The role of an artificial intelligence (AI) prompt engineer, who formulates questions and instructions to optimize program outputs, is a highly sought-after position that can pay over $300,000 per year. This rapidly growing sector is attracting professionals from various backgrounds, including writers, as it requires a combination of technical and creative skills. However, experts warn that white-collar workers, such as coders, journalists, and data analysts, may face displacement due to advancements in AI technology. The demand for prompt engineers is currently outpacing the availability of experienced candidates, making it a lucrative career option.
Prompt engineering, the skill of getting the best and most relevant answers from generative AI tools, is emerging as a highly sought-after job in the age of AI. With professional AI prompt engineers earning high salaries and demand for their skills increasing, finding qualified prompt engineers is a challenge. The skillset required for prompt engineering goes beyond technical acumen and involves a combination of AI, programming, language, problem-solving, and even art. While the field is still evolving and the requirements for prompt engineers are not yet clearly defined, it is important to have a business contextual understanding and creative writing skills. The development of robust tools and investment in AI ventures will shape the talent market, but for now, finding experienced prompt engineers remains difficult.
The emergence of AI bot ChatGPT has created a new jobs market for "prompt engineers" who enhance the results that ChatGPT provides and train a company's workforce to make the most of using the tool. Companies are advertising salaries up to $335,000 for a "Prompt Engineer and Librarian" role. No specialist computer engineering degree is needed for many of these roles, and applicants with basic programming skills and familiarity with large language models would make a good fit. The prompt engineer market is the fastest-moving in 25 years, and expert prompt engineers can charge up to £200,000 or £300,000 per year.
