How to position your AI writing feature (with examples)
A narrative guide for product marketing teams launching an AI writing assistant.
Launching an AI-powered writing feature? This guide will help you design a narrative that gets your team sharing the right product story with customers.
We’ll look at how products position their AI writing assistants, from screen recordings to release announcement to landing pages. You can use these examples for inspiration to develop your own launch narrative without sounding cliché.
Takeaways for storytelling
A few lessons after comparing how over a dozen companies presented AI-assisted writing in their products:
Keep your supporting visuals simple. A screenshot is enough to illustrate most use cases. AI writing features are now embedded in a wide range of products, and are becoming more familiar. You don’t need an extensive demo video to introduce it.
"AI writing is a tool that will make you stronger and more creative." This is the general narrative from example launches, and aligned to the classic Hero’s journey story marketing teams love. Emphasize the superpowers to make AI writing less scary — especially if your audience values creativity. It’s a tool, not a threat.
“Magic” is better than “Automated.” Automation is the last decade’s machine that steals jobs and shuts down factories. Magic inspires wonder and kicks off fantastic adventures on exciting new frontiers.
“Magic” was universally the most common framing for AI writing assist features. Of over a dozen examples, all but Microsoft described AI-assisted writing as magic in some capacity. Interestingly, there were zero mentions of witchcraft or wizardry.
Tip: To simplify your explanations, try describing AI features like a coworker’s skills. (”What is it good at?” vs “What tasks can it do?”)
Most products don’t personify their assistant. You won’t find “Alice the AI writing assistant” like you commonly find with AI support bots. It is clearer (and less threatening) to treat AI writing as a capability within a content publishing workflow, closer to autocomplete or spellcheck. Most examples used a combination of two framing techniques:
Approach #1: Frame AI as a category of features like Social and Insights, or as the enabling force behind the writing features.
Example: “A suite of AI-powered writing tools…”
Approach #2: As a capability of a pseudo-product extension, framed as Company Name + AI.
Examples: Notion AI, Superhuman AI
This approach is simpler for storytelling and allows the focus to remain on your overall product. This is also simpler for the business. Packaging AI as a separate (potentially billable) product or module also makes sense given the cost to deliver AI features.
Including “AI” in the name will probably be a short-lived trend while everyone gets used to it over the next few years. Names gets simpler once the tech becomes the standard expectation — similar to early internet prefixes like “e-business” → “business” or “cloud software” → “software”.
Use case is more important than unique technology. Almost everyone builds this feature on the same technology from OpenAI, and openly admit it. This means your differentiation comes from what you’re using the AI to do — not the fact you have AI that can write.
Story Template: How to talk about AI writing features
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” — Arthur C. Clarke, Clarke’s Law #3
The storytelling about AI writing is remarkably consistent, regardless of product. Examples included at least five of these points in their narrative:
It’s magic✨. It doesn’t matter how it works, but what it can do is amazing.
Based on trends, your AI feature icon will be either a wand🪄 or sparkle✨. No robots.
Very little time and energy is given to how it works or technology involved, except for safety and security points.
It’s fast. Like, unbelievably fast. Basically instant!
It’s safe. Responsible and secure AI that won’t snoop in your data, or leak your secrets to other companies.
It’s more productive. Do more, in less time.
Tip: Avoid “save time” as a value prop — there's almost always a better way to say it.
It’s jet fuel for creativity. No more getting stuck with writer’s block, you’ll always have new ideas available thanks to AI brainstorming.
It will make your writing better. “Strengthen + Lengthen” — improved writing quality, and the power to adjust things like length, reading level, or tone instantly.
It’s your assistant, not your replacement. The user is not just valuable, they are essential to directing the creative process.
You are the creative mind, AI-assisted writing is still your writing. Indirectly address the “Is this still my work if AI helps?” conflict so people still feel ownership over their writing.
Examples: “Help me write” from Google, Superhuman
Common Phrasing: Assistant, Sidekick, Partner, Teammate, Copilot
Tip: Tell stories about how it augments the work customers already do.
Demo: How to show AI writing features in action
When showing your assistant’s results, screenshots are simple and just as effective as screen recordings. Why?
Watching the computer type doesn’t build clarity or energy for audience any more than watching someone fill out a form — especially as writing assistants become more popular.
If you want people to see the results, a video loop makes reading difficult and may force the audience to pause your recording.
Start with a screenshot, and you can always add voiceover later if needed.
An example from Google's latest "Help me write" product update.
What else should your visuals show? Prioritize showing the finished results (with options like tone/length), or indicate where people can find the ✨ magic🪄 button in-product.
Again, video is not required because speed of text generation is no longer a meaningful differentiator (approaching a basic expectation). Instead of trying to show how fast the results are, try redirecting to how easy it is to make adjustments or pick from multiple options. Both are possible due to the speed, and a more meaningful (potentially unique) value you can build on.
Where screen recordings can still help: Showing how to access the feature, or special use cases like live translation or data presentation (See: Notion AI). In these cases, a short video or GIF is more than effective. Intercom does it in 19 seconds:
Examples of AI feature announcements
Including product updates, blog posts, and dedicated landing pages from B2B companies.
Superhuman - Superhuman AI
How they explain it:
“AI email that sounds like you”
“Polish your writing” (Shorten, Lengthen, etc)
“Turn an idea into an Email”
“Reply in an instant”
Links:
Notion - Notion AI
Notion has a strong ongoing narrative with AI, and an early example of how to position AI writing in a way felt like an extension of their existing product.
How they explain it:
“Notion AI is a writing assistant that can help you write, brainstorm, edit, summarize, and more. Consider Notion AI your partner. It augments your thinking — helping you save time or spend it more wisely.”
“[Notion AI] is your teammate before, during, and after the writing process.”
Links:
Grammarly
How they explain it:
“It’s the AI communication assistant that’s up to speed on your context and preferred writing style.”
Links
Canva - Magic Write
How they explain it:
"Let the power of AI supercharge your work”
"Your first draft, fast"
Links:
Nice touch: Used the product to introduce the product (see tweet): https://twitter.com/canva/status/1600867864973557760?lang=en
Microsoft Copilot
How they explain it
“With Copilot in Word, you can jump-start the creative process so you never start with a blank slate again. Copilot gives you a first draft to edit and iterate on — saving hours in writing, sourcing, and editing time. […]”
“You’re always in control as the author, driving your unique ideas forward, prompting Copilot to shorten, rewrite or give feedback.”
“It combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with your data in the Microsoft Graph and the Microsoft 365 apps to turn your words into the most powerful productivity tool on the planet.”
Links:
Google - “Help Me Write”
How they explain it:
Keeps focus on you the author instead of “Write for me”
“Help me write” can create entire email drafts for you based on simple prompts.
Links:
Introducing “Help me write” at Google I/O 2023
Intercom - AI Assist for articles
Links:
Aha! - Writing Assistant
How they explain it:
“…built-in AI capabilities to augment your thinking and streamline document creation.”
“You want to convey the right message in whatever you write. And sometimes creativity is a conversation — working through multiple drafts with a patient editor to help you find the right phrasing.”
“…[writing assistant] supports you in creating clear, polished text in the right tone — so that you can communicate effectively without spending extra time and effort. Use AI to draft emails to customers, refine what you have already written, summarize long passages, and more.”
Links:
Hubspot - Content Assistant
How they explain it:
“Gives you a starting point for your post” — not a replacement
“Content assistant helps marketing and sales teams ideate, create, and share quality content in a matter of minutes, if not seconds…”
Links:
Where to find more inspiration
Have an idea for the next product narrative guide? Reach out on social or email zach@rally.space to share a feature you'd like to see us explore next.
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