The average business or technical writer does not tend toward deep research and practice in rhetorical theory when editing. But those who do not know a sentence from a citrus fruit or a punctuation mark from a pumpkin would do well to ask AI to edit their messages before pressing send.
AI will not let you down when it comes to writing grammatically flawless sentences. It usually knows where periods and commas go, and it can help you to achieve plain language, if that's what you're aiming for. Enough research shows that AI can close the gap between limited English proficient writers and their native English-speaking counterparts.
But grammatical propriety ain't everything. I wouldn't depend too much on AI for three critical areas of writing: style, tone, and content.
Style. You might prefer writing in a certain style, for instance, exclusively using active or passive voice. If you are an informed writer, you can dictate these stylistic wishes to AI, but you won't get something that seems like your style.
Tone. While AI is quite good in writing proper sentences, it is weak in determining the proper tone based on your audience and the business situation. You will have to figure that out on your own based on your professional experience and situational awareness.
Content. Whenever I ask AI to edit a passage for me, it overreaches. For instance, I recently asked it to edit a passage for plain language. It changed the word permanent to for a long time. There is a difference in meaning, which AI is still inadequate in detecting.
You'll have to detemine whether AI is doing the right thing. Only you know what you really want to say. Don't let AI take over the writing situation completely.
