Slapping the word “engineering” on “writing prompts” is like calling social engineering a branch of software engineering is absurd, but oddly effective at grabbing legitimacy.
Let’s be real… writing a good AI prompt can be clever, insightful, even artful. But it’s not engineering. There’s no system design. No math. No repeatability. No testable logic. Just trial, error, and vibes (sometimes).
It’s closer to spellcasting than software development.
Calling it “engineering” is one of the greatest marketing lies since AI stormed into our lives. It elevated casual copywriting into a six-figure job title. It made people believe they were building systems when they were just nudging LLMs.
Yes, prompting can be important. But if we keep calling it engineering, we’re lying to ourselves and to the next generation of developers who are trying to understand what real technical mastery looks like.
Let’s respect language. Not everything that smells like tech needs to wear the engineer costume.

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Argues that prompt engineering is fundamentally different from traditional software engineering, lacking the systematic design, mathematical rigor, and testable logic that define real engineering disciplines. The author contends that calling prompt writing 'engineering' is misleading marketing that inflates the perceived technical complexity of working with AI language models.

Enough is enough. Prompt engineering is not engineering.

This is just the truth, glad that this is been said. lets not keep deceiving ourselves.

Preach! Agree with this 100%.
“Prompt engineering” can be “engineering”, if you are systematically testing and measuring the effectiveness of your prompts at the tasks they are performing.
But in 99% of the cases the term is thrown around, it’s absolutely not the case. I’m more inclined to call that prompt crafting.

A coffee for this man ! Agreed 1000%

“Data Science” isn’t science, “Cargo” goes by “Ship”, a “Shipment” goes by “Truck”… It’s all word soup in the end.
From a truly utilitarian point of view, all engineering should never appeal to the aesthetic. Elegant Solutions, yes, but no aesthetics.
So yeah, “Prompt Engineering” is not the correct coined phrase, but we may be stuck with it. “Prompt Composer” and “AI Motivator” don’t quite have the ring to it that buzzes with the masses.
I think “AI Code Monkey Encourager” (ACME) is probably more accurate.