A better prompt can improve one answer. It cannot make an AI system repeatable.

Prompt engineering clarifies the request through intent, context, and constraints.

• Loop engineering designs what happens after generation:
• Generate.
• Evaluate.
• Verify.
• Refine.

One optimizes the first response.
The other optimizes repeatability, evidence, and recovery.

The practical question is not whether prompts matter. It is whether the system can detect a weak result and improve the next pass.

Where are teams still over-investing in prompts and under-investing in loops?