Know your subject matter

Generative AI learns via the materials it has access to – a combination of formal texts, online content and anything uploaded into the system. This includes written documents, and videos and transcripts. However, not all of this material will suit your purposes. On occasion the context will be irrelevant, the source material from another country, or the frameworks incorrect.

An example is in policies and procedures, a topic presented at CCE by Cheryl Ballantyne. ‘If you use AI to draft your policy or procedure, the result may have gaps, reflect an American context, or require adjusting to suit your organisation,’ Ballantyne says. ‘The context for policy is often legislative, such as parliamentary acts or changes to the law. Professionals need to know how to interpret these, along with the overarching principles of effective policy writing.’

Avowed AI fan Simon Hillier is impressed daily by the technology. Hillier is facilitator of CCE’s web writing with AI course and the Introductory and Advanced AI content-creation courses, and says: ‘AI has become incredibly good at its job. But it can also be a bit like that mate who’s filled with confidence and bluster.’ Learn to see past the AI’s seductive efficiency, prioritising your own expertise and questioning its output.

Understand the principles of grammar and style

You’ve probably noticed that AI has a certain style – clever parallelisms and business clichés among them. Hillier cites an entire list of AI giveaway words to avoid, including ‘elevate’, ‘tapestry’ and ‘committed to.’ By contrast, good writing uses a balance of familiar terms for clarity, plus a few surprises to keep the reader engaged. Much of this involves clever usage of English grammar.

Deb Doyle is adamant that humans remain better placed to write correctly. ‘AI often makes grammatical mistakes,’ she asserts. ‘You’ll outdo your peers if you use grammar correctly, whether you’re writing a legal document, compelling novel or impactful headline,’ she continues. ‘As a knowledge gatekeeper for your profession, you must learn grammar so you can control your message.’

Use AI to help kick-start your writing

Good writing starts with careful planning – not by bashing out reams of text. When used selectively, AI can turbocharge this process.

Valuable AI-boosted planning activities include asking your tool to probe the objections of a particular audience, predict the flow-on effects of an initiative, or check a document scaffold for omissions. These steps harness AI’s speed and efficiency as a thought partner to co-develop an angle, while keeping the lead writer in control of the final output.

CCE’s Business Writing Essentials, Masterclass and Report Writing courses with Stephanie Oley all include guidance on how to use AI for planning activities, together with more timeless tools.

Avoid AI for your heavy lifting

Ask your AI to generate a particular document scaffold or structure, and chances are it’ll be too detailed, unfit for purpose, or interpret a writing framework incorrectly.

Writer and editor Tony Spencer-Smith, who presents CCE’s Editing and Proofreading course, points out the need for professionals to hone their understanding of good structure and style.

His course participants work in complex settings such as the law, share markets, thinktanks and health, and require highly astute editing skills. ‘Manual rewriting will be necessary for a very long time as AI struggles with its imperfections in some of the more advanced aspects of editing,’ Spencer-Smith predicts.

Use AI to refine the results

If you’re a non-native English speaker, you’ve probably come to deeply appreciate AI’s ability to lift your grammar and vocabulary. Such tools include non-generative AI varieties, such as Word’s Editor function, which works with existing data rather than creating new content.

Remember that unless you know how to secure your AI (a topic covered in CCE’s various machine learning courses), editing the final result using AI could result in your work being shared online.

However, if you’re confident in your tool’s security and you know your weaknesses, then you might ask AI to edit specifically for these. Typical writing problems include wordiness, poor logic or an overly technical tone. The point here is that you must first understand good technique – which brings us back to the grammar and style points above.