The Role of AI in Technical Writing: My Personal Journey

In technical writing, clarity and precision are non-negotiable. But what happens when AI enters the equation? For me, AI hasn’t just made its presence felt—it’s transformed the way I work, helping me speed up processes, solve problems, and enhance content quality. That said, like anything, it comes with its challenges, especially when it comes to perfecting prompts and maintaining that human touch. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Speeding Up Documentation Tasks

AI’s ability to streamline repetitive tasks has been a real game-changer. Whether it’s grammar checks or ensuring consistency, AI tools help me focus on what matters most—crafting high-quality, user-focused content.

Example in Practice: One of the biggest challenges I faced recently was tackling a massive amount of content debt after an acquisition. The old documentation needed to be rewritten to fit our style guide, with additional information added. I created a template and used AI to process the old docs, fitting them into the new structure. While AI sped up the formatting, I still had to review the content, make sure it met our audience’s needs, and add necessary links. After receiving feedback from other writers, I fed that back into the model to fine-tune it for future projects.

Additionally, when writing about automation commands for our RPA bot, I wanted to cover all potential issues users might face. Instead of manually testing commands for hours to find limitations, I used AI to generate test inputs. This allowed me to quickly try different scenarios, identify limitations, and feed those findings into the model. Not only did this save me a ton of time, but it also helped create more accurate documentation that anticipates user problems.

The Art of Prompt Engineering

Creating the right prompt for AI is like giving directions to a highly intelligent assistant—but one that’s sometimes too literal. If the prompt isn’t clear, the output can be too vague or overly specific. Fine-tuning the prompt ensures you get more relevant results, but it’s still a process of trial and error.

Example in Practice: While working on documentation, I wanted to make sure I was using active voice and the correct HTML code for search optimization. My initial prompts didn’t fully catch passive voice or consistently apply the right HTML code. After some trial and error, I asked AI for a better prompt to ensure these rules were followed. Once I fed that back into the model, the results improved, saving me time and reducing manual corrections.

AI is great, but isn’t it just a matter of time before it takes over our jobs completely?

AI is a Partner, Not a Replacement

While AI is a great tool for solving complex problems, it doesn’t replace the expertise and insight that we, as technical writers, bring to the table. AI can suggest formats and structures, and even identify missing elements, but it’s our understanding of the user experience that ensures the content is both accurate and meaningful.

Example in Practice: Recently, I had to create a new template to be used for nearly 300 previously written content pieces. The goal was to make these topics easy to navigate and concise, using dropdowns for better organization. I also wanted to include specific sections, but I wasn’t sure if I should present the information with bullets, tables, or something else. While AI generated a basic template for me, it didn’t have the same insight into our audience that I do. I could step into the user’s shoes and navigate our website, assessing the look and feel of the design. This helped me refine the structure until I found a layout that worked. Instead of manually recreating the template multiple times, I used AI to generate a variety of versions. This gave me the freedom to focus on ensuring the users' needs were met, ultimately creating a more effective and user-friendly design.

Final Thoughts

AI is here to enhance our capabilities, not replace them. It handles mundane tasks, offers valuable insights, and helps streamline processes, allowing us to focus on the parts of the job that require creativity, problem-solving, and empathy. The real magic happens when AI and human writers work together to produce documentation that is clear, comprehensive, and user-friendly.

How have you used AI in your workflow? Have you found it to be a game-changer? Let’s discuss how we can harness AI’s potential in technical writing!

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