The role of AI prompt engineer attracted attention for its high-six-figure salaries when it emerged in early 2023. Companies define it in different ways, but its principal aim is to help a company integrate AI into its operations.
Danai Myrtzani of Sleed, a digital marketing agency in Greece, describes herself as more prompter than engineer. She joined the company in March 2023 as one of two experts on its new experimental-AI team.
Go-to AI experts: Since joining Sleed, Myrtzani has helped develop a tool that generates personalized LinkedIn posts for clients. The tool works with OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform, which automates the writing process using sets of built-in prompts. Myrtzani’s job is to ensure that users get the results they are looking for. She also teaches other employees how to use generative AI tools, hosts workshops, and writes an internal newsletter dedicated to AI. Her employers “want pretty much everyone to be able to use AI,” she says, because these tools have the potential to automate trivial tasks, making more time for work that requires creative thinking. She refers to her department as “the support team for AI.”
An education in language: Myrtzani came to Sleed with experience experimenting with generative AI tools as well as a university education in social anthropology. Her studies gave her an expertise in human language systems that the company thought would be especially valuable in the job. “The more qualified you are at using language, the easier it is to create prompts,” she says.
More than prompt writers: Many writers have been concerned that generative AI could make their jobs obsolete. Prompt engineers are especially vulnerable: demand for their services could disappear if the software becomes better at understanding users’ prompts. But Myrtzani says her own position demands much more than just prompt writing, including identifying and integrating AI-based solutions for business challenges. “The higher tiers of prompt engineering are where the enduring and evolving aspects of the role lie,” she says.