Here’s the uncomfortable truth nobody wants to admit:
👉 Prompt engineering isn’t a real skill.
I can already hear the pushback—“Wait, what? Manas but I just paid for a course on it!”
Let me explain.
Everyone’s selling "prompt engineering" as a standalone superpower. But here's the unvarnished truth: it's not a standalone skill—it’s hype wrapped around two factors that have always mattered.
Job market trend data: Indeed searches for “prompt engineer” surged to ~144 per million in April 2023, then dropped to 20–30 per million—suggesting interest fizzled as tools improved (Salesforce Ben).
Stat breakdown of necessary skills: A 2025 study shows prompt engineering job ads list AI (22.8%), prompt design (18.7%), communication (21.9%), and creative problem-solving (15.8%)—partial overlap with broader roles (ArXiv).
The “Google Ninjas” Flashback
If you have read some technical history, you would have know that back in early 2000s—being a “Google ninja” was a skill. But it didn’t age well. Typing flashy search terms wasn’t useful; knowing what to search was.
Prompt engineering is headed the same way.
A Fortune-style article via Economist notes that demand for prompt engineers is plateauing. Companies now want broader AI skill sets—not just prompting (Reddit, The Economic Times).
Salary hype is crashing: early salaries hit six figures, but quickly cooled as tools improved (Mondo Staffing Agency).
What Actually Matters: Domain Expertise & Communication
The real, long-term leverage will always be in knowing your craft and explaining yourself clearly.
A June 2023 OpenAI–Johns Hopkins collaboration, where oncologists refined over 10,000 prompts, boosted medical query accuracy by 28%—because domain experts know what matters. (Vaughn Tan, Latitude Blog)
A study of 25,000 Bing Copilot chats found that when the AI matched the user’s domain expertise (~77% of conversations), user satisfaction soared. Misalignment hurt engagement (ArXiv).
The Psychology: We Love Shortcuts
Let’s be honest—“learn prompt engineering in 7 days” sells. But real change comes from compounding domain knowledge and clarity over time.
A Financial Times article from JPMorgan stresses that every new hire gets prompt training—but highlights that real value lies in expertise integration, not just prompts (ft.com).
A recent study on AI-job transitions argues that domain experts will amplify AI's impact, not be replaced by it (Product School).
Prompting will remain a vital part of AI applications for the foreseeable future.
People have been predicting the end of prompt engineering almost since its start, but they are getting distracted by hacky tricks.
Prompt engineering isn’t the final stop. It’s a connector between:
What you know ↔ What you can express
Don’t be better at prompt engineering. Be better at communication and expertise.
That’s the skill no algorithm can replace.
Thanks for sticking through—this isn’t cool-hype fluff. It’s a clearer, more durable path.
🔗 If this hit home, forward it to someone chasing the next prompt hack.
And if you’re serious about mastering AI with clarity + craft—without the fluff—Codexai is where the real work happens.
Manas xx !! 🥂
Founder, Codexai
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