If you think AI has solved all your writing problems, think again.
AI-assisted writing programs such as ChatGPT, Jasper, and others are all the rage in business communication. Would-be writers plug their scruffy text into a chat window and out pops a sleekly groomed document. It seems too good to be true.
Like all such things, it is too good to be true. AI is amazing, but it has not replaced humans … yet. To write quality content such as emails, reports, blog posts, and outlines, we can use AI as a tool, but we need to better develop the skills that only humans can perform, such as strategizing, ensuring relevance, creating an appropriate tone, and maintaining logical flow.
Artificial intelligence is astounding in its capabilities, but it’s not human yet. You can use it for a huge array of business functions and as a boost to your business writing. AI can compile lists of ideas, tweak headlines, find examples, pull quotes, and proofread. That’s a lot, but these jobs are not the essence of the writing process.
Many people seem to believe that they no longer need to learn to write because the AI genie has popped out of the bottle and is granting their every wish about drafting their documents. I smile when I hear this because I’ve seen what AI can and cannot do. It can generate a serviceable first draft, yet you cannot rely on its veracity. AI sometimes fabricates statistics and citations. Its tone swings from obscure to trite. It repeats itself. It is wondrous in its ability to clean up bad writing but not so adept at preventing bad writing in the first place. To manage AI’s output, you need to know how to write.
Artificial intelligence programs are like devoted servants. You give them a prompt and they dutifully polish it and send it back. However, they don’t think. Here are three essential writing functions that artificial intelligence cannot do–and that you must do yourself.
1. Strategize and plan your document.
In my Worktalk business writing training, we teach the three P’s planning tool: purpose, person, and point.
Before you write, first clarify the purpose of your document. Why are you writing? What result do you want to produce? There is no way an artificial intelligence program can clarify your intentions for you.
Second, you also need to analyze the person who will read your document. What do you know about your reader or readers? What makes their hearts go pitter-pat? In what context will they understand your message? Again, AI falls flat at answering these questions.
And third, what point do you want to make? ChatGPT will do a fine job of helping you make your point, but it cannot make up the point for you. That is your job.
2. Create a clear voice.
As hard as these algorithms try to convince us they’re alive, AI-written documents often strike a false tone, either overly chirpy or formal. You must inhabit the words yourself if you plan to pass them off as your own.
If AI has created your first draft, work painstakingly through it to add your voice to the text by using appropriate idioms, eliminating over-the-top verbiage, and revising it so that it feels authentic to you.
3. Edit for logical flow.
If you have written a clunky sentence, AI can fix it for you–but it cannot tell you if that sentence does not belong in the document at all. If you use AI to create a draft, peruse it for problems such as irrelevant points, omitted points, logical gaps, and redundancies, If you have left out a key idea, an algorithm is unlikely to think of it for you.
AI is undoubtedly a game changer in the field of communication, but it still cannot take over the human role of setting intentions, strategizing, and spotting what’s missing in a document. In a way, that’s a relief. We humans are still good for something.