The rise of AI tools has significantly influenced UX writing, transforming how we create and
transform user experiences. Companies leveraging AI in UX report marked improvements in
efficiency, with AI tools capable of reducing content production time by up to 50%. While AI can
handle routine tasks and improve scalability, the human touch in UX writing remains the key for
crafting easy-to-use, authentic, and emotionally resonant experiences that solve users’ pain
points.
At its core, UX writing involves selecting the right words to guide users through an interface
to achieve seamless interactions and instilling confidence along the way. It is a discipline where
brevity is key, and every word counts. Unlike other forms of writing, UX writing is not about
creativity in a traditional sense; it’s more about precision and clarity. Writers must design for
users who often skim content, and AI tools can assist in maintaining conciseness and clarity in
these quick-read contexts.
AI’s Role in Maintaining Voice and Tone
AI-powered UX writing tools have proven useful in maintaining consistent voice and tone across
large-scale projects or products. Voice refers to the consistent set of characteristics that shape
the personality of the product, while tone adjusts based on the user’s context and emotions.
These elements are key in building trust and creating memorable user experiences that will
be easily associated with your brand. AI excels at upholding these parameters across large
volumes of content, ensuring uniformity and also at reducing human errors in repetitive tasks
such as proofreading and translations.
The Limits of AI: Creativity and Flexibility
Still, we can argue that AI tools lack the flexibility and empathy that come with human input.
While it can process data quickly, AI tools struggle with capturing the subtle problems of specific
user groups and producing truly creative or original content. Moreover, UX professionals over-
relying on AI can lead to the loss of authenticity, and there’s a risk of creating content that
feels impersonal or even artificial. As users interact with your product, they need to feel
genuinely understood, and that is a task best handled by human writers who can intuitively tap
into emotions and context.
Effective UX writing is more than just giving your users clear instructions on how to perform their
tasks; it’s about recognizing key moments in a user’s journey. Although some AI tools can
even assist in identifying these moments by analyzing user behavior patterns, the UX writer is
still the one who makes the final decision on when and how to intervene. There’s a fine line
between helpful guidance and intrusive interaction, and human oversight ensures the experience
feels natural, rather than robotic or even forced.
The Risks of Relying on AI
AI tools can be very helpful when scaling content and ensuring consistency. Still, UX writers and
AI users must consider the risks.
The first major concern we’ll discuss is the ethical issues and biases that often accompany AI-
generated content. There is a lot of biased and stereotyped content out there. AI tools are
trained on existing content and consume it as grounding to create a response. These responses
can alienate users or perpetuate harmful stereotypes on the “garbage in, garbage out” principle.
This is one of the reasons human oversight is essential in identifying and rectifying these biases.
Additionally, AI tools can make mistakes and hallucinate. Those small-letter disclaimers in your
favorite tool are there for a reason. Make sure to double-check the correctness and apply
common sense. Blindly accepting AI-generated content, without proper review can even lead to
legal issues if the content misrepresents the product or violates guidelines.
Over-reliance on AI may also result in a loss of creativity and a decline in content quality. AI
tools cannot innovate beyond the data they are trained on, leading to repetitive writing that fails
to engage users on a deeper level. By picking speed and perceived efficiency over creativity and
original ideas, you’re risking authoring user experience that is dull and unmemorable. This will
ultimately hinder the product’s ability to connect with your audience.
Another significant risk is over-automation. The strategy of employing AI for automation may
result in losing the human-centered approach that makes UX writing effective. At the end of the
day, you’re not writing for machines; you’re writing for people. AI lacks the intuition needed to
fully understand the complexities of user emotions or motivations, which can result in content
that is too transactional or impersonal, leaving users feeling disconnected from the brand.
In the rush to implement AI solutions, companies may need to pay more attention to the real
user problems that UX writing aims to address. While AI can optimize word choice and
structure, it lacks a deep understanding of users’ needs and pain points. Even the most perfectly
generated content can miss the mark without this insight. This is where human writers excel.
They focus not only on what is written but also on why it is written and how it will resonate with
users. This balance is necessary for AI to create smooth user experiences that fail to forge
meaningful connections.
Example from Real Life: Balancing Precision and Empathy
At Syskit, we have a specific challenge when approaching UX writing that surely some of you will
relate to. Since we are developing a product that IT professionals and non-tech-savvy end-users
use, we need to be laser-focused on clarity. We are creating user experiences that must be
intuitive for users with varying degrees of IT skills.
While we leverage the efficiency of AI tools to streamline content consistency and handle
repetitive tasks, we remain committed to maintaining the human touch that makes our products
genuinely resonate with users. Our UX writing strategy is deeply rooted in understanding the
needs of our audiences. How do we do it? Dialogue with customers and constant testing. We
are collaborating with other teams on this, learning the exact phrasing our customers are using,
testing out the journey, gathering feedback, etc.
The ultimate goal is to craft messaging that guides users effortlessly through complex
interfaces and build trust, empathy, and a sense of connection with our brand. This balanced
approach allows us to scale without sacrificing the authenticity and precision that are core to our
values.
Conclusion: AI is just another tool
To sum up, AI has undoubtedly transformed how we approach UX writing by offering improved
efficiency. It should be seen as a tool assisting UX writers rather than replacing human creativity.
AI excels in tasks that require consistency, speed, and accuracy, such as proofreading,
maintaining voice, or generating multiple content variations at scale.
These tools free up time for UX writers to focus on more strategic, creative aspects of
content creation, allowing for deeper user engagement. However, it is crucial to remember that
AI works within the boundaries of the data it’s trained on, it lacks the emotional intelligence and
subtle understanding that human writers bring to the table. Crafting a user experience that feels
natural, empathetic, and aligned with human emotions requires more than algorithms.
The future of UX writing is not about choosing between AI and humans but about leveraging
the strengths of both. With AI handling routine tasks and scaling, writers are empowered to focus
on what they do best: crafting meaningful, user-centered experiences that machines cannot
replicate alone.
Featured image by Clark Young on Unsplash
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