The Prompt Engineer
From hype job to universal core competence: A data-driven analysis of the labor market.
Act 1: The Hype Bubble
At the end of 2022, ChatGPT created a new hype job, fueled by spectacular salary promises and media attention. The interest of job seekers exploded.
The Origin of the Hype
Leading AI companies like Anthropic were looking for highly paid specialists to test their new models and build prompt libraries – a temporary R&D task that was falsely interpreted as a new permanent profession.
Explosion of Search Queries for "Prompt Engineer" (Q2 2023)
The graph shows search queries per 1 million searches on job platforms and illustrates the massive interest of job seekers driven by media reports.
Act 2: The Reality Check
The sober labor market data paints a different picture: The actual demand from employers was and is vanishingly small compared to the interest of seekers.
Demand Discrepancy in the USA (Q2 2023)
The ratio of job seekers to actual job advertisements peaked at 14:1. A clear indication of a supply bubble.
The German Market: An Absolute Niche
From 2023-2024, there were only 130 explicit "Prompt Engineer" positions in Germany – a tiny fraction of the approx. 70,000 advertised IT jobs.
Act 3: The Metamorphosis
While the job title fades, the demand for prompting as a skill explodes. Companies are not looking for the "AI whisperer", but the subject matter expert who masters AI.
Job Title vs. Skill: Demand in Germany
The data clearly shows: Competence in dealing with AI is many times more in demand than the specific job title. The skill is being integrated into existing, highly qualified professions.
Act 4: The Drivers of Change
Two parallel developments make the specialized Prompt Engineer superfluous and instead promote the broad application of the skill.
Technological Drivers
Organizational Drivers
Act 5: Prompting in Practice
The requirement "Prompt Engineering" means something different depending on the professional field. The common denominator: deep specialist knowledge to guide the AI precisely and evaluate its results.
Technical Roles
Creative & Marketing Roles
Business & Management Roles
Act 6: The True Value – Conclusion & Career Strategy
The financial leverage lies not in the job title, but in the skill as a multiplier for your existing expertise.
Salary Benchmarking in Germany (€ p.a.)
The prompting skill is a differentiator that justifies a salary at the upper end of the industry scale by increasing productivity.
Your Strategy: The "T-Shaped Professional"
The most successful career model of the future combines deep specialist knowledge with broad competencies.
Build on your domain expertise and supplement it with AI competence. This makes you irreplaceable for employers.
From Insight to Mastery. Now.
This analysis shows: Your professional competence is the key. Paired with AI skills, it becomes irreplaceable. Our BOARDING Service is the bridge from theory to practice. We help you to strategically use AI potentials in your daily workflows and raise your productivity to a new level.
Contact us for an individual analysis