Every day, you write emails, reports, business proposals, and more. But you're short on time and struggle to find the right words. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help you improve your writing productivity, from the initial idea to the final text. Françoise Landuré, a communications consultant, guides you step by step through the practical and reasoned use of generative AI. Discover accessible tools and practical examples to transform the way you write, while preserving your uniqueness.
To write a professional document, several steps are necessary. First, collect and organise your ideas, then write, proofread and edit. Finally, increase the impact with titles and visuals. Generative AI tools can assist you at each of these stages. There are general-purpose AIs such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Le Chat, Claude and Gemini. Other tools can also be used for specific purposes such as writing a report or creating a presentation. Here's how to take advantage of these different solutions throughout the writing process.
AI to get started faster: finding ideas and structuring your writing
Is starting a text the most difficult task for you? AI helps you get over this hurdle by quickly generating ideas. For example: an angle for an internal memo, arguments for a report, or a common thread for a presentation. Conversational AI models stimulate thinking and broaden your perspectives. They also excel at summarising and analysing existing content, via copy-paste or a downloaded document.
Once you have your ideas, AI can help you organise them. It can write a summary or suggest a detailed plan. It can also classify your information in the form of hierarchical lists or clear tables.
Numerous tools and features facilitate this stage of reflection and preparation. For example, web searches (via ChatGPT or the dedicated AI Perplexity, for instance) supplement your knowledge with targeted information. In addition, you can create mind maps to organise your ideas and highlight the links between them. AI generates these automatically, either in text form or directly in visual form if it is a specialised AI (XMind AI, Mindmeister AI, etc.).
It is possible to generate more specific and complex maps using more elaborate prompts.
Testimonial
«When it comes to gathering information, which is very time-consuming, ChatGPT serves as my augmented search engine. For example, when evaluating companies, it involves a huge amount of data analysis and understanding of companies» business models, their market, the competition, etc. I also use it to learn new things. For example, I had to produce a graph in Excel and didn't know how to do it: ChatGPT gave me instructions in five minutes!" Maud, accountant (source: Philonomist)
Writing fluently: AI as your writing co-pilot
Once you have your plan in place, generative AI can convert your ideas into coherent text. To obtain a relevant result, everything depends on the quality of your instructions (or prompt). The more you specify the objective, target audience, context, format and desired tone, the more appropriate the response will be. You can even provide an example (one of your previous writings, content written by your communications department, etc.) or request a style similar to that of a well-known author or comedian to define the tone.
AI masters best practices in professional writing: short sentences, active voice, clear vocabulary. But it applies them better if you explicitly ask it to. For example, ask it to use a simple sentence structure such as «subject, verb, complement».
One tip is to ask her what these best practices are before you start writing. She knows how to apply effective techniques such as storytelling and the AIDA method, which are useful for emails and marketing content.
Here are two headlines written by ChatGPT for a LinkedIn post.
- The first corresponds to the first step of the AIDA method, «attracting attention»: «70% of professionals spend more than two hours a day writing emails, reports or posts... what if AI could cut that time in half without sacrificing quality?».
- The second uses storytelling: «Just yesterday, I was rereading a report that I had spent hours polishing... and I still wasn't satisfied with the style. So I tried something new: I asked an AI to rework it. I was pleasantly surprised by the result.»
Read also : Optimising note-taking for greater efficiency
Some tools are real time-savers: Copilot in Outlook (included in the Microsoft 365 subscription) allows you to write an email directly in the messaging interface, based on a prompt. Other solutions, such as AI Note Taker or Noota, automate the writing of meeting minutes from recordings or notes.
Testimonial :
«When it comes to recruitment, ChatGPT's contribution is undeniable: writing a job advertisement for a highly specialised position requiring technical skills in record time. Preparing a questionnaire for a job test, creating a job description or redesigning a career website...» Dan Guez, co-founder of the recruitment firm Opensourcing (source: Feel-rh)
Read also : AI and HR: what practical uses?
Rewrite, correct, adapt: AI to refine and enhance the power of your writing
Once your text has been written, AI can correct and improve it. It is also capable of adapting a text to its recipient. To report a malfunction, you can send a technical message to the expert team and a simplified version to your client or management.
AI can make content more professional, accessible or natural in French, especially when the text is written by a non-native speaker.
She also knows how to adjust her tone depending on the context: more direct, more diplomatic or more formal.
Example
You can request a more diplomatic version of this complaint message: «I am writing to report a major problem with my order [order number]. Not only was the delivery late, but several items arrived damaged. This situation is unacceptable and requires your immediate attention. I await a proposal for compensation and a clear explanation of this malfunction.»
The response could be, for example: «I am contacting you regarding my order [order number]. I understand that unforeseen circumstances can arise during the delivery process, but I am quite disappointed with the situation. Not only did the parcel arrive late, but it also contained damaged items, which is quite frustrating. Could you please advise me on how to proceed in order to find a satisfactory solution?»
Finally, you can ask it to make specific changes: make a message clearer, more elegant, summarise it or, on the contrary, expand on it... Take a complicated and wordy sentence like this one: «A substantial increase in operating expenses has recently been observed within our company, which may require the implementation of budgetary adjustment measures that will be announced shortly. » Ask the AI to transform it into short, clear sentences in the active voice. The result: «Our operating expenses have increased significantly. We are adjusting the budget and will soon communicate the new measures.»
General AI tools detect most spelling and syntax errors and explain the rules to be applied (however, omissions are still possible and some explanations are inaccurate). As for specialised tools such as Grammarly, LanguageTool and Antidote, they are now enhanced by AI. Another interesting feature is ChatGPT's Canvas, which provides a separate space from the conversation where you can directly rework and refine specific passages of text.
Testimonial :
«I write a lot of prospecting and follow-up emails to various contacts. And even though I don't make any mistakes in English, I have to make sure I adapt my language to my different contacts. You can lose customers by being too cavalier! ChatGPT has helped me to understand this cultural difference between Italy and France.» Elisabetta, sales representative of Italian origin (source: Philonomist)
Read also : Improve your business writing!
Grab attention: eye-catching objects, headlines and taglines
In any professional writing, first impressions are crucial. AI can help make them more memorable. It can generate an infinite number of titles, hooks, introductions, conclusions and transition sentences, varying styles, tones and formats. In a matter of seconds, it can suggest several formulations tailored to your target audience and your objective.
Some AI systems are also capable of generating customised visuals that are increasingly realistic and incorporate text in an increasingly high-quality manner. Ideal for creating thumbnails, article visuals or attractive slides.
Other AIs produce ready-to-use presentations: they format a provided text or create complete slides from a prompt.
Gamma regularly tops the rankings of the best AI tools for creating presentations. It offers three levels of slide detail, from the most minimalist to the most comprehensive. Copilot in PowerPoint (included in the Microsoft 365 subscription) allows you to quickly create a good presentation template, ready to be customised.
Testimonial :
«I use ChatGPT to find puns for email subject lines and lexical fields when I'm doing copywriting... This gives me a good foundation, which I then rework.» Anaëlle, communications project manager (source: Cadremploi)
What AI cannot yet do for you: critical thinking, ethics and common sense
However effective it may be, AI cannot replace your skills or your judgement. As a generalist, it knows the best practices, but not the subtleties of a particular field. It can therefore produce vague or erroneous information, which may even be legally risky. Nor does it have an ethical conscience.
What's more, once the «wow» effect of a rapidly generated text has worn off, a closer reading can be disappointing: a verbose text that obscures the essentials, ideas that are repeated from one paragraph to the next, and cumbersome formulations such as excessive negations, relative clauses, adverbs, or present participles. Pay particular attention to repetitive expressions such as «In a world where...» and «Imagine...», or to excessive use of ellipses or dashes, which are tell-tale signs of AI usage.
To get the most out of it, you need to proceed step by step, systematically proofread, take a step back, personalise content and train the AI to adopt your writing preferences.
Free generative AI solutions have significant limitations: reduced number of queries, limited ability to process long content, inaccessible features, etc. For regular use, paid subscriptions are essential.
Your checklist for AI-assisted texts
- Check the information
- Check clarity and structure
- Eliminate redundancies and clichés«
- Adapt the tone and style to the context and reader
- Customise with your own touch and expertise
- Polish your headlines and taglines
- Correct spelling and syntax
Get trained!
Would you like to take it further? Discover the training programme Improve your writing efficiency with AI.
Key points:
- Improve your professional writing with AI assistants
- Write reports and summaries with the help of text generators
- Find inspiration by generating ideas with AI assistants
- Improve style and readability through augmented correction
Examples of practical work:
- Production of a summary with AI assistants
- Writing an email with word processing software
As you can see, AI offers real support for increasing productivity. But without a minimum level of expertise, there is a risk of producing generic content that lacks precision or is not tailored to your context. Training means learning how to harness the potential of AI while showcasing your expertise and personality. Make AI your co-pilot and remain fully in control of your professional writing. !
