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As a technical content writer for Cisco ThousandEyes, I have to admit, my greatest fear is to be replaced by a generative AI algorithm. In the spirit of “keeping my friends close and my enemies closer,” I decided to befriend my potential adversary. In this article, I will share how using Cisco’s internal AI assistant has augmented my ability as a technical writer to keep up with the rapid pace of change in our industry.
Rapid context switching
I work on several products for ThousandEyes and, thanks to my previous lives as a NOC Engineer (Network Operations Center) and Backend Software Developer, my technical expertise means I am often called upon when the team needs extra coverage. While I have a broad and deep understanding of many technologies, the concentration required to effectively write about them is on par with the concentration I once needed as a developer to build them.
In engineering, “rubber ducking” means to talk out a problem either at someone or something in order to organize one’s thoughts (not necessarily for a response). I use Cisco’s internal AI assistant as a rubber duck in context switching situations. With a generative AI chat, I’m able to maintain a conversation where I can present ideas and ask it to summarize the key points I need to refresh on. The conversational style moves me quickly into the headspace necessary for making difficult context switches. Rather than needing half a day to get back in the flow, I can pivot to a new task within 30 minutes.
Shorter SME interviews
Something I enjoy about being a technical writer is getting to learn about new stuff. As much as I love learning, however, given our current speed (and volume) of innovation, I often feel like I’m drinking from a firehose. Cisco’s internal AI assistant provides me with a quiet space where I can safely ask dumb questions about unfamiliar technologies. This maximizes the value I can bring to SME (Subject Matter Expert) interviews.
When an SME has to walk me through the basics, interviews can take as much as an hour and may even span multiple sessions. Even when I prepare on my own, I spend a lot of time gathering the information I need and discerning what’s actually useful. With the help of Cisco’s internal AI assistant, the information is presented to me in a summarized form that is easy to digest. I can quickly assess it for accuracy and I can ask questions for clarification, as well as respond with corrections to improve my results. It even shows me what sources it used, so I can go deeper on my own. This significantly reduces the time I need to ramp up on a new technology. As a result of using Cisco’s internal AI Assistant to ramp up on unfamiliar technologies, my SME interviews are highly concentrated and efficient, typically lasting a mere 15-20 minutes.
Reduced repetitive tasks
The Documentation Team at ThousandEyes uses a “docs-as-code” approach. For us, this means our documentation lives in Github and we format it using markdown. Markdown tables are very tedious and error-prone. When I have to create a new markdown table, I use Cisco’s internal AI assistant to create it with the values I provide. Then, all I have to do is copy and paste. It’s also useful when I need to summarize content, such as providing a one-sentence description or writing a short introductory paragraph to a technical article. Cisco’s internal AI assistant can provide me with the summaries I need instantly, sourced from our own documentation, and all I have to do is review them.
Instant contextual information
The hardest thing to document isn’t the technical stuff. It’s the stuff that connects the technical stuff to what the user really needs and wants. This is the part of the writing process that relies upon the writer’s experience and intuition. Technical writing isn’t just making a bunch of screenshots and describing them. It’s figuring out what the user wants to do and then figuring out the best way to present the information to minimize the user’s cognitive load.
Feedback gathered by one of our product managers reported that customers liked ThousandEyes’ documentation better than our competitors’. Caring about our users is a big priority for my team. For example, I understand how challenging making sense of documentation can be in the midst of a high-severity outage, especially when you’ve been woken up in the middle of the night. When I’m determining how to document something, I do a lot of background research, including perusing educational materials on the ThousandEyes blog and user-contributed content on sites like Reddit and StackOverflow. Asking Cisco’s internal AI assistant why someone might use something makes part of the writing process much faster (although it does take finesse to word my prompts effectively).
The recommended list of use cases and descriptions I get from the AI not only allows me to more deeply empathize with our users, but also helps me to craft my content to ensure relevancy and ease of use.
Embracing GenAI
Embracing generative AI has transformed my approach to technical writing at Cisco ThousandEyes, turning what could have been a daunting adversary into a powerful ally. By streamlining context switching, accelerating learning for SME interviews, automating repetitive tasks, and providing instant contextual insights, Cisco’s internal AI assistant has not only boosted my efficiency but continues to elevate the quality of our user-focused documentation. Rather than replacing the human touch, Cisco’s internal AI assistant amplifies my ability to empathize with users and deliver clear, relevant content that meets their needs, even in high-pressure scenarios. As the pace of innovation continues to accelerate, integrating AI into technical writing is not just a practical choice—it’s a strategic one that empowers writers to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry.
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