Technical writing services in an AI world

A strategic guide to AI for Technical Authors

Artificial Intelligence is changing technical writing. AI tools, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), are changing how documentation is created, consumed, and maintained.

We wrote this free guide to help Technical Authors and Technical Writers understand and use AI tools effectively.

It explores three critical aspects of AI for the profession:

• Writing documentation optimised for LLM consumption
• Using AI to create new documentation outputs and formats
• Using AI to work more efficiently

See:

• A strategic guide to AI for Technical Authors

Consultancy in using AI in technical communications

Integrating AI into your documentation workflow can seem daunting. Where do you start? Which tools are right for you?

At Cherryleaf, we help you harness the power of Artificial Intelligence to automate and enhance your documentation processes. AI is not about replacing technical writers; it’s about empowering them. By integrating AI, we can free your team from tedious, repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on high-value activities like strategy, user advocacy, and creating exceptionally clear content.

We act as your strategic partner, helping you:

• Evaluate your current processes to identify the best opportunities for automation.
• Develop a tailored AI strategy that aligns with your business goals.
• Implement the right tools and workflows for your team.
• Train your writers to work effectively alongside their new AI-powered assistants.

You’ll get independent advice from our experts in technical communication. Cherryleaf will listen to your needs, develop a custom strategy, and hold your hand. We’ll execute this plan together, if you want.

Don’t let outdated processes hold you back. Let’s explore how AI can make your documentation more efficient, accurate, and valuable.

Contact us today to get started.

The challenge: The growing demands of modern documentation

Creating and maintaining high-quality technical documentation is more demanding than ever. Your teams are likely facing constant pressure to:

• Keep pace with rapid development cycles
  • Manual documentation processes struggle to keep up with agile development, leading to outdated and inaccurate content.
• Reduce repetitive workloads
  • So much of a technical writer’s time is consumed by repetitive tasks like formatting, updating boilerplate text, and ensuring stylistic consistency across thousands of pages.
• Improve content quality and consistency
  • Maintaining a single source of truth and a consistent voice across a large documentation suite is a significant challenge that manual efforts alone often cannot solve.
• Scale content for a global audience
  • Translating and localising technical content quickly and accurately is a costly and time-consuming bottleneck.

These challenges don’t just slow you down; they impact your customer experience and increase support costs.

Implementing AI is more than just deploying new software; it’s a strategic initiative that requires foresight and a clear understanding of both the technology’s potential and its limitations. Successful projects are built on a foundation of smart strategy and organisational readiness.

The key principles for success

Here are the key principles for success:

Targeted and realistic use

The first step is identifying the jobs for which AI is an excellent tool. Be realistic about tasks where other options may be better. AI is a powerful tool, not a universal remedy.

Empowerment through bottom-up championing

The most successful projects gain momentum when they are led by the employees who will use the tools daily.

Build the foundations for success

A company’s readiness is the single greatest predictor of success. Organisations that set clear metrics for what they want to achieve, establish strong governance for content quality, and invest in a high-quality, structured content infrastructure are far more likely to see a significant return on their AI investment.

Intelligent automation for technical content

We provide expert consultancy and implementation services to help you leverage AI in several key areas:

Automate and accelerate content creation

Imagine dramatically speeding up the initial drafting process. We can help you implement AI-powered systems to:

• Generate first drafts and outlines
• Streamline repetitive content
• Transform existing information

Enhance content quality and consistency

We can help you implement systems to:

• Ensure every piece of documentation meets your highest standards.
• Perform advanced editorial checks
• Ensure terminological consistency

Streamline content management and operations

Bring new levels of efficiency to your entire documentation workflow.

We can assist you in:

• Automating content tagging and categorisation
  • AI can analyse and automatically apply metadata, tags, and categories to your content, making it significantly easier to manage, search, and retrieve.
• Optimising content for search and LLMs
  • Improve the findability of your help content by using AI to identify and incorporate relevant keywords and optimise for SEO.

Fitting AI into your workflows

Adopting AI doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul of your operations. We specialise in identifying how AI tools can fit into your existing processes. We enhance your workflow, making it faster and more intelligent without causing friction for your team.

Targeted solutions for measurable outcomes

The most effective use of AI is not as a general-purpose solution, but as a precision tool aimed at specific challenges – fixing bottlenecks in your documentation process. For example: reduction in authoring time, a decrease in support tickets related to documentation, or a faster time-to-market for localised content. By targeting these specific problems, you can implement AI solutions with clear, measurable outcomes.

AI usage statement

See Cherryleaf’s AI usage statement.