The Billion-Dollar AI Skill No One Is Protecting: Promptcrafting
- S B
- Jul 18
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 27
Published in Generative AI
There is a billion-dollar skill that's being traded like baseball cards. Most people don't even know they own it.
It's called promptcraft: the skill of designing effective, detailed instructions (prompts), for AI systems to generate high-quality, intentional outputs.
And if you're sharing your prompts freely, you're giving away your competitive edge.
In the age of AI, no word is thrown around more loosely than the word prompt. It's treated as a throwaway term.
But I would argue that there's a deeper misconception. One I keep encountering in both corporate and creative domains:
That prompts are just words. Trivial. Copy-paste fodder.
They’re not.
Prompts are the new production design. They reflect your aesthetic judgment, your intent, and your vision.
Prompting for “an orange flower” is not the same as prompting for: “A cinematic Dutch shot of an orange rose at golden hour, with shallow depth of field and soft backlighting.”
One is generic. The other is skilled composition. One resembles a stock photograph. The other resembles professional photography.
Let's break down why:
"Cinematic Dutch shot" : Specific camera angle requiring film knowledge
"at golden hour" : Understanding of lighting conditions and timing
"shallow depth of field" : Technical photography expertise
"soft backlighting" : Advanced lighting composition
Each element represents deliberate creative choice backed by technical knowledge. This isn't typing. It's creative direction translated into language.
Prompts Are Your Intellectual Property (IP)
Think of a chef's secret recipe.
The ingredients are publicly available in the grocery store or the farmer's market. Anyone can buy the ingredients, but not everyone can make the dish. The same is true with prompts. While the ingredients (the AI model and basic commands) might be publicly available, the precise combination, timing, and technique (the prompt's structure and detail) are what make outputs unique. Sharing a prompt is similar to giving away a proprietary recipe.
Not convinced? Compare the following:
Person A: How you make scrambled eggs?
You: Mix the eggs in a bowl, pour it into a pan, and scramble them with a utensil.
Person A: How do you make scrambled eggs?
You: First, crack two eggs in a bowl, then a third egg but hold the yolk. Add a dash of salt and paprika and whip the eggs until they are smooth and silky. Then put a saucepan on the stove at medium heat, pour the eggs...
That detailed instruction set for scrambled eggs? That's your proprietary recipe.
Prompts are your intellectual property.
The Legal Lag
The legal system seems to be struggling with a cognitive bias. It assumes that if a human uses an AI tool, then the AI does all the work and the human is "just there." This has led to rulings that are unclear about what exactly constitutes human-AI collaboration. This is sometimes a failure to recognize the human contribution in what it perceives as purely AI generation.
There's a persistent misconception that AI outputs are entirely at the mercy of the machine, that humans have little control over what comes out. My cover image proves otherwise. I got exactly what I asked for: a rose, backlighting, shallow depth of field.
Furthermore, that is a simplified version of the prompts I used in my workflows. I often specify many more components when creating images to ensure that the outputs match my vision.
While legal protections for AI-generated content are still developing, we can draw parallels from other creative domains. For instance, detailed scripts, storyboards, and even architectural blueprints are protected intellectual property, even if the final "output" (film, building) is a physical manifestation. Prompts serve a similar function as the blueprint for AI-generated works.
Why Prompts Have Economic Value
Behind every great AI image, film, or branded visual is a person who knew what to ask for. And that "knowing" isn’t free. It’s built from:
Artistic sensibility
Visual literacy
Domain understanding
Iteration and refinement
Effective prompts lead to standout results. In a competitive market, the ability to consistently generate high-quality, on-brand visuals or content using AI tools provides a distinct advantage. This advantage directly translates to economic value, making the prompts themselves valuable assets. Businesses would pay for access to these "recipes" if they couldn't create them internally.
This is intellectual labor. And in many workflows, especially creative or strategic ones, it’s the most valuable part.
So if someone asks for your prompt, think carefully. Are you sharing a tip—or giving away your IP?
I argue it's the latter. Why are they asking you for your prompt? If they could do it themselves, they would. AI tools are readily accessible to the masses, many with free tiers.
Prompcrafters Aren't Just Typing Words
Just as a production designer meticulously plans and specifies every visual element of a scene, a skilled promptcrafter translates a creative vision into language that an AI can understand and execute. This isn't merely typing words; it's a deep understanding of:
AI Model Capabilities and Limitations: Knowing what an AI can and cannot do, and how to best "speak its language."
Artistic Principles: Applying knowledge of composition, lighting, color theory, and other design elements.
Domain Expertise: Understanding the specific subject matter and its visual representation.
Iterative Refinement: The trial-and-error process of fine-tuning prompts to achieve desired outcomes.
This iterative process of prompt engineering is where significant value is created. It blends artistic direction with technical precision.
Promptcrafters should also document the time and effort invested in developing effective prompts. This might include the number of iterations, research conducted, or the value of the final output—such as how much a high-quality image saves in stock photo costs or design fees. Doing so helps quantify the intellectual labor involved.
How to Protect Your Promptcrafts
We all use images, whether in PowerPoint presentations, keynotes, social media posts, or beyond. And in the workplace, your visual outputs become a part of your professional brand. Protecting your promptcraft is crucial. Here are actionable recommendations for individuals and businesses:
Watermark Your Outputs: Use visual signatures (stylistic or literal) to trace work back to you.
Version and Save Prompts: Track your creative iterations the way coders track commits. It builds a record of authorship.
Charge for Custom Work: If your prompts reliably produce standout results, treat them like any other creative asset.
Resist Oversharing in Open Forums: Not every insight needs to be posted publicly. Share wisely. Protect your edge.
Formalize Prompt Documentation: Create a system for documenting prompts. Include:
Metadata (creation date, author, purpose, keywords, AI model used)
Performance metrics (effectiveness, issues, successful variants)
Rationale (why you used specific wording or structure)
Implement NDAs: When collaborating externally, include clauses protecting prompt confidentiality and ownership.
Prompt-as-a-Service: Offer output generation without revealing your prompt. Monetize the result, not the method.
Educate Clients and Teams: Help others see prompting as intellectual labor, not button-mashing.
Explore Legal Protections: Consult legal counsel on copyright and trade secret strategies for your prompt workflows.
Final Thoughts
We’re moving from “tell the AI what to do” to “design through language.” In that shift, your taste is your talent. Your prompt is your pitch deck. Your process is your intellectual property.
Your prompt isn't just a command; it's a distillation of your vision, skill, and creative intent. It's the core document that communicates your artistic direction to the AI. Protecting this "pitch deck" is paramount to safeguarding your unique contribution in the evolving landscape of AI-driven creation.
So treat your prompts like what they are: valuable, ownable, and worthy of protection.
Prompting isn't just typing. It's a form of human-AI communication.
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"AI is the tool, but the vision is human." — Sophia B.
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About the Author
Sophia Banton works at the intersection of AI strategy, communication, and human impact. With a background in bioinformatics, public health, and data science, she brings a grounded, cross-disciplinary perspective to the adoption of emerging technologies.
Beyond technical applications, she explores GenAI’s creative potential through storytelling and short-form video, using experimentation to understand how generative models are reshaping narrative, communication, and visual expression.
