As a technical content material author for Cisco ThousandEyes, I’ve to confess, my biggest concern is to get replaced by a generative AI algorithm. Within the spirit of “holding my pals shut and my enemies nearer,” I made a decision to befriend my potential adversary. On this article, I’ll share how utilizing Cisco’s inside AI assistant has augmented my means as a technical author to maintain up with the fast tempo of change in our trade.
Fast context switching
I work on a number of merchandise for ThousandEyes and, due to my earlier lives as a NOC Engineer (Community Operations Heart) and Backend Software program Developer, my technical experience means I’m usually known as upon when the crew 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 manage one’s ideas (not essentially for a response). I exploit Cisco’s inside 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 have to refresh on. The conversational fashion strikes me rapidly into the headspace obligatory for making troublesome context switches. Slightly than needing half a day to get again within the stream, I can pivot to a brand new process inside half-hour.
Shorter SME interviews
One thing I take pleasure in about being a technical author is attending to study new stuff. As a lot as I really like studying, nonetheless, given our present velocity (and quantity) of innovation, I usually really feel like I’m ingesting from a firehose. Cisco’s inside 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 Professional) interviews.
When an SME has to stroll me by means of the fundamentals, interviews can take as a lot as an hour and will even span a number of classes. Even after I put together alone, I spend a number of time gathering the knowledge I would like and discerning what’s truly helpful. With the assistance of Cisco’s inside AI assistant, the knowledge is introduced to me in a summarized kind 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 have to ramp up on a brand new expertise. On account of utilizing Cisco’s inside AI Assistant to ramp up on unfamiliar applied sciences, my SME interviews are extremely concentrated and environment friendly, usually lasting a mere 15-20 minutes.
Lowered repetitive duties
The Documentation Workforce at ThousandEyes makes use of a “docs-as-code” method. 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 exploit Cisco’s inside AI assistant to create it with the values I present. Then, all I’ve to do is copy and paste. It’s additionally helpful after I have to summarize content material, comparable to offering a one-sentence description or writing a brief introductory paragraph to a technical article. Cisco’s inside AI assistant can present me with the summaries I would like immediately, sourced from our personal documentation, and all I’ve to do is evaluation them.
Instantaneous 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 needs. 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 needs to do after which determining the easiest way to current the knowledge to reduce the person’s cognitive load.
Suggestions gathered by one among our product managers reported that prospects preferred ThousandEyes’ documentation higher than our rivals’. Caring about our customers is a giant precedence for my crew. For instance, I perceive how difficult making sense of documentation might be within the midst of a high-severity outage, particularly whenever you’ve been woken up in the midst of the evening. After I’m figuring out doc one thing, I do a number 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 inside 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 beneficial listing of use circumstances and descriptions I get from the AI not solely permits me to extra deeply empathize with our customers, but in addition helps me to craft my content material to make sure relevancy and ease of use.
Embracing GenAI
Embracing generative AI has reworked my method 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 immediate contextual insights, Cisco’s inside AI assistant has not solely boosted my effectivity however continues to raise the standard of our user-focused documentation. Slightly than changing the human contact, Cisco’s inside AI assistant amplifies my means 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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