Explore best practices in AI-friendly content writing for applications including guide chatbots. Discover how to integrate AI in technical documentation effectively, enhancing comprehension for both AI agents and human users.
Changes in Content Consumption Patterns in the Era of AI
Across the globe, AI content optimization is reshaping the IT industry, with applications like guide chatbots and advanced AI search tools leading the charge. In addition to the traditional human consumers, AI agents, including chatbots and AI search tools, are now becoming significant consumers of content.
As AI evolves into a new category of content consumer, it is crucial for the content development industry to develop writing techniques that enhance the comprehension and engagement of these AI consumers, while adhering to fundamental principles of user-oriented content development practices.
Understanding Content Preferences: Human vs. AI Consumers
The fundamental value of information lies in its comprehensibility and accuracy, and the standards for excellent content remain the same. However, there is a difference in the format of information preferred by human consumers versus AI consumers.
Human consumers prefer concise formats of information to understand and utilize it accurately within a limited time, whereas AI consumers powered by massive, high-speed cloud computing capabilities, prefer extensive and detailed explanations.
| Human consumer | AI consumer | |
|---|---|---|
| Content features | Content that is concise and accurate, structured for quick consumption in a limited time | Content accompanying as extensive descriptions as possible (More essential and relevant information leads to increased performance.) |
| Examples | Simple examples | As many examples as possible (More examples lead to higher comprehensibility and accuracy.) |
| Visual information, such as images | Highly effective for enhanced comprehensibility. | Detailed descriptions must be added for utilization. |
| Metadata | Partially utilized for data search. | Highly utilized for all contextual and structural purposes. |
| Publication type | Standardized (PDF, html, xml…) | Non-standardized (chatbots and apps) / customizable as needed |
Balanced Approach to Developing AI-Friendly Content
Although AI is rapidly advancing, since the majority of documents are still intended for human users, developing documents through a balanced approach that both human and AI consumers can easily understand and utilize is arguably the most ideal approach in reality.
1. Developing content equally friendly to human and AI consumers
The following are examples of basic considerations in developing content that both human and AI consumers can easily understand.
Consistently use accurate terms
Consistent use of terms is a fundamental principle of technical document writing. By consistently using accurate terms, confusion can be prevented for both human and AI consumers.
Provide detailed information using expressions that are easy to understand and grammatically accurate.
Information that is difficult for humans to understand or easy to misunderstand due to grammatical or logical errors, or sentences with ambiguous meanings, are also likely to be misinterpreted by AI.
Use simple expressions to write brief and accurate information
Avoid complex sentences that include flashy modifiers and grammatical structures, and use plain vocabulary and simple sentence structures to accurately describe the key information.
Others: more detailed considerations related to technological limits of AI
- Avoid omitting the subject and minimize the use of pronouns: Repeating the subject can decrease the efficiency of the sentence somewhat, but when sentences are scattered and recorded in databases or similar platforms, maintaining an independent context minimizes the possibility of errors and increases usability.
- Utilize a logical and systematic document structure: Enhanced content structure allows both human and AI consumers to quickly search for and utilize the necessary information.
- Include information in FAQ format: The FAQ format, which explains questions and answers in a one-to-one correspondence, is a clear expression style preferred by both human and AI consumers.
2. Leveraging CMS for AI Integration in Technical Writing
The content management system (CMS) is an ideal tool for accumulating information content that does not depend on formats and for utilizing it in various ways according to the required scenarios.
Building a vast and detailed knowledge base in CMS allows for the content to be meticulously categorized through tagging. Depending on the need, you can select content specifically for human consumers to publish in traditional document formats, or output AI-friendly content for use.
Conclusion
The era of AI has already arrived, and industries, including automotive and consumer electronics, are quickly moving to integrate product usage information with AI.
There is no doubt that this is a transitional moment requiring investment and preparation for a global AI revolution. Companies that have a concrete blueprint for a future with AI, regardless of industry, will have a competitive edge in the future.
From a content development perspective, although the target audience for manuals remains human consumers, the consumption of manuals by AI consumers will continue to increase. Therefore, it is evident that content developers who establish and proactively implement a balanced approach to AI-friendly content development will secure a competitive edge in the future industry.