The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in enterprise means that writing for humans increasingly means writing for the machines that deliver the information. AIs – through chatbots, voice-activated assistants such as Siri or Alexa, or other digital communications tech – are delivering information on demand to real people to satisfy different information needs across a range of potential contexts.
AI: the next big tech trend
The trend towards AI is well documented in the field of digital communications. A BrightEdge survey of 500 search, content, and digital marketers identified the top three next big marketing trends as: consumer personalization (29%), AI (26%) and voice search (21.23%), suggesting a shift towards AI-first marketing. Voice assistants are already popular and being used in a range of consumer products (in the US, 46% of adults said they now use voice apps to interact with smartphones and other devices.
When it comes to jobs, studying AI could prove useful indeed. Stanford University’s AI index found that job openings requiring machine learning and deep learning skills on Monster.com, more than doubled from 2016-17.
And if AI isn’t on your business agenda yet, it’s coming. According to Adobe’s 2018 Digital Trends survey of 13,000 executives, just 15% of organisations are using AI at present, but 31% said it is on their agenda for the next 12 months.
Job skills in AI
Employers increasingly want people with skills in AI and automated information provision and delivery. So who plans and writes content for chatbots and voice interfaces such as Siri and Google Assistant?
We think many of our techcomm readers, content professionals and information designers could develop this skillset, and potentially open up a whole new career option beyond traditional content delivery models.
Training in writing for machines
CJ Walker, Firehead’s founder and managing director, has been aware of and preparing for this trend for a while. In 2016 she partnered with other computational linguists to develop and deliver university courses aimed at helping students prepare for the challenges of machine-human content development.
The training is for technical communicators who want to develop skills in writing for machines driven by artificial intelligence.
This training, delivered live online or in a classroom environment, is suitable for:
- technical writers, information developers and content creators who want to learn how to write for AI
- information designers who want to learn about information design for smart systems
- content strategists, content strategists and product managers who want to understand the implications of AI for information and content.
Get in touch to find out more.
Laptop writer image (CC) by StockSnap; Writeboard image (CC) by LTDatEHU; Chatbot image (CC) by Mohamed Hassan, all via Pixabay.
