The industry has been flooded with shiny artificial intelligence tools that promise to make our writing better over the past two years. Generative AI’s main work is content development, and bots are its most visible shape, so it is not astonishing that the number of so-called” copilots” has grown rapidly.
Nevertheless, some are based on the same big language concepts and produce varying effects. It is commonly accepted that, without the human contact, AI facilitates cliched, repeated content. This is particularly true for tasks carried out in a professional environment, such as creating emails and creating advertising content.
Saying that, bespoke AI reading aids can be helpful when used properly. They can significantly speed up tasks, highlight grammatical errors you did n’t notice, keep your copy’s style on-brand, formulate scattered ideas, and help you overcome writer’s block. The best equipment will also steer the customer away from common information that both offender readers and raises AI detectors.
TechRepublic has compiled a list of the top five writing tools to help artists break through the sound and discover the AI that will work best for the task at hand.
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Best AI reading tools: Comparison stand
| Tool | What it does | Cost | LLM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grammarly | Checks writing, grammar, quality, and style. | Free for simple program. | Proprietary. |
| ChatGPT | Strong, versatile chatbot. | Free for simple program. | GPT-4. |
| Jasper | Produces written and visual information in a company’s type. | $ 39/£30 per month, per person. | GPT-4. |
| Flowrite | Writes letters, social media posts, and other daily messages. | $ 5/£4 per month for 15 messages. | GPT-3. |
| DeepL Translate | Properly translates text into 30+ dialects. | Free for five translations a fortnight,$ 8.74/£6.71 a month for unlimited versions. | Proprietary. |
Best for spelling and grammar: Grammarly
Grammarly is one of the most well-known reading helps. It has been around since the pre-ChatGPT time, aiding people with their spelling and grammar wherever they’re typing, become it Word, Gmail, Teams, or really their to-do record. Also, the Grammarly app will include suggestions on sentence structure, design, and clearness, on top of highlighting the usual typos and misplaced apostrophes. With only a visit, you can use these changes.
Even if you switch to the Pro level, this reading tool goes further with its suggestions than a straightforward spellchecker. One of the best things I’ve noticed is how it can guide you away from incapacitated prejudices in your reading, such as suggesting” director” over” spokeswoman”. But it can also show “weak” choices of adjectives and when a more positive, compelling, official, or often appropriate phrase could be used within the context of the sentence.
Grammarly is stronger than other Artificial creating aides in part because it relies on products from OpenAI or another tech giant more than relying on products from different AI companies. Additionally, there is a new GrammarlyGO writing assistant that can respond to prompts based on your text if you enjoy chatbots.
Price
Free for simple program. Pro level costs $12/£10 a month and includes plagiarism detection, tone adjustment, sentence rewriting, and more.
Top features
Spellchecker, plagiarism checker, personalised weekly email with writing stats.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Regarded as the most precise grammar and spelling tool. | Poor for fiction writing. |
| Provides explanations with each suggestion. | Over-reliance can make text read generically. |
Best for generating ideas: ChatGPT
By now, it would take a dedicated technophobe to have not heard of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Since its debut in November 2022, the chatbot has come close to being associated with generative AI, which has almost become a synonym for the technology’s power. While it has brought about much valid criticism regarding its hallucinations, biases, security issues, and environmental impact, it can certainly prove helpful when writing if used responsibly and smartly.
ChatGPT’s intelligence means that it can interpret disparate ideas or half-baked questions, so it is useful for brainstorming. For example, if there’s a word on the tip of your tongue, you can prompt the bot with what it sounds like, the letter it starts with, and a general definition, and it is likely you’ll get your answer. The LLM’s broad breadth of knowledge gives you a starting point for almost any topic, and the chat interface makes it simple to expand on ideas.
However, those that use ChatGPT regularly can quite easily spot its telltale signs, lists of threes, bullet point lists, “in the ever-evolving landscape”, to name just a few. It is therefore impolite to copy and paste large amounts of output text without making any changes. ChatGPT’s ideas are also often basic and vague, as everything it generates is based on already-published text, so use with caution.
SEE: ChatGPT vs Google Gemini ( 2024 ): What Are the Main Differences?
Price
Free, for the most part. If you would like access to OpenAI’s most powerful LLMs, then you will need at least a” ChatGPT Plus” membership, costing$ 20/£16 a month.
Top features
GPT-4 access, DALL-E image generation for paid users.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| One of the smartest LLMs that can be used for personal use. | Its default output is recognisable in style, so should be edited before publication. |
| Useful for overcoming writer’s block, as it can suggest starting points. | Prone to inaccuracies when asked factual questions. |
Best for creating marketing content: Jasper
Unlike ChatGPT and Grammarly, Jasper is intended to aid writers working in a specific industry: marketing. Users will feed it information about the company, be it tone of voice or product details, as “memories” to draw from. Then, its chatbot interface can respond to prompts asking for blog and social media posts, product descriptions, emails, scripts, and other marketing content.
In addition to being knowledgeable about the goods and services, Jasper’s company-specific training ensures that it can create fresh copy with a consistent brand tone. This avoids the common pitfall of ChatGPT, where output can seem generic and clearly AI-generated.
You do n’t need to repeat yourself because there are several prompt templates for tasks like blog post outlines and Facebook ads. Additionally, you can enter keywords to create content that is search engine optimized. Templates can be used consecutively, for example, an AI-generated outline can be followed by generating full paragraphs for a post, allowing marketers to complete the process hands-free. However, without the human touch, the output can still seem stiff and unoriginal, so some edits are recommended.
Price
$ 39/£30 per month, per user for the most basic version.
Top features
Prompt templates, ability to provide brand-specific training data, AI art generator.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Ability to be trained on company information. | Can still produce generic content that needs to be edited. |
| Designed specifically for marketers. | There are several limitations to the Creator and Pro pricing plans. |
Best for emails and everyday tasks: Flowrite
If you’re looking for an AI writing tool to support repetitive corporate tasks, such as writing emails, instant messages, and other communications, the best available is Flowrite. Any email or message that is displayed on a screen can be “read” by the web application or Chrome extension, which displays a text input box as a widget and picks up the necessary inputs. The user just needs to enter a few words— for example, “accept invite” — as a prompt to generate a fully formulated response to the on-screen message.
Flowrite works with most email clients, as well as X, Linked In, MailChimp, Messenger, and more. Additionally, Flowrite offers templates for the most popular types of messages, such as scheduling meetings and prospecting sales, that can be customized and used as responses to save time. However, in September 2024, Flowrite was acquired by Maestro Labs, which will be incorporating it into its email generating AI tool, MailMaestro. Therefore, there could be some changes in the near future.
Price
$ 5/£4 per month for 15 messages. Unlimited messages costs $30/£23 per month.
Top features
Message templates.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Efforescess in writing emails and messages across platforms. | Limited to English. |
| Cheapest plan is very restricted. | There could be changes soon, given the acquisition. |
Best for translation: DeepL Translate
Translation plays an important part in many roles, be it for recruitment, marketing, sales, or media relations. However, if an employee relies on online tools to communicate with international clients or prospects, it opens them up to errors. Such errors could merely lead to an awkward misunderstanding, but it might also lose a sale or cause reputational damage. While hiring a professional translator is the most reliable option for avoiding these outcomes, when time is of the essence, an AI tool can suffice, such as DeepL Translate.
Many users claim that DeepL, which is based on a proprietary LLM, understands acronyms, jargon, and other non-literal language more than competitors like Google Translate and ChatGPT. This is because it was trained in the Linguee database of sentences that were translated into human language. It also takes into account the context, i. e. the prior sentences, as it translates a passage. Its main shortfall is that it can only translate in 33 languages, with the majority European.
Price
Free for five translations a month,$ 8.74/£6.71 a month for unlimited translations.
Top features
Understanding context and non-literal phrases.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Understands jargon and non-literal translations. | Limited number of languages, with the majority European. |
| translates later sentences into context. | Membership fee, when its competitors are free. |
What advantages come with using AI writing tools?
AI writing tools can make tasks easier. You probably wo n’t realize how much content you produce daily until you have access to a program that can make this process easier for you. Although speed is not everything, and a high level of quality control is always advised when, say, writing an email for a CEO, those who forgo the most recent tools run the risk of slipping behind competitors.
Critics may assume that using AI in writing will give it” ChatGPT voice,” making it lifeless and generic, and possibly affecting its SEO. AI tools are useful for more than simply creating sizable bodies of text. These tools can also generate ideas, help refine sentence structure, identify subtle grammatical errors, and more. By testing out the free version of one on this list, see if they can help you with your day-to-day tasks.
SEE: Generative AI Policy
Can AI replace writers?
Well, as a human writer myself, I certainly hope not!
As mentioned, over-reliance on AI for writing is dangerous, as it adds a recognisable robotic tone of voice that is off-putting to readers. Any writing it creates from scratch wo n’t be more useful than the best solution that is already available because the technology is fundamentally incapable of producing original ideas. Employers agree that those who write for work should only use the technology as an assistant rather than a replacement for their pen, and they do so in this regard.
Methodology
We evaluated a number of AI writing tools for the most typical use cases. We looked at the provider’s dependability and popularity in order to compile this list of the top five, their features in comparison to their main competitors, and the cost to produce the list.
