What do writers use AI for? It’s not usually writing because most of us have been doing it for a long time and we rather like it. Even when it’s tricky. (In fact, especially when it’s tricky.)
Besides, the words-on-a-page bit is often the most straightforward bit. Instead, we use AI to tackle the stuff that clutters up the process – so we can free up headroom for clear thinking and creativity.
Here’s what we cover:
- Finding and drafting tone of voice examples
- Transcribing interviews and surfacing quotes
- Creating first drafts of translations
- Using personas to pull apart a brief
- Contextual search and jargon-busting
Nick Padmore: Finding strong examples for tone of voice guidelines
“Our tone of voice guidelines get really specific. We’re not saying “Show empathy”, we’re saying “Start sentences with ‘You’ rather than ‘We’”, for instance. And for each little writing trick like that, we like to give a few examples of how it might look.
“AI is great at both finding and drafting those examples. Feed it a bunch of the company’s writing, ask it to look for sentences that start with ‘We’, and then get it to apply the rule. It’ll quickly spit out dozens of examples that illustrate the rule, and all of them super-relevant.”
Alex Goldstein: Transcribing interviews and getting great quotes
“Recorded interviews are often where you find real gold for articles and reports. But scrubbing back and forth to pan for the good bits gets old.
“AI makes it much easier. I’ll still watch through to get a sense of the speaker’s personality. And since AI might have very different ideas about what matters most, I decide the story. But once I’ve got the shape of it, I’ll share that with AI to fish out supporting stats and soundbites in seconds.”
Ashleigh Thompson: First drafts of translations
“Translation is nuanced, so you absolutely need a professional to check the results for accuracy, tone and brand language. But having AI do the first pass speeds things up dramatically.
“As a fluent Spanish speaker, I can confirm it’s miles ahead of Google Translate already.”
Nick Banks: Extending thinking and busting jargon
Using personas to pull apart a brief
“I’d hate to replace my thinking with AI. But I do use AI to extend and challenge it.
“So maybe I’ve got a brief and I’ve brainstormed a bunch of different ideas for it. I’ll then turn to AI and set up a couple of personas with different perspectives. I’ll give them the brief and get them to have a conversation about it, pulling in their different directions. That can draw out all sorts of ideas that might otherwise have stayed buried in the corner of my mind.”
Contextual search and jargon-busting
“Technical terms aren’t unique. Some bits of jargon mean different things in different industries. And shorthand doesn’t necessarily clear things up – as in the case of a client using the same acronym for two distinct processes.
“In the past, it took multiple searches and painstakingly connecting the dots to make sure we understood technical stuff well enough to write about it using natural language. AI is much better at taking the context into account and getting to the right answer quickly.”
Think of it as decluttering the writing process
AI shoulders some of the process-heavy stuff so our writers have more time for the thinking, craft and judgement that actually makes things worth reading.
Want a chat about how to get your words working harder with or without the help of AI?
Give us a shoutWritten by Definition’s language specialists.
