Trends in TechComm: A tale of two extremes

  • Presentation
  • Future of Technical Writers
  • 02. April
  • 16:00 - 16:40 PM (CEST)
  • 14:00 - 14:40 PM (UTC) | 10:00 - 10:40 AM (EDT)
  • Find your local time here: Time Converter
  • finished
  • Sarah S. O'Keefe

    • Scriptorium Publishing Services, Inc.

Contents

Technical communication is diverging: expert, senior writers on one side and AI automation of basics on the other side. Automation and AI can remove repetitive tasks. But many early AI initiatives are instead focused on total automation and cutting jobs. The argument is that if humans are producing content that's just adequate, AI can do the job for less.

The tools landscape is also fragmenting with different organizations choosing high-end structured content, developer-focused Markdown, or adding AI to an unstructured workflow. Meanwhile, integration challenges grow as the customer experience needs to draw from numerous systems for content and data, such as CCMS, PIM, and others. 

 

Takeaways

  • Technical communication shifts to specialized roles as AI replaces basic tasks.
  • Fragmented tools and complex system integration challenge workflows.
  • AI raises concerns about bias and sustainability.

Speaker

Sarah S. O'Keefe

  • Scriptorium Publishing Services, Inc.
Biography

Sarah O’KeefeChief Executive Officer, founded Scriptorium Publishing to work at the intersection of content, technology, and publishing.

Today, she leads an organization known for expertise in solving business-critical content problems with a special focus on product and technical content.

Sarah identifies and assesses new trends and their effects on the industry. Her analysis is widely followed on Scriptorium’s blog and in other publications. As an experienced public speaker, she is in demand at conferences worldwide.

In 2016, MindTouch named her as an “unparalleled” content strategy influencer.

Sarah holds a BA from Duke University and is bilingual in English and German.