As a technical content material author for Cisco ThousandEyes, I’ve to confess, my best worry is to get replaced by a generative AI algorithm. Within the spirit of “holding my mates shut and my enemies nearer,” I made a decision to befriend my potential adversary. On this article, I’ll share how utilizing Cisco’s inner AI assistant has augmented my potential as a technical author to maintain up with the fast tempo of change in our trade.
Speedy context switching
I work on a number of merchandise for ThousandEyes and, due to my earlier lives as a NOC Engineer (Community Operations Middle) and Backend Software program Developer, my technical experience means I’m typically referred to as upon when the workforce wants additional protection. Whereas I’ve a broad and deep understanding of many applied sciences, the focus required to successfully write about them is on par with the focus I as soon as wanted as a developer to construct them.
In engineering, “rubber ducking” means to speak out an issue both at somebody or one thing to be able to arrange one’s ideas (not essentially for a response). I take advantage of Cisco’s inner AI assistant as a rubber duck in context switching conditions. With a generative AI chat, I’m in a position to preserve a dialog the place I can current concepts and ask it to summarize the important thing factors I must refresh on. The conversational model strikes me rapidly into the headspace crucial for making troublesome context switches. Relatively than needing half a day to get again within the circulate, I can pivot to a brand new job inside half-hour.
Shorter SME interviews
One thing I get pleasure from about being a technical author is attending to study new stuff. As a lot as I like studying, nevertheless, given our present velocity (and quantity) of innovation, I typically really feel like I’m ingesting from a firehose. Cisco’s inner AI assistant offers me with a quiet area the place I can safely ask dumb questions on unfamiliar applied sciences. This maximizes the worth I can deliver to SME (Topic Matter Skilled) interviews.
When an SME has to stroll me by way of the fundamentals, interviews can take as a lot as an hour and will even span a number of periods. Even once I put together alone, I spend quite a lot of time gathering the data I would like and discerning what’s truly helpful. With the assistance of Cisco’s inner AI assistant, the data is introduced to me in a summarized type that’s simple to digest. I can rapidly assess it for accuracy and I can ask questions for clarification, in addition to reply with corrections to enhance my outcomes. It even exhibits me what sources it used, so I can go deeper alone. This considerably reduces the time I must ramp up on a brand new expertise. Because of utilizing Cisco’s inner AI Assistant to ramp up on unfamiliar applied sciences, my SME interviews are extremely concentrated and environment friendly, sometimes lasting a mere 15-20 minutes.
Decreased repetitive duties
The Documentation Staff at ThousandEyes makes use of a “docs-as-code” strategy. For us, this implies our documentation lives in Github and we format it utilizing markdown. Markdown tables are very tedious and error-prone. When I’ve to create a brand new markdown desk, I take advantage of Cisco’s inner AI assistant to create it with the values I present. Then, all I’ve to do is copy and paste. It’s additionally helpful once I must summarize content material, akin to offering a one-sentence description or writing a brief introductory paragraph to a technical article. Cisco’s inner AI assistant can present me with the summaries I would like immediately, sourced from our personal documentation, and all I’ve to do is evaluate them.
Prompt contextual info
The toughest factor to doc isn’t the technical stuff. It’s the stuff that connects the technical stuff to what the person actually wants and desires. That is the a part of the writing course of that depends upon the author’s expertise and instinct. Technical writing isn’t simply making a bunch of screenshots and describing them. It’s determining what the person desires to do after which determining the easiest way to current the data to reduce the person’s cognitive load.
Suggestions gathered by one in every of our product managers reported that clients preferred ThousandEyes’ documentation higher than our rivals’. Caring about our customers is an enormous precedence for my workforce. For instance, I perceive how difficult making sense of documentation could be within the midst of a high-severity outage, particularly once you’ve been woken up in the course of the night time. After I’m figuring out find out how to doc one thing, I do quite a lot of background analysis, together with perusing academic supplies on the ThousandEyes weblog and user-contributed content material on websites like Reddit and StackOverflow. Asking Cisco’s inner AI assistant why somebody would possibly use one thing makes a part of the writing course of a lot quicker (though it does take finesse to phrase my prompts successfully).
The advisable record of use circumstances and descriptions I get from the AI not solely permits me to extra deeply empathize with our customers, but additionally helps me to craft my content material to make sure relevancy and ease of use.
Embracing GenAI
Embracing generative AI has remodeled my strategy to technical writing at Cisco ThousandEyes, turning what might have been a frightening adversary into a robust ally. By streamlining context switching, accelerating studying for SME interviews, automating repetitive duties, and offering on the spot contextual insights, Cisco’s inner AI assistant has not solely boosted my effectivity however continues to raise the standard of our user-focused documentation. Relatively than changing the human contact, Cisco’s inner AI assistant amplifies my potential to empathize with customers and ship clear, related content material that meets their wants, even in high-pressure situations. Because the tempo of innovation continues to speed up, integrating AI into technical writing is not only a sensible selection—it’s a strategic one which empowers writers to remain forward in a quickly evolving trade.
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