The Best Uses of AI in My Profession?

Since writing a previous post 3 years ago, I’ve been exposed to ChatGPT and have had plenty of opportunity to utilize it for various tasks. Now I know several viewers have gone beyond ChatGPT and perhaps used other AI programs like Claude, but I think the capabilities are at least fairly equivalent.

As a writer and editor, I am loathe to utilize any AI program for writing actual copy or suggesting actual copy that will be posted or published in any venue. However, I’ve found several research-related uses for AI to be highly valuable since its introduction.

I am frequently asked to write web copy or blogs for clients in industries that—shall we say—are very specific. For example, in the past few months, I was tasked with writing about the use of electronic dart boards and Web-enabled pool tables in pubs and bars. For another client, I was asked to create web pages describing how he brokers acquisition deals for audiology providers. I knew nothing more than the average layperson in approaching these assignments. Yes, I’ve been to a bar that had a pool table. Of course, I visited an audiologist’s office once. Those experiences were of no use to me here.

You may have heard some of the weird stories about AI misinterpreting or even hallucinating published facts or context. I do a good amount of health care and medical writing as part of my profession and would never consider utilizing AI programs to conduct in-depth research and arrive at conclusions based on the results it provides. Yet, in the instances that I have provided above, ChatGPT has done an excellent job of informing me about certain issues, product benefits, and business questions relating to these clients’ companies, enabling me to write coherently about topics I really know very little about.

The emphasis here is that conducting basic research with AI has saved me time and energy. I did not have to conduct uncoordinated Google searches and sort through dozens of applicable or not-so-applicable articles. I did not have to solicit, arrange, and record interviews with other members of the clients’ profession. I did not have to seek other sources of information to educate myself to represent my clients’ interests in my writing and creating marketing communications.

The Slippery Slope Gets Even More Grease

I am extremely aware of the potential for AI to rob professionals of their livelihoods. I found that programs like ChatGPT are very effective in creating small graphics of the type that might accompany a blog or LinkedIn post. I have several business acquaintances in the graphics design field, and they have expressed frustration and even exasperation that I would resort to AI for something I certainly would have contacted them to design for me in the past.

I’m trying to limit my use of AI in the respect that larger, more-detailed graphics arts work needs to be reserved for these graphic design professionals. However, it seems to be a very slippery, cost-effective slope, and as I slide slowly down the wrong side of this ramp, it does seem inevitable that more people will be satisfied with AI output and create a human void in the writing and graphic arts field. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I’m hoping to retire before that bell tolls for me. But the pace of advancement in AI is impressive and scary for working folks in my profession at least.