Prompt Engineering in Segment Anything Model: Methodologies, Applications, and Emerging Challenges

Abstract: The Segment Anything Model (SAM) has revolutionized image segmentation through its innovative prompt-based approach, yet the critical role of prompt engineering in its success remains underexplored. This paper presents the first comprehensive survey focusing specifically on prompt engineering techniques for SAM and its variants. We systematically organize and analyze the rapidly growing body of work in this emerging field, covering fundamental methodologies, practical applications, and key challenges. Our review reveals how prompt engineering has evolved from simple geometric inputs to sophisticated multimodal approaches, enabling SAM's adaptation across diverse domains including medical imaging and remote sensing. We identify unique challenges in prompt optimization and discuss promising research directions. This survey fills an important gap in the literature by providing a structured framework for understanding and advancing prompt engineering in foundation models for segmentation.