Prompt engineering can be thought of as the art and science of crafting instructions that guide AI systems, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), to produce coherent and contextually relevant responses. According to the
Prompt Engineering Guide, this discipline not only focuses on the structure of the textual input but also considers the nuances of language needed to effectively interact with users.
The prompts form the initial input for the AI agent, and the way they are formulated can cause drastic changes in the kind of responses generated. For instance, a simple prompt like "What is the weather?" can yield generic responses, while a more specific prompt such as "What is the weather like in Boston today?" results in a tailored answer that is much more applicable to the user’s needs. As discussed in various articles, including
Effective Prompts for AI, crafting specific prompts helps reduce ambiguity, ensuring the chatbot accurately understands and addresses user queries.