AI dictionary

Prompt Engineering

The practice of writing and testing instructions so a model produces useful, consistent outputs.

Plain English

It is learning how to ask the AI in a way that reliably gets the kind of answer you need.

Example

A support bot prompt includes role guidance, examples, output format rules, and escalation instructions.

Why it matters

Prompting remains the first layer of control, even as serious systems add retrieval, tools, and evaluations.