Artificial intelligence (AI) is definitely relevant to writing at work. In particular, large language models can generate a lot of content quickly and cheaply. This doesn’t mean AI is as useful for writing as you might hope. Here’s why.

Security. This is the obvious point. If your topic is sensitive, private or classified, you should not use open-source AI like ChatGPT. Open-source AI tools live in the cloud and are focused on function, not security. Even if your organisation has an in-house AI tool, you will still need to be careful about sharing sensitive information with it.

Currency. AI needs to be trained using sets of data, and this data might not include all the information relevant to your topic. Or the data might not be up-to-date. Important documents must be properly researched and consulted, and they must be based on up-to-date information. Your AI tool probably doesn’t have access to all the relevant and most recent sources.

Efficiency. A document written by AI will only be as good as the prompts you give it. These prompts will determine the scope and structure of the document, the prioritisation of key messages and the level of detail in the document. Not all information is of equal value, and without good prompts, AI won’t know what messages to emphasise or leave out. You will probably need to write several prompts – leading to several drafts. Each prompt will build on the previous draft, and each prompt might be several pages long. By the time you have written these prompts, it might have been quicker to write the document yourself.

We’re not against using AI to help writing at work. It can help with low-risk, high volume writing tasks. It is also good for narrowly defined topics (such as a job application). AI is a bit like driverless cars – the roads would probably be safer and less congested if every car was driverless. It’s the human drivers that cause the biggest problems for driverless cars. Workplaces are just as messy and complex as our roads. If your topic is serious, sensitive or complex, we recommend you keep your hands on the steering wheel.