A prompt is the instruction you give an AI model. Prompt engineering is the systematic work of formulating those instructions as precisely as possible.
The difference between a good and bad prompt can be enormous.
Bad prompt: "Write an email to the customer." Good prompt: "You are a B2B SaaS sales rep. The customer hasn't responded to two previous messages. Write a short (max. 5 sentences), friendly follow-up email. Don't use phrases like 'just checking in'. Offer concrete value: a free 30-minute consultation."
Companies that invest in prompt engineering get dramatically better results from the same models. Techniques include: few-shot prompting (showing the model examples), chain-of-thought (letting the model "think" step by step), and system prompts (defining role and context at the start).
This is why prompt engineering is the foundation of every workshop we run – when your team knows how to communicate with AI tools, their productivity improves immediately.