From Wordsmith to Information Architect: How AI Is Expanding the Professional Writer’s Role

Why AI can’t fully replace tech writers

Hi! Welcome to Friday Features. Every Friday, I’m exposing you to various perspectives about writing and AI. This will help you develop a more holistic outlook on writing faster, better, and more human!

This week, we’re going to get an in-depth look at how

Lexy M

from the Corporate Odyssey uses AI in her work, and her reflections on its deeper implication on the writing industry.

ChatGPT 4o

Will AI replace professional writers? It’s the question floating through Reddit threads, Slack channels, conference panels, and the occasional 2 a.m. anxiety spiral.

While it’s unlikely AI will completely eliminate the need for professonal writers, it will definitely reshape the role.

The tools are changing.

The expectations are shifting.

And the smartest thing you can do? Adapt before you’re asked to.

I’ll use technical writing as the main example here, simply because it’s the world I know best.

And while this article focuses on technical writers, the lessons apply to anyone in the business of words — whether you’re a marketer, copywriter, UX writer, or content strategist navigating an AI-powered future.

How I accidentally became a part-time technical writer

I didn’t set out to become a technical writer — it just sort of… happened.

In the past, our company had a dedicated person whose full-time role was writing the newsletter. It made sense — communicating technical updates, new features and employment law changes in clear, digestible language is no small feat.

But with the rise of automation and AI tools that can help simplify complex concepts in record time, that position was eventually deemed redundant.

Though my official role is in Customer Success, I was asked to take on the newsletter as an additional responsibility. Why? Because I already had a deep knowledge of our product and could speak the language of our users.

So here I am— fielding support tickets and doing client calls by morning, crafting product updates or employment law newsletters by afternoon. And without even realising it, I had stepped one foot into the world of technical writing.

While in the beginning, this responsibility was yet another burden on my long to-do list, it has grown on me quickly. Hence, I wanted to learn more about how this role is being reshaped by AI and perhaps, maybe one day, will get to do this full time, serving multiple clients.

Shifting from “just writing” to Information Architecture

In the past, the role of a technical writer was straightforward:

• write clear, accurate, user-friendly documentation;

• decode chaos;

• tame jargon;

• transform complex information or processes into digestible “this-is-how-it’s-done” documents;

Now? Thanks to AI, the role evolves into incorporating our new not-so-silent AI co-worker. The job description can evolve into something like this:

• Training language models to understand how a certain product works.

• Curating knowledge bases so bots and users alike don’t drown in outdated info. In my case, as one of the most senior members of the team, I had accumulated a vast amount of knowledge over the years — employment law documents, internal processes, and historical context that newer team members (or AI tools) wouldn’t necessarily have. Before we could integrate this into a GPT-powered assistant to support customer queries, I had to carefully review it, clean it up, and structure it.

• Building structured content ecosystems that make information modular, dynamic, and ready to be reused by both humans and machines.

• Reviewing, fact-checking, and refining AI-generated content to ensure information accuracy, usability, and applicability in real-world situations. In other words, the shift we see is humans becoming editors of AI-generated work.

All of this exceeds “just writing”. This is architecting knowledge.

AI is the intern — you’re still the Editor-in-Chief

AI can summarise, draft, and auto-complete. It’s great at pattern recognition, fast typing, and remembering every change log note from 2019.

And you?

• You’re the one who knows that AI-generated content can carry political, social, or cultural biases and you have the judgment to spot and correct them.

• You are the one that knows how to “humanise” an article;

• You’re the one who can anonymise sensitive data, protecting the privacy of individuals and organisations when information slips through the cracks.

• You understand your users — how they think, what they need, and how to speak their language with empathy and clarity.

• You’re the one who knows which details are too important to leave to guesswork.

• You are the one who can identify the inherent ethical challenges when using AI, address these concerns and promote transparency in creating technical documentation.

AI can generate. But it can’t yet think critically, empathise, or contextualise like a seasoned tech writer.

That’s where you shine.

How AI supercharges your tech writing game

AI is not replacing technical writing but it’s revolutionising it. Think of it as an enhancer, as an extension of your own capabilities.

1. Enhancing your proofreading and editing: Let’s be honest: editing your own work can be as tedious as looking for a needle in a haystack. That’s where AI shines. Tools like Grammarly and Hemingway App don’t just catch missing commas — they offer style tweaks, tone suggestions, and readability magic. Translation: fewer hours fixing passive voice and grammar hiccups, more hours doing literally anything else.

2. Real-time translation : Ever wished you could speak six languages? With AI, now you (sort of) can. Real-time translation makes it a breeze to create multilingual documentation, so your content can jet-set across borders without losing meaning. This is essential for tech writers who write for global companies that need to cater to diverse audiences.

3. Content personalisation : AI doesn’t just write — it pays attention. By analysing user behaviour and preferences, it helps tailor content to different audiences. That means your documents become smart, targeted, and way more helpful. Because let’s face it— one-size does not fit all.

4. Automated content generation: Tools like Chat-GPT can generate solid first drafts, giving you a running start and saving you countless hours. You still get the final say (and the glory), but AI saves you the time it takes to go from a blank page to “Hey, this is decent”.

Final thoughts

The smartest move you can make for your career — whether you’re already a technical writer or just breaking into the field — is to embrace AI and dive into learning everything you can about it.

AI isn’t a threat. It’s a supercharger, a powerful enhancer that helps you work smarter, faster, and more creatively.

I’d like to believe that the future of technical writing isn’t human or machine — it’s human and machine, working side by side to create clearer, smarter, and more impactful content.

Invest in your education, with the goal of blending your writing skills, with emerging tech trends that can help you future-proof your skills and add kick-ass value to your CV.

For instance, some of the course topics I’d recommend (regardless of whether you choose to do them on Skillshare, Coursera, Udacity, UX Design Institute etc):

• Information Architecture (IA)

• API Documentation (Swagger/OpenAPI)

• Machine Learning courses

• Prompt Engineering

• Content Design and UX writing with AI

So let’s lean in, level up, and shape that future together.

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For more career-packed musings you can follow Lexy over on The Corporate Odyssey