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The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on UX Writing | Seven Peaks

Written by Seven Peaks | Jul 8, 2024 4:22:18 AM

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has an undeniable impact on the future of jobs. 

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, workers have faced the constant fear that they might one day be replaced by machines and left jobless. Today, artificial intelligence exists all around us, for example in healthcare, retail and e-commerce, banking and finance, entertainment, and more.

In fact, in a two-year study done by the McKinsey Global Institute, the writers suggested that by 2030, artificial intelligence and robots could replace as much as 30 percent of the human workforce.

With artificial intelligence rapidly improving and increasingly being adopted across numerous industries, it begs the question of whether or not it could potentially become a threat to those working in more creative fields like UX writing. 

In this article, we’ll discuss crucial topics such as what impact will artificial intelligence have on UX writing, the benefits and limitations of AI writing tools, and more.

What is UX writing?

First, let’s go through what exactly UX writing is and how important it is in helping your business grow and develop. 

UX writing is a type of content writing found on user interfaces to help users while they are engaging with a product or service. UX writers for their part focus on creating intuitive content that improves a user’s experience. 

In other words, UX writing works as communication between users and a digital product. It is important for businesses to not ignore this field of writing. UX writing can play a significant role in preventing frustrations for users since it focuses on making their journeys as seamless and enjoyable as possible. To read more about the importance of UX writing for your business, check out our article here.

What is artificial intelligence writing? 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as a computer program that has the ability to learn, adapt, and change. It takes information from a variety of different sources and learns how to make the best decisions based on what it’s learned. 

Over the years, we’ve seen a rise in AI writing tools to help complete or perform tasks. Since there are less chances for human errors, AI tools are able to produce results arguably as good — if not better in some cases — than humans. For writing, AI learns by reading large amounts of texts and training itself to improve. This includes reading through pictures and images to understand what’s going on. 

Here are a few examples of the best artificial intelligence writing tools on the market:

The role of artificial intelligence in writing

Content plays a key role in fostering connections between your product or service and your users. It can help you inform your users about what they’d like to know, drive key messages for your company, show off your brand’s personality, and more. This is true of all three types of commercial writing: UX writing, content writing, and copywriting. To learn more about the difference between these types of writing, click here. 

The significance of content marketing has become more pronounced than ever, and organizations around the globe are realizing just how profitable it can be. That said, with content in high demand, especially UX writing and SEO-optimized writing, there aren’t enough writers to meet the quantity and quality demanded. This is where AI and UX writing start to overlap.

Here are the main reasons why people are adopting AI writing today:

To jumpstart creative ideas

Whether you’re a UX writer, content writer, or copywriter, you’ll get a writer’s block at some point. It can last a few minutes, a day or two, or even more than a week at times. It can be a huge problem, as it prevents writers from reaching their targets.

Writers end up spending a lot of time struggling to come up with ideas for their writing instead of actually writing. With AI writing software, they can get help generating content ideas that are relevant and unique, giving them more time to focus on important areas of their writing.

To produce quality content faster

AI writing tools can help writers produce quality writing faster and more efficiently as well. This can be an excellent way for writers to increase their content output without having to spend hours researching and crafting blog posts — ultimately helping businesses save time and money.

To offer content in multiple languages

Another great benefit of AI writing tools is that they make translation both cheaper and quicker. AI translations, while for the most part sufficient, are never as fluent as those done by a human translator who has checked not only the spelling and grammar but also the style and flow. That said, translators can save significant time by using AI translations as rough drafts.

As you can see, AI writing tools offer a barrage of benefits to writers, helping them save time and effort so they can focus on other important aspects of their job. 

However, can AI writing compete with human intelligence and capabilities? Let’s explore this in more detail in the following section.

Artificial intelligence vs. UX writers

To answer the question of whether or not artificial intelligence will ever completely replace UX writers, among other types of writers, we first need to first answer the following question: what makes a good UX writer?

UX writing is crucial to a business’s success as it helps drive sales and enhances customer retention by creating seamless experiences. Here are the top three characteristics that make up a good UX writer:

  1. Empathy: This is a crucial part of every aspect of UX. Empathy is the ability to understand someone else’s experience, which can include their needs, hopes, fears, limitations, goals, and so on. Empathy is at the heart of UX and is what helps create the best experience for users.

  2. Creativity: One of the essential skills for success is creativity. It allows you to handle complex problems in ways that make it easier for our users to understand, thus giving them a better and more impactful experience.

  3. Communication: Last but not least is communication, which involves using words skillfully. In UX writing, it is important to write or create messages that are both appealing and easy for end users to understand. 

When speaking about AI, the conversation inevitably arrives at the topic of artificial empathy. Artificial intelligence works by observing humans and learning our actions and reactions based on the huge amount of information it takes in, thus allowing it to replicate the appearance of empathy. 

However, no matter how much information an AI takes in, no AI application has yet been able to replicate the interlinked sensory experiences we experience — or our emotional responses to them. 

UX writing, like most other types of writing, requires having a human voice within it to be effective — especially as the main concept of good UX writing is empathy. 

AI is definitely useful in helping define user journeys and checking for grammatical errors and inconsistencies, among other things. In fact, Smartsheet’s 2017 report on automation reported that 86% of those surveyed believed automation and AI would help them do their work much more efficiently. 

Artificial intelligence is fast becoming a necessity for businesses seeking to transform, streamline their processes, and more. But at the end of the day, it still cannot replicate the emotional connection we have as humans. So despite being able to effectively mimic our language, AI still lacks the unique combination of experience and skills that UX writers contribute to successful digital products.

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