Prompt engineering
Definition The practice of designing and refining the instructions given to AI models to get accurate, useful, and consistent output—specifying role, context, format, examples, and constraints rather than asking open-ended questions.
In more depth
Common techniques include assigning the model a role, supplying relevant documents, showing worked examples, and asking the model to reason step by step. Small wording changes can produce materially different answers, so teams often standardize tested prompts for recurring tasks such as summarizing depositions or extracting contract terms. Good prompting improves reliability but does not remove the need to verify output.
Further reading: Wikipedia.
Related terms
Educational information, not legal advice. AI terminology and tools change quickly; definitions reflect usage as of the last-updated date. For what bar associations and courts actually require of lawyers using AI, see legalaicompliance.help and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.