Submitted:
08 October 2026
Posted:
10 October 2026
You are already at the latest version
Abstract
Prompt engineering has developed as a transformative subfield in artificial intelligence (AI), enabling humans to enhance AI systems through structured (PROLOG-like) instructions to perform specific tasks. This paper shines a light on its multi-dimensional impact on programming, routine tasks and broader AI applications, drawing on insights from recent studies. By using techniques such as parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT), zero-shot learning, multi-shot learning and linguistic feature analysis, prompt engineering often is used to tackle remaining issues in software engineering (SE), language processing (NLP) and AI safety. The body of literature highlights its role in optimizing AI performance, reducing computational overhead and reducing biases. Additionally, it highlights critical gaps in current methodologies, such as the comparative energy intensity of state-of-art large language models (LLMs) and the requirements for adaptive and scalable prompt crafting strategies. Finally, the paper suggests future directions for research, highlighting the importance of human-centered design and collaboration to advance the field.
Keywords:
prompt engineering
; artificial intelligence (AI)
; machine learning (ML)
; natural language processing (NLP)
; optimization
; energy intensity
; climate change
; automation
; human-centered design
; tasks-driven automation
; LLMs (large language models)
; cloud-Based AI
; human-Computer interaction (HCI)
; user experience (UX)
; user interface (UI)
; interface engineering
; artificial intelligence ethics
; engineering ethics
; machine learning ethics
; bias in AI
; fairness in AI
; science of engineering science
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.