I like writing. I want to continue putting forth effort towards writing outlines, drafting content, creating workflow images, and explaining concepts. I don’t want to plug a question into AI and use its best guess as my starting point, nor do I want AI to get me 75% of the way there and then edit what comes out.

Instead, I want to use AI as an assistant to get myself 60% of the way there, have AI take 90% of the effort required to reduce the word count and explain concepts more clearly, and then I want to edit and finesse (which seems to be an often skipped part of working with AI).

I’m a writer professionally, personally, and quite passionately, and while I want to use technology to make my processes more efficient, automate the aoying bits, and free up time to focus on what provides the most value… I also want to write. I don’t want or need a tool to take that away from me. AI and I are coworkers and its job is to help me like a personal assistant, not replace me as a writer.

In the spirit of embracing emerging technologies, I’m committing to finding out how I can use AI in this way. Instead of: “how can AI do this job for me?” I\’m wondering: “how can AI assist with the writing process?”

Here’s my challenge: I will be using AI at work when creating new content and revising existing content. I’m currently working on two Very Big Documentation Projects so it’s the perfect time to integrate more efficiency. I have chosen three tools for this challenge so I can take this opportunity to test and understand how this tech really works.

Wordtune
ChatGPT
HyperWrite AI

This little personal challenge will extend through the end of the year, whenever my last day of work is (I think Dec 22), at which time I’ll gather my notes and reflect on the overall challenge as well as my use of each of these tools. Between now and then I may make other posts with continued reflection, but I’ll be doing the majority of my note-taking offline.