This idea came to me in Japan. I was in this hidden bar in Tokyo—no signage, just vibes—chatting with a guy from New York who works in product development at Amazon. We got talking about how the real creative power moving forward isn’t in execution, it’s in direction. In knowing how to talk to the machine. Granted, we were a couple of cocktails deep. But sober me stands by our chat.

It won’t be design. Or copy. Maybe not even strategy. Writing prompts. The most desired skill for creatives could very well become “prompt engineering”

I get that it sounds like one of those made up LinkedIn things… “We’re hiring a Prompt Architect for our AI Co Creation Studio.” But the more I use AI in my creative work, whether it’s generating moodboards, refining brand stories, or generating intial mockups, the more I’m realising that knowing what to ask is almost more important than knowing how to do the actual thing.

We’re not talking about random commands like “write a paragraph about skincare in a fun tone.” That’s lazy. The real magic is when someone writes a prompt so layered and so specific that it unlocks something truly unexpected. Something that feels 90% there, not 40%. And if you’ve used AI for more than five minutes, you’ll know the difference between a lazy prompt and a great one straight away.

I don’t think that AI is going to replace creatives, it’s just going to restructure where in the creative process they’re utilised.

In a weird way, prompting is becoming a form of art direction. You’re not making the thing with your hands…you’re orchestrating it.

So yeah, maybe it’s time to add “skilled in AI prompting” to the CV ??