In an age of ChatGPT, how do you future-proof your writing career?

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had a handful of conversations with clients about?OpenAI’s?ChatGPT. Specifically, our clients have wanted to know:

• How are we going to augment our services with ChatGPT??
• Would I be offended if they started to use ChatGPT??
• And how can Wordtree guarantee that our services?aren’t?AI-generated?

And now, of course, Google has announced the imminent launch of its own chatbot, Bard.

These questions circle around an existential question for language and writing professionals, which is this: In an age of ChatGPT, are we still relevant?

My honest answer is that I think some forms of commercial writing will rapidly be replaced by AI. Top of the list, I think, will be content with the sole purpose of repeating keywords. You know the kind of thing…

This kind of writing already feels like it was written by a machine. So why not get a cheap piece of software to sit there cranking it out instead of a more expensive person??

I also think “simple explanation” writing could be carried out by AI. This is the kind of thing you find in leaflets in hospital waiting rooms explaining heart disease in everyman terms.

These kinds of communications are important – and they’re often produced by charities that need every penny they can get.

Creating even the simplest of simple explainer leaflets can be costly. Currently, you might start with a copywriter talking to a subject matter expert – or reading background info. Then the writer sets about translating the technical explanation into something more accessible.?

The writer probably won’t get it 100% right first time. So you’ll then have a round or two of review and amends everyone’s happy to sign off and allow the new leaflet to be created.

But with AI, you don’t need the expert. And you don’t need the writer. At least, you don’t need them anywhere near as much. Instead, you just jot down a question like this for the AI:

Then the bot takes a couple of seconds and spits out a straightforward, easy-to-read explanation.?

Of course, it’s using the internet as its source of information… so the first draft may not be 100% correct. So you still might need a couple of rounds of review and amends. But you can cut out a whole load of time and resource up front.

So should everyone working with language simply hang up their hats?

No – and here’s why. Language has a much, much broader – and more important – role to play in organisations than stuffing keywords or providing simple explanations.

Language is a valuable business asset. And when organisations value and nurture this asset - and set systems up to leverage it – they see a demonstrable impact on their bottom line.

Here at Wordtree, we deploy language to do three big things for businesses and organisations:

To be able to do all these things requires impeccable language, marketing and brand skills. It also needs an ability to consider context, listen to stakeholders and understand their needs – and an ability to select and reject information, rather than simply hoover it up and regurgitate it.

This is before we even get to awareness of best practice, customer understanding and creativity – and being able to do things like take interesting approaches from other sectors and transfer them… or take into account the personal preferences of a senior stakeholder, or understand the role of underlying processes and policy.

Maybe a day will come when an AI will be able to do all of these things. But it’s certainly not here yet. In the words of ChatGPT itself:

So future-proofing a career in writing starts with understanding that language has a role to play that goes far beyond just writing stuff.

It’s about harnessing language’s natural role as a vector for understanding, identity and culture. And if you can build a career where you think of language as a valuable business asset that can – and should – be codified, trained and deployed, then you’ll thrive.

You’ll have the skills to brief an AI – creating the frameworks it needs to churn out basic communications. And you’ll be able to advise organisations on the approaches they need to take, rather than simply producing the outputs they need.

Talking of which, we’re currently recruiting to cover maternity leave. So if you’d like to join an organisation that works with big brand names, helping them to harness the power of language – in a way that goes well beyond what an AI can achieve – then?check out the ad.?

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on how they’re integrating AI into their marketing approach.