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Using GenAI as Your Writing Assistant: The Business Writer’s Guide

These days, business writers face mounting pressure to produce more content faster while maintaining quality. Generative AI (GenAI) tools, like Claude and Perplexity, can help streamline your writing process—not by replacing you but by serving as a capable assistant. Let’s explore helpful ways to integrate GenAI into the different stages of your writing process.

Important! Remember that AI isn’t a magic wand, and it’s not a replacement for human thinking. It can make some very big mistakes. Always use your critical thinking skills and check all of its responses. 

Starting Strong: Research and Brainstorming

The most valuable contribution GenAI can make to your writing process comes early on. Think of it as an enthusiastic research assistant who can help gather and organize information quickly and efficiently. 

Researching

Most writing projects start with research, something GenAI is particularly good at. I recommend starting with these six steps:

  1. Using a specialized GenAI research tool, create a focused research thread.
  2. Start with any context of your project, such as topic and the level of knowledge you’re looking for (e.g., beginner, advanced).
  3. Ask a broad query to see how the tool responds.
  4. Follow up with specific questions, such as about implementation, metrics, and case studies.
  5. Ask the tool to summarize longer articles and identify key themes.
  6. Have it look for connections between different sources and ideas.

I’ve been using Perplexity to research my articles for Lenovo Pro’s SMB Community, and it has helped cut down the time I spend researching. I like that while Perplexity summarizes the information it finds, it also gives me links to each point. That allows me to confirm its findings and to learn more.

Brainstorming and Outlining

When you’re ready to organize your thoughts, GenAI can suggest a structure while you maintain creative control.

Feed the GenAI tool your context and ask for outline suggestions. Provide your tool with information like:

  • Your target audience
  • Publication parameters
  • Key messages you want to convey
  • Any mandatory topics or elements

One benefit of using GenAI is that it can create multiple approaches to your topic quickly. You can also ask it to identify potential gaps in your outline and propose relevant examples or case studies from your notes.

I like to outline before I write because it’s easier to play with structure and organization. I can see the entirety more readily and I don’t need to worry yet about transitions. GenAI makes this process even easier.

I’ve been using Anthropic’s Claude for brainstorming and outlining, starting by creating projects and uploading previous articles to it to train it on my style. The tool helps with recognizing patterns and organizing my ideas, while I do all the writing. 

Is it perfect? Far from it! Sometimes it goes in a completely different direction. But I can have it make adjustments quickly until I’m happy with the results. 

A bonus of using Claude is that Anthropic does not use my data to train its tools. 

Maintaining Control of the Creative Process

While GenAI can be invaluable for research and organization, remember that you are the creative director. Here are some guidelines for keeping GenAI in an appropriate supporting role.

Do:

  • Use GenAI to expand your research scope.
  • Have it help identify patterns and themes.
  • Ask for alternative perspectives on your topic.
  • Have it identify gaps in your thesis.
  • Use it to check for logical flow in your outline.

Don’t:

  • Accept GenAI suggestions without critical evaluation.
  • Let GenAI write complete sections of your content.
  • Rely on GenAI for industry-specific expertise.
  • Skip fact-checking GenAI-provided information.

Measuring Success

How do you know if GenAI is actually improving your process? Look for these indicators:

  • Reduced research time (typically 40%–50% faster)
  • More comprehensive initial outlines
  • Broader perspective on topics
  • Fewer gaps in a thesis
  • More logical flow of ideas
  • Maintained or improved content quality
  • Consistent authentic voice

The goal isn’t to have GenAI write for you. It’s to help you write better, faster, and with more insight. With a little effort on your part, you can train your writing assistant to provide you what you need.

Just remember to check its work.

Want to learn more about integrating GenAI into your content development process? Contact Right Touch Editing for a consultation on building an GenAI-enhanced writing workflow that maintains your authentic voice.

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