From Prompt Engineering to Intent Engineering

danielmiessler.com · 3 months ago · 11

Practitioners should shift from giving AI detailed step-by-step instructions to simply describing desired outcomes, a change driven by the principle that increasingly capable AI systems will outperform human-specified procedures. The transition involves converting "how" prompts into "what" prompts—for example, specifying an end result rather than the method to achieve it. This approach prevents constraining AI's native capabilities with outdated human guidance that becomes less optimal as models improve.