Are prompt engineers still in demand?

Stories appeared about prompt engineers who had landed the job with no background in computer science - a degree in linguistics had been sufficient.

The recent AI boom led to a new kind of role: prompt engineering [File] | Photo Credit: REUTERS

The recent AI boom led to a new kind of role: prompt engineering. It is less about engineering and more about the skill of using concise and smart language to talk to a large language model (LLM) and get the desired result quickly. 

The output produced by an LLM chatbot is only as good as the prompt entered into it. So, this role suddenly became a hot new skill, commanding salaries of up to $340,000 per year. 

Stories appeared about prompt engineers who had landed the job with no background in computer science - a degree in linguistics had been sufficient. It felt like the only barrier to master AI was a prompt. But now even as the demand for this skill remains high, there are telltale signs that it is overblown. 

Elvis Saravia, co-founder of ethical AI research startup DAIR.AI and prompt engineering trainer questions its relevance as a separate career. “Don’t know about it being a job per se. But I do know the value of it as a skill to do impressive things with LLMs,” he tweeted. 

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Another senior staff research scientist, Joshua Saxe agreed that while the skill is an important one, the notion that a prompt engineer should just be efficient at creating prompts might not stick around. “You need to have the other software engineering and data science skills too,” he noted. 

“There are companies asking for prompt engineers, but the task of such a person always is a much broader one,” Rodger Werkhoven, an independent creative director working with OpenAI said. According to Werkhoven, prompt engineering is an “overstated concept” and he doesn’t see “demand evolve around prompt engineering roles.

A recent research paper published by Google DeepMind scientists showed that LLMs themselves are better at creating prompts than humans because of their grasp over language, indicating that the role itself isn’t as unshakeable as was once thought. 

Software engineers still valuable

As dust from the heydays of the hype settles down, companies have realised they need to focus on the practical AI applications, which has led to a more sustained demand for AI engineers, who can do more than just make prompts. And no, the earlier assumption that the clamouring for AI job roles would simply replace the demand for software engineers, hasn’t happened. 

“Core programming skilled resources will always have demand. AI will not take over software engineering jobs, but it is changing the landscape. AI cannot replace the creativity and critical thinking skills that human engineers possess. As AI continues to evolve, it will become a add on skill for software engineers rather than a replacement,” Krishna Vij, business head of IT staffing of recruitment company TeamLease Digital said. 

Recruiters argue that the AI boom has only pushed the scope of what software engineers do and made them more valuable. 

Sarbojit Mallick, co-founder of hiring platform Instahyre said, “The demand for software engineering jobs has been positively influenced by the AI boom in recent years. AI technologies have become integral to numerous industries, prompting increased demand for software engineers skilled in AI and machine learning. Companies are actively recruiting software engineers to develop AI-powered applications, data processing systems, and AI-driven solutions.” 

Software engineering itself has become more cutting-edge because it has absorbed AI-specific skillsets like prompt engineering. 

“What people call ‘software engineering’ is increasingly requiring knowledge of how to work with AI systems, i.e. ‘prompt engineering’ even if you don’t call it that. Half the companies in the latest YC batch are prompt engineering GPT-4, some of them with extraordinarily good results,” Amal Dorai, partner at Anorak Ventures said on X. 

Many job listings in market

But even as academia calls for caution, there is enough evidence to suggest that the market is yet to catch up. In India, recruiters remain enthusiastic about prompt engineering roles. 

“The demand for AI prompt engineering job roles in India is currently substantial and continues to rise. This shift can be attributed to various factors, including the increasing adoption of AI and machine learning technologies across industries, the growing popularity of large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, and the surging demand for AI-powered interactive technologies like chatbots and voice assistants,” Kapil Joshi, deputy CEO at Quess IT staffing said.  

Some companies are in need of prompt engineers in customer service and engagement, content creation, drug discovery, autonomous vehicles, quality control and financial analysis

“The demand for AI prompt engineering job roles remains robust but has evolved since the peak of AI hype a few months ago. During the hype, there was a surge in job postings 132% driven by heightened expectations and investments in AI technologies. However, some of these positions were speculative, leading to an initial oversupply of AI talent,” Mallick said.