Prompt engineering starts off sounding like a workaround—just phrasing things better so an AI gives a better answer—but it quickly reveals itself as something closer to a new kind of interface design. You’re not writing code in the traditional sense, but you’re also not just “asking a question.” You’re shaping context, defining boundaries, nudging the model toward a particular way of thinking. The input becomes a kind of lightweight program, written in natural language, where structure matters more than people initially expect.