Who Will Be the Academic Prompt Engineering Experts?

As I mentioned in a post a month ago, prompt engineering is the term of art for prompting a generative AI tool like ChatGPT-4 to produce an answer to a question, analysis of a problem, or an essay about a particular topic. As part of my post, I prompted ChatGPT-4 for answers to questions about prompt engineering including recommendations for courses to learn prompt engineering. As I wrote, there are hundreds, if not thousands of courses. Nearly all of them were from companies, not colleges.

It’s ironic that the “experts” providing prompt engineering courses are not academics. I happen to believe that there are academics mastering prompt engineering as I write this. A former faculty colleague of mine, Kurt Messick, has authored three books using ChatGPT. Kurt’s a serious lifelong learner, so it’s not a surprise to me that he’s experimenting with the new technology.

Last week, I wrote about generative AI tools that could be used to decrease the instructional design time required to build a college course. I also wrote an article about Villanova University professor Noah Barsky’s opinion piece suggesting that all MBA curriculums should be rewritten to teach their students how to utilize AI tools in their professions. Business schools with outdated curriculums will not prepare their graduates for businesses expecting them to be able to master state of the art AI tools.

I decided to search LinkedIn and Twitter for posts about using generative AI for marketing. I found a blog titled Prompt Engineering Daily written by Aadit Sheth. I don’t know Aadit, but it appears that he is an entrepreneur and social media guru who has focused on building a following by crafting advice on prompts for AI applications.

I reviewed Aadit’s website and have listed the titles of marketing-related posts and their links below. For each of these posts, he has a short explanation as well as the prompt(s) that lead to the advice from the AI. As I have noted from my more limited work with ChatGPT and other generative AI products, the more specificity you include in a prompt, the better “advice” it appears to provide.

AI strategy for a new product launch

Effective product descriptions to attract customers

Business strategies by an AI marketing expert

Write one-line metaphors using AI

Create a social media calendar using ChatGPT

AI becomes your personal writing assistant (grammar, clarity, perfection)

Use AI to become a better sales call closer

Increase your sales with the “Reciprocity Bias Framework”

Save time writing follow-up emails

Cut email writing time with AI

Use AI to become a top-tier recruiter by asking novel questions

Increase conversions with these CTA tips

Write speeches that build trust with your audience

Aadit is clearly an entrepreneur. Each of his blog’s daily newsfeeds has a post about a prompt that relates to marketing. He added a news blurb called The Biggest Things in AI Recently.  On a recent post, I found a link to an article about the salaries that expert prompt engineers are commanding at firms. It appears the range is $50,000 to $350,000. The good news is that some of the top prompt engineers are liberal arts graduates whose ability to understand the use of language is an advantage in this field.

Aadit is also promoting a prompt course called Marketing Magic that is available on April 15 for either $69 or $79. I haven’t decided if I will choose to take the course, but the quick release of the course and the price is indicative of how responsive non-academic entrepreneurs can be to a new and very relevant subject.

I must return to my review of Noah Barsky’s Forbes article about the need to revise MBA curriculum for AI. In my opinion, these tools are powerful and getting better as the competition for accuracy and market share increases. If we’re going to prepare our graduates for the expectations of their employers, we need to dive into using generative AI ourselves. There’s a lot of opportunity for many academics to promote their expertise on their blogs or elsewhere. Ignoring AI is not an option.

Subjects of Interest

EdTech

Higher Education

Independent Schools

K-12

Student Persistence

Workforce