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Generative AI can be a powerful asset for writing, offering a way to conserve time and mental energy. Given that writing is a resource-intensive task, it is unsurprising that OpenAI reports it makes up 24% of all ChatGPT interactions, making it the platform's most popular use case. However, not all writing tasks benefit equally from AI assistance. To determine whether using AI will streamline your workflow or create more problems, consider these four questions.
Will using generative AI actually save you time or effort?
Using tools like ChatGPT does not eliminate the need for you to write; instead, it shifts the writing burden from the final output (like an email or proposal) to crafting the prompt. Writing an effective prompt is a skill in itself—often requiring detailed paragraphs rather than simple sentences—to generate usable output that minimizes editing and meets your goals.
Ask yourself if the tool will genuinely save you time, or simply transfer your effort to a different type of writing. If you are an experienced writer but new to AI, you may find that drafting the content yourself is faster and easier than learning to prompt the AI effectively.
**Will using generative AI create more work for your colleagues?**
Careless use of AI can offload your workload onto others. If you rely on AI without oversight, you risk producing "workslop"—content that appears polished but lacks substance. It is your responsibility to perform quality control before sharing. Failing to review the content forces the next person to decipher and fix the text, potentially confusing your team and slowing down the project.
The cost of this goes beyond time; a BetterUps study found that 53% of colleagues feel annoyed, 38% confused, and 22% offended when receiving such low-quality content. Passing off unedited AI work can breed resentment and damage professional relationships.
**Do you need to retain or deeply understand the content?**
AI is excellent for rapid, low-stakes tasks, such as summarizing routine meeting notes for absent colleagues. In these cases, the goal is simple documentation, and AI is highly efficient.
However, if you are synthesizing complex information—such as new industry advancements you need to teach to your team—writing manually is often superior. Research shows that writing, especially by hand, engages multiple brain regions involved in motor control and sensory processing, leading to deeper comprehension and better memory retention. While slower, the manual process creates cognitive benefits that an AI shortcut cannot replicate.
**Are you dealing with private or proprietary information?**
Be cautious about inputting confidential or proprietary text into public AI tools. Generative models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot often learn from the data provided to them, unless specific privacy settings are enabled.
Adhere to your company’s policies regarding AI usage. Many organizations have strict rules about what data can be processed externally, while others use secure, internal AI tools. If you are working independently or without a clear policy, research the implications of feeding original content into these systems, particularly since many creators now explicitly prohibit the use of their work to train AI models.
Generative AI is a valuable tool for saving time on specific writing and editing tasks. However, responsible usage requires discernment. There are instances where the cognitive benefits and quality assurance of manual writing outweigh the convenience of automation. Knowing when to use AI—and when to write it yourself—is key to using the technology effectively.