Prompt engineering is important to get more out of genAI. Now, one company has posted a job opening for a legal prompt engineer.

As reported by Project Counsel Media (Wanted: AI prompt engineers for in-house legal teams, written by Anna Szymon and available here), last year, as ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence chatbots were taking the world by storm, ASML – the Netherlands-based maker of chipmaking equipment – saw scope for hiring a “prompt engineer” to deploy the technology in its in-house legal department.

In a post on LinkedIn, ASML’s deputy general counsel, Douwe Groenevelt, said he envisioned “a new potential role that could bridge the gap between AI and our legal team”. The position called for a candidate (who had to be a lawyer) who could write generative AI prompts – the queries that must be fed into an AI tool to generate the desired output – and could train up colleagues.

The only catch: the job didn’t exist.

As Groenevelt has since explained, the intention behind that post, which attracted more than 1,200 likes and around 130 comments, was to contribute to the discussion about the future of legal roles in the age of generative AI.

Fast forward to this month, though, and the job has become a reality. ASML announced a genuine vacancy in its in-house legal department for a first-of-its-kind legal prompt engineer. It has concluded that, with the rapid development of AI tools, a dedicated role is warranted.

And the creation of this role is an indication of how the in-house legal profession is transforming itself to take advantage of generative AI, as companies around the world explore the risks and opportunities the technology presents.

Szymon also cites a report from PwC that Rob Robinson covered a few weeks ago (and I covered via the Kitchen Sink) that found “lawyers with AI expertise in the US can command a staggering 49% wage premium, while their UK counterparts enjoy a 27% increase”.

I, for one, am not surprised that a role of legal prompt engineer is becoming a thing; in fact, I expected it. Good to see I was right (for once)! 😉 These developments show that educating yourself about AI is not only the best way to keep your job, but also to open new job horizons!

Image created using GPT-4o’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot lawyer using ChatGPT on a computer”.

So, what do you think? Do you see your organization someday hiring a legal prompt engineer? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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