Can You Write Prompts for Any Industry? Here’s What You Should Know

Not long ago, someone asked me about expanding their work in prompt engineering beyond their own industry. They wanted to write prompts for fields they weren’t familiar with, and they asked me what barriers they might face.

My response? You can write prompts for anyone. But what makes a great prompt engineer isn’t just technical skill—it’s deep experience in a specific field. That experience allows you to write prompts that truly resonate with the people who will use them.

Why Industry Experience Matters in Prompt Engineering

Take my own journey, for example. I’ve worked with researchers, physicians, librarians, and scientists—not just as an observer, but as a bridge between disciplines, translating complex ideas into clear, accessible communication.

Because of this, I understand:

How these professionals think—their priorities, their processes, their pain points.
Their digital body language—how they interact online, how they search for information, and how they respond to AI-generated content.
The physical and cultural environment they work in—for example, my time on the digitization team at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies Library, where I’ve worked alongside library staff, digitized government documents, and observed how students engage with academic materials.

These insights shape how I write prompts. A prompt isn’t just a set of instructions—it’s a bridge between a language model and human intent. And if that bridge isn’t built with an understanding of its users, it won’t hold up.

The Five Layers of a Well-Designed Prompt

When you create a prompt, there are multiple layers at play:

The Prompt Engineer – The person writing the prompt, whose background, experience, and intent shape how it’s structured.
The Prompt Itself – The instructions given to the AI, which can be fine-tuned endlessly.
The AI’s Output – The response generated by the AI, which varies based on prompt quality and specificity.
The End User – The researcher, professional, or decision-maker who will interpret and act on the AI’s output.
Digital Body Language – How the output is received, read, and responded to across different online contexts.

That last layer—digital body language—is an often-overlooked element in generative AI. How people engage with AI-generated responses varies widely across cultures, professions, and digital spaces. A researcher reading a response in an academic setting will interpret it differently than a journalist, a policymaker, or a community advocate.

One thing I emphasize in my work is that there is no such thing as the perfect prompt.

Even if a prompt seems well-optimized, it can always be rewritten through a new lens:

A researcher’s perspective might prioritize sources and citations.
A policymaker’s perspective might focus on impact and implementation.
A community organizer’s perspective might emphasize accessibility and action.

The same prompt could also be rewritten to reflect different cultural backgrounds, lived experiences, or geographic contexts. That’s why true mastery of prompt engineering isn’t just about writing good prompts—it’s about understanding people.

While it is possible to write prompts across industries, the strongest prompts come from deep experience in a particular field. It’s not just about getting the AI to generate responses—it’s about knowing what makes a response valuable to the people who will use it.

The ability to write effective prompts isn’t just a technical skill. It’s a human skill—rooted in understanding, context, and experience. And that’s what sets apart truly impactful prompt engineers from those who simply know how to format a well-structured input.

My name is Nick, and I enjoy teaching and speaking about the intersection of research, ChatGPT, and prompt engineering. My work focuses on developing easy-to-use frameworks and strategies that ensure AI doesn’t just generate answers, but also verifies and checks itself—helping researchers use ChatGPT more effectively and responsibly. If you have questions, need help setting up, or want to improve your prompts, feel free to reach out—I’d love to help!