How does AI and technical writing work together? The title of this might be pretty self-explanatory, but it’s very important to know this before you continue: this is not a guide on how to get AI to write all your assignments for you. This is a guide on how to get AI to write most of your assignments for you. (In case you aren’t sure, that was a joke.) You really shouldn’t be doing that, and you’ll find out why soon enough.
What you’ll learn from this guide is how to use AI to augment (and not replace) your technical writing strategy—especially for topics about which you have absolutely zero foundational knowledge. Let’s get started.
How can AI be used in technical writing?
Set the Scene
Imagine you’re a copywriter working with a stellar digital marketing agency or team…when suddenly, a wild technical writing assignment appears in your inbox! Maybe you’ve worked with technical clients before, maybe you haven’t. Whatever the case is, you haven’t yet written for the industry in this particular surprise assignment.
Oh goodness, what do you do now?! Frantically Google everything there is to know about the subject matter? Buy cheap Amazon Kindle versions of “[insert industry] 101: For Dummies”? Send panicked Slack messages to coworkers, texts to your friends, and possibly even call your parents to ask them to pray for your eternal soul?
Sure, you can do that. It’ll just take you about four hours longer than it would if you wisely decided, instead, to pair AI and technical writing strategy.
Now that we’ve established context, we can get to the good part. And what’s step one for using AI for technical writing? …Establishing…context!? In other words, set the scene. AI thrives on data. It’s a pretty simple equation and we know it already: vague prompt = vague answer. Contextualized prompt with specific details and restrictions = a detailed, thorough answer that you can use to get started on your assignment.
Before you give your AI tool any prompts, make sure you fully understand the assignment. That means asking questions. What’s the industry? Who are the main players? Who’s your audience? Are they experts or beginners? Are they familiar with your client or do you need to add an intro explaining the company and what they do/sell? What is the goal of this article? To educate? Sell? Convert? Entertain? Take a look at the target and secondary keywords. You may be covering things in the legal, government, or proprietary tech sector. Is there anything you’re not allowed to mention?
It may sound like a lot, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be something as simple as this. (This is a real example, so certain information will be blocked for privacy.)
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