompt engineering at multiple levels:
Internally by developers (e.g., to fine-tune behavior with system-level prompts)
By users to extract specific, high-quality answers
Every time you type a query you are effectively engineering a prompt. Tools like ChatGPT perform better when guided with thoughtful, structured input.
Example Prompt to ChatGPT:
“Act as an interview coach. Ask me 5 questions about machine learning and provide feedback on my answers.”
As prompt engineering gains traction, it’s becoming a recognized career path with lucrative prospects
What is the salary of a prompt engineer?
In AI, prompt engineering is a new field that is growing. Pay varies by skill, location, and company.
Here are typical salary ranges (as of 2025):
Level of Experience Average Salary (USD/year)
Starting out
$85,000 to $110,000
Mid-Level (2-5 years)
$120,000 to $160,000
Senior/Expert $175,000–$300,000+ Consultants and freelancers
$50-$200/hour
Top Companies Hiring Prompt Engineers:
OpenAI
Google DeepMind
Anthropic
Meta AI
Startups in content, legal tech, healthcare, and edtech
With demand growing across industries, learning prompt engineering can be a career-defining move in the AI age.
Related Post: Prompts for generative models