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Glossary entry

Prompt Engineering

The practice of designing prompts, instructions, and context structures so an AI system produces better outputs more efficiently.

Why it matters

Prompt engineering matters because it affects quality, latency, and cost at the same time; better prompts can reduce waste as well as improve outcomes.

In practice, prompt engineering is also a cost-governance tool because shorter, cleaner prompts can improve unit economics. For the operating view, see FinOps & AI.