With everyone getting news notifications about software such as ChatGPT and other AI-assisted writing tools, now is the time to unpack what this means for writing in the modern age. Writing blog posts, marketing copies, essays, news articles, and other types of content have already begun to look different than what we're used to. More and more content pieces are generated and edited through AI writing assistants. These types of software tend to multiply and grow in attention for different industries. 

So while many believe the human element of writing is not extinct, it is essential to look at how this may affect humans and writing in the near future.

Why has AI become so prevalent in writing?

To start off, let’s define what AI writing means. AI writing is the ability of an algorithm to write work for a human based on the rules, specifications, and settings set for the program. 

AI writing tools can write content based on any writing style faster than a human would take to figure out the title of their piece. However, does it perfectly capture the voice of the human writer? Not yet, at least. 

AI is efficient enough to write content, but it is vital to note that it is still human driven. Humans must program and prompt the machine to write desired words, as the AI machine cannot think for itself in creating work spontaneously. AI writing assistants are here to stay, but they're here for a particular purpose—to assist humans with writing. For instance, the technology can help gather research, saving the human researcher time. Another example is how an AI writing bot can auto-edit the work of the human to save time. Those are just a couple of the numerous possibilities of what AI writing software brings, which works in favor of human writers rather than against them. Users can achieve their writing goals without dealing with publisher rejection, overloading themselves with writing tasks, and more. Working smarter instead of harder is the name of the game, and some industries are already capitalizing on this.

Evidently, companies in various industries are using this technology. But why are they using it, and what are they using it for? This has been discussed in a previous article written on AI, but since the release of that article, even more industries are coming out with how they are using AI writing assistants. For instance, AI writing has been seen as the future of training for HR and education institutions. It helps students improve their grades and learn better, as the programs are self-paced, adaptive, and interactive. In the content writing world, bloggers, for example, are using AI writing assistant tools to spend 30% less time writing blogs. In general, 12% of all businesses are using AI for content creation. E-commerce platforms are also using AI writing tools to generate automated product descriptions and create catalogs’ worth of descriptions that can be published immediately. Thus, enabling retailers to turn a profit more quickly from buyers. 

These are just a few cases of industries taking advantage of this new wave of technology within AI. According to certain statisticians, this is only the beginning, as this market is projected to grow 14x between 2020 and 2025.

G2, writing, and AI

As previously mentioned, a category on G2 called AI Writing Assistants was created to follow this market. Since its addition to the G2 taxonomy, the category has grown significantly over the years, with the market for this software growing substantially.

Based on the graph above, the AI writing assistant market has fluctuated over the past year. For most of last year, the category views on G2 were steadily climbing and peaked in December. This makes sense, considering that chatGPT was released at the end of November 2022. Naturally, those interested in that type of software would start looking into that type of category on G2. 

Surprisingly, after peaking in interest for buyers in December, G2 viewership in this category has begun to fall in the new year. That might stem from the fact that the overall hype and interest in chatGPT started to go down as other world and tech news started swirling around and gaining traction instead. However, considering that there has been a significant increase in the number of products submitted to this category on G2, I believe this category is likely to perk back up in terms of viewership.

The future of AI writing assistants

It has been made clear that AI writing assistants are surging in industry use, performing abilities, efficiency rates, and category views. However, it still begs the question of what the future of this software is. It seems like this technology is here to stay, but the question should be, what is it going to look like down the road? 

Meanwhile, AI writing assistants have been changing almost every industry it is introduced to in terms of writing produced. This has especially been evident in the education world, as students are learning to write with the assumption that AI writing tools can be used to support or even complete their writing assignments. This is crucial to see where this technology is headed, as this is the next generation with the power to set the standard for how AI writing assistants could be used. Will students realize the usefulness of AI as a tool to aid them in writing? Or will they become reliant on the fact that there is a technology that can put their thoughts into words and even finish their assignment for them? This idea becomes even more relevant because the generation leaving college with this technology readily available is going to be joining the workforce shortly. This will determine the future of this AI in writing.

Edited by Jigmee Bhutia