AI Trainers and Prompters: The Hottest New White-Collar Job

Prompt engineers bridge the gap between AI models and the human experiences they’re meant to serve

Ulrik Stig Hansen, President and co-founder, Encord

November 28, 2024

3 Min Read
Someone using generative AI prompts
Getty Images

The AI revolution is here and with it comes a new class of professionals: AI trainers and prompt engineers. Forget the stereotype that AI jobs are only for hardcore coders and data scientists — these new roles highlight the importance of communication, creativity and problem-solving because the ability to "speak AI" is becoming just as valuable as coding it. As a result, prompt engineers are emerging as key players, bridging the gap between AI models and the human experiences they’re meant to serve.

AI trainers and prompt engineers ensure AI systems understand and respond appropriately to human inputs. Their work centers on designing, testing and refining prompts that guide AI systems in generating accurate and useful outputs. Their work extends beyond ensuring proper grammar and is about getting the AI to understand nuance, context and the real-world impact of its responses. These trainers are the reason your AI-powered chatbot doesn’t provide you with a recipe when you ask for restaurant recommendations.

Top-tier AI trainers or prompt engineers require a unique mix of skills. Sure, a bit of technical knowledge is necessary — they’re dealing with AI, after all — but creativity is the real secret weapon. These prompters must think outside the box to craft prompts that push AI’s limits, helping it respond with depth and relevance. It's also crucial to have a deep understanding of natural language processing. AI trainers must grasp how AI models interpret human language and work to improve their performance. It’s like teaching a computer how to engage in a meaningful and insightful conversation—one that remains accurate, relevant and avoids errors or misunderstandings.

Related:Navigating the Holiday Rush With AI

The field won’t be limited to coding experts or technical wizards anymore. The best AI trainers will come from diverse backgrounds like linguistics, psychology and communications. The role requires a delicate balance of logic and empathy - a dance between providing the AI exactly what it needs to know and guiding it toward better, more accurate results.

Despite the growing sophistication of AI systems, there’s one crucial ability they still lack: being human. AI is only as good as the data it's trained on and the data is rarely perfect. When AI stumbles — whether by misinterpreting a query, fabricating facts, or delivering an odd, robotic response — AI trainers step in to catch, correct and redirect it in the right direction. The ethical lines of a response can also get blurry, requiring human oversight. AI trainers are key in making AI more trustworthy, ensuring that the system can adapt to complex, real-world situations that no amount of data training alone can prepare it for.

Related:Navigating AI in Business: Balancing Regulation and Ethics

The rise of AI trainers and prompt engineers is shaking up the job market in exciting ways. Salaries for these roles can reach as high as $335,000 per year and the wide variety of transferable skills is opening doors for a more diverse workforce to enter the AI field. People with strong creative and problem-solving skills can now find lucrative opportunities in AI without having to learn complex programming languages. 

AI trainers won’t just be a passing trend. The need for these professionals will grow as AI systems become more integrated into every facet of life. Companies are recognizing that having powerful AI is only part of the equation because it must also perform effectively in real-world scenarios, which depends on human expertise. So, if you’re looking for a career where you can blend tech-savviness with creativity and problem-solving, AI training might just be the job you didn’t know you were waiting for.

About the Author

Ulrik Stig Hansen

President and co-founder, Encord , Encord

Ulrik Stig Hansen is the President and Co-Founder of Encord, the first platform enabling enterprises to manage and optimize data for multimodal AI. Since its inception in 2020, Encord has raised over $50 million and gained recognition for its innovative approach to data management, curation, annotation and model evaluation. Before founding Encord, Ulrik honed his skills in finance and technology at J.P. Morgan in London, where he dealt in Emerging Markets Rates & FX on the trading floor. His experience in financial markets and complex data analysis has been crucial to his success in leading a tech-focused startup.

Keep up with the ever-evolving AI landscape
Unlock exclusive AI content by subscribing to our newsletter!!

You May Also Like