Generative AI is here to stay and if you’re not using it, you’re going to be left behind.

That said, I’m not a fan of content that is fully AI-generated. It’s often devoid of real personality, riddled with bias and toxic positivity, and I think people can sniff it out quickly (especially Gen Z!). It’s a turn-off.

 That being said, AI tools are abundant and if you’re not using AI to improve your work and better manage your time and workflow, you’re losing out big time.

As an editor and a writer myself, here are three ways I use AI to improve my writing and my work.

1. Grammarly for quick checks on everything

Did you know Grammarly is an AI-based tool? I have been using the free version of Grammarly for years and find it incredibly useful. The program underlines misspellings, incorrect word usage, missed grammatical items like periods, commas, and semicolons, and will even give you suggestions for rewording sections of your writing that will likely be confusing to readers.

Once you download the program, it checks all your work, including in Microsoft Teams messages, Slack, when working in websites on an internet browser, and yes, in email programs or word processing programs.

The drawback? It often will suggest things that may not be correct for the writing style you’re using, so it’s best used as a helpful double-check rather than the end-all, be-all source of truth. (For instance, most of my full-time work involves writing in AP Style and Grammarly’s free version does not edit for AP Style. Keep that Oxford comma to yourself! IFYKYK.)

2. Idea generation

With hundreds of millions of people using AI on a regular basis, generative AI likely knows your audience better than you do. It has access to broader audience behavior and patterns with insight into what people are asking and searching for. That means it’s a great source for ideas.

Prompt your favorite AI program to put itself in the mindset of your target audience and to give you 5-10 ideas for topics to cover on social media, in your newsletter, blog, FAQ section … etc. It’ll spit out great suggestions in a matter of seconds and you can set the online record straight with your own expertise.

3. Proofing for specific style before having another human edit

As writers, our brains read what we think we wrote when we read back our own work.

I would never publish my own work before proofing it myself and with another person, and since the adaptation of generative AI, I usually run my own work through AI tools before asking another human to edit. It catches the small things (like technically correctly spelled words used incorrectly, like saying affect instead of effect), and depending on your prompt, it can even point out clunky paragraphs or sentence structures that will trip up the average reader.

By having AI tools catch the small stuff, it helps your human proofer save time and be able to give more valuable feedback on your content.

Prompt like this: “Review this article and point out any potential AP Style issues, word and flow issues, and check the tone. Let me know what X Audience Member may think about this article. Tell me what your suggestions are rather than making any changes to the article itself.”

 While it may be tempting to have AI make the changes itself, especially for small fixes like grammar, I would NEVER recommend doing that. Why? Because while AI has come a long way, it’s frequently incorrect, outdated, and biased. It also may deprive your piece of originality. And further, when it points out mistakes and you have to consciously go back and fix them yourself, it helps you learn and retain the information. Knowledge is power!

One major thing to keep in mind with generative AI is that the output is only so good as your prompt, so be specific. Also, never share proprietary information or drafts with open-source AI tools, and never copy and paste directly from AI output without reading over and thoroughly editing the result yourself.

Thank you for reading and let me know what questions about AI you have, and if you’d like me to write more about successful AI prompts to use when writing and editing!