How Technical Writers Can Thrive in the Age of Generative AI

Generative AI has transformed the world of content creation. This transformation impacts virtually every profession, and technical writing is no exception.

While it seems that Generative AI is an existential threat to technical writers, the reality could be more positive in the long term.

I’ve been doing technical writing for years, and I’ve seen firsthand how this technology can make our jobs easier. Instead of fearing obsolescence, we should embrace generative AI as a tool to enhance our work and make our lives easier.

In this post, I’ll discuss how technical writers can thrive in the age of AI.

Leverage AI for Efficiency, Not Replacement

Generative AI produces large volumes of content quickly. That’s one of the reasons some writers might feel threatened. AI can whip up user manuals, release notes, and product documentation in seconds, whereas a human writer could take hours or even days to do the same thing. It doesn’t excel in identifying context and writing content with a unique voice that connects with readers.

Instead of seeing AI as a threat, view it as a virtual assistant. AI can handle repetitive tasks like making a first draft or compiling information into a table.

Your ability to refine the text and create clear, concise instructions that take into account the nuance and context of the subject matter is something no computer can do.

Become a Master of AI-Enhanced Content Creation

Imagine this: you input a few key points into a generative AI tool, and it produces a first draft of a user guide or technical blog. The true value of this content lies in its human refinement.

Technical writers are masters of turning raw information into useful instruction. AI spits out words based on algorithms. It’s good enough to fill space, but it fails miserably at understanding the content it’s creating. Your role is that of the content editor. Spend your time designing the structure of your content, testing the documentation, and user-centric refinement.

Take advantage of tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and other AI-driven platforms. Familiarize yourself with their capabilities and limitations. Over time, you’ll learn to create workflows that seamlessly integrate AI into your writing process. For instance, AI can create a first draft or outline that you can hit the ground running with. AI’s content speaks directly to the algorithm. Your content speaks directly to the user.

Shift Your Focus to Collaboration and Communication

The real special sauce of technical writing is in how the writer works with subject matter experts (SMEs) to gain an understanding of the technology they’re documenting. Generative AI can’t do that.

It can take some bullet points or even read some code and give a parsed description of it, but it can’t explain why these things matter or how they fit into the larger user experience.

AI can’t ask an engineer how a specific field in an endpoint helps solve a use case. You, the human writer, can. This is where your focus can make all the difference.

Embrace the Role of Content Strategist

The future of technical writing isn’t just about writing- it’s about strategy. As a technical writer, you already deeply understand user needs, product functionalities, and effective communication. In the age of generative AI, these skills will become even more valuable as companies move toward a more content-driven approach to customer support, product training, and marketing.

AI can’t do any of that. Generative AI algorithms don’t consider documentation as a whole; they only understand the individual document for which it’s generating content and how it matches the pre-programmed requirements. Only a human writer can create a larger documentation strategy that takes into account the subject, reader, and future needs of the users.

Focus on Ethical Writing and Content Integrity

AI-powered content generation is not without its risks-accuracy, originality, and ethics are all areas where human oversight is critical. AI can sometimes produce content that’s misleading, biased, or even factually incorrect. As a technical writer, you’re in the best position to ensure the integrity of the content produced by these tools.

A lot of this means remembering that this is a tool. It’s no different from Grammarly or the built-in spell checker in a word processor.

Reframe the Narrative: Humans + AI = Better Writing

Rather than seeing AI as a threat, it’s important to reframe the narrative: humans and AI can work together to create better writing. Generative AI is great at some things. It can churn out content with fewer grammatical and spelling mistakes than most humans.

It can achieve a basic level of drafting that gets the writer further in their project than any other tool currently available.

The human writer takes that starting point and runs with it. They can make decent documentation great with the extra time they’ve gained. AI can’t do good documentation, but it can help a good writer make their documentation even better.

Final Thoughts

I believe that the future of technical writing is bright, and generative AI is not something to fear, but rather something to harness.

As the field evolves, technical writers have a unique opportunity to combine their communication skills with cutting-edge technology to deliver clearer, more effective, and more user-centered documentation than ever before.

Embrace AI as an ally, not an adversary, and watch how you can thrive in this exciting new age of writing.

Originally published at https://ryanmpierson.com on November 24, 2024.