Help Articles and Writing Strategies in the Age of AI with Leslie O'Flahavan

So let's talk about AI, everyone's favorite topic these days.

But I feel like over the last two or three years, when I am in these conversations about AI, one of the big things we're talking about is how AI can do the writing for you.

And how now, not only do you need to know how to write well, but you also need to know how to edit well because you're getting these drafts that you need to now edit.

Or you need to know how to write specifically for AI models to get them the information they need.

So there's this shift of I need to know how to communicate well with a customer to I need to know how to write the best help doc so that my AI assistant knows how to find the right information.

And then I can go in and edit their response.

So that's kind of what I want to focus on today.

How have you, Leslie, seen with the rise of AI? How have you seen that change the way we're writing in support?

As you were laying it out, Priscilla, two images popped into my mind.

One was a hall of mirrors because we are writing for AI and we are writing with AI, both.

Yeah.

Right.

So that was the hall of mirrors.

And then I don't know if you can remember in Dr. Doolittle, you know, that that creature called the push me, pull you.

It was like a llama with two heads.

That's another image that I have, you know, of both this bi-directional way that we're using AI.

The written products in support, such as knowledge-based articles, other kinds of documentation, macros, email templates, those kinds of things.

These kinds of writing that I think about as ingredients in a pantry almost.

We are writing them for humans, but we are also writing

them to power AI.

So that is a big change.

Because if we were talking five or six years ago, you know, my mentor would have been the knowledge article, you know, KB00736.

is only a good knowledge article if the people who need to use it can understand it and act on it.

And by the way, those two measures, can they understand it with a reasonable, not extraordinary amount of effort? Can they understand and can they act on it? Those are the main principles of plain language.

We know a piece of writing is written in plain language when the intended reader can understand it and act on it.

So let's talk about AI, everyone's favorite topic these days.

But I feel like over the last two or three years, when I am in these conversations about AI, one of the big things we're talking about is how AI can do the writing for you.

And how now, not only do you need to know how to write well, but you also need to know how to edit well because you're getting these drafts that you need to now edit.

Or you need to know how to write specifically for AI models to get them the information they need.

So there's this shift of I need to know how to communicate well with a customer to I need to know how to write the best help doc so that my AI assistant knows how to find the right information.

And then I can go in and edit their response.

So that's kind of what I want to focus on today.

How have you, Leslie, seen with the rise of AI? How have you seen that change the way we're writing in support?

As you were laying it out, Priscilla, two images popped into my mind.

One was a hall of mirrors because we are writing for AI and we are writing with AI, both.

Yeah.

Right.

So that was the hall of mirrors.

And then I don't know if you can remember in Dr. Doolittle, you know, that that creature called the push me, pull you.

It was like a llama with two heads.

That's another image that I have, you know, of both this bi-directional way that we're using AI.

The written products in support, such as knowledge-based articles, other kinds of documentation, macros, email templates, those kinds of things.

These kinds of writing that I think about as ingredients in a pantry almost.

We are writing them for humans, but we are also writing

them to power AI.

So that is a big change.

Because if we were talking five or six years ago, you know, my mentor would have been the knowledge article, you know, KB00736.

is only a good knowledge article if the people who need to use it can understand it and act on it.

And by the way, those two measures, can they understand it with a reasonable, not extraordinary amount of effort? Can they understand and can they act on it? Those are the main principles of plain language.

We know a piece of writing is written in plain language when the intended reader can understand it and act on it.