Lucrative salaries, opportunities for advancement fuel demand for prompt engineering

With a projected 40% increase in AI investments, the demand for prompt engineering skills is expected to rise significantly. Jobs demanding this niche skill offer salaries starting from ₹4 lakh per annum for a fresher to ₹20 lakh for individuals with ten years of experience, according to data compiled by recruitment and human resource services firm TeamLease Digital and shared with TechCircle.

Prompt engineering, as a job role and skill set, came to prominence around the same time as the launch of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. It sits at the intersection of logic, coding, and art, involving refining large language models (LLMs) by specifying prompts and outputs for generative AI services. “As language models evolve, prompt engineering is poised to reshape industries, creating novel job roles and contributing to transformative changes across sectors,” TeamLease Digital has predicted.

Prompt engineering skills may be required for tasks such as improving the performance of language models, designing prompt engineering pipelines for large-scale production, and building prompt engineering libraries and tools.

Krishna Vij, the business head (IT staffing) at TeamLease Digital, told TechCircle that candidates applying for these jobs are typically from a computer engineering background with additional specializations in AI and machine learning. “While early requirements came from tech-based firms, fields like marketing and advertising, media and communications, e-commerce, healthcare, and finance are also seeing increasing demand,” said Vij.

Prompt engineering skills are required for roles such as AI engineer, data engineer, IT automation engineer, and generative AI engineer. Companies are also investing in upskilling programs. Edtech platforms like Upgrad, DeepLearning.ai, and Udemy offer standalone courses on prompt engineering.

“The demand for prompt engineers outpaces the current talent pool, with job opportunities expanding across diverse sectors. Corporate investments in training programs signal a promising future, with projected growth exceeding 30% annually,” the findings show. The data compiled by the team found that there are currently around 3000 skilled professionals with prompt engineering skills.

Although prompt engineering offers benefits such as competitive salaries, opportunities for advancement, and intellectual stimulation, its relevance in the age of rapid innovation and automation remains to be seen.