Utilizing Generative AI for Technical Writing at Cisco ThousandEyes

As a technical content material author for Cisco ThousandEyes, I’ve to confess, my best worry is to get replaced by a generative AI algorithm. Within the spirit of “protecting my associates shut and my enemies nearer,” I made a decision to befriend my potential adversary. On this article, I’ll share how utilizing Cisco’s inner AI assistant has augmented my skill as a technical author to maintain up with the speedy tempo of change in our business.

Speedy context switching

I work on a number of merchandise for ThousandEyes and, because of my earlier lives as a NOC Engineer (Community Operations Heart) and Backend Software program Developer, my technical experience means I’m typically referred to as upon when the staff 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 in an effort to manage one’s ideas (not essentially for a response). I exploit Cisco’s inner AI assistant as a rubber duck in context switching conditions. With a generative AI chat, I’m capable of preserve a dialog the place I can current concepts and ask it to summarize the important thing factors I must refresh on. The conversational type strikes me rapidly into the headspace crucial for making troublesome context switches. Slightly than needing half a day to get again within the move, I can pivot to a brand new job 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, nevertheless, given our present pace (and quantity) of innovation, I typically really feel like I’m ingesting from a firehose. Cisco’s inner AI assistant supplies me with a quiet house the place I can safely ask dumb questions on unfamiliar applied sciences. This maximizes the worth I can carry to SME (Topic Matter Knowledgeable) interviews.

When an SME has to stroll me via the fundamentals, interviews can take as a lot as an hour and should even span a number of classes. Even once I put together by myself, I spend a whole lot of time gathering the knowledge I would like and discerning what’s really helpful. With the assistance of Cisco’s inner AI assistant, the knowledge is introduced to me in a summarized kind that’s straightforward 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 reveals me what sources it used, so I can go deeper by myself. This considerably reduces the time I must ramp up on a brand new know-how. On account of utilizing Cisco’s inner 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.

Decreased 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 inner AI assistant to create it with the values I present. Then, all I’ve to do is copy and paste. It’s additionally helpful once I must summarize content material, comparable to offering a one-sentence description or writing a brief introductory paragraph to a technical article. Cisco’s inner AI assistant can present me with the summaries I would like immediately, sourced from our personal documentation, and all I’ve to do is evaluate them.

On the spot contextual data

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 desires. 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 attenuate the person’s cognitive load.

Suggestions gathered by one in every of our product managers reported that clients favored ThousandEyes’ documentation higher than our opponents’. Caring about our customers is a giant precedence for my staff. For instance, I perceive how difficult making sense of documentation may be within the midst of a high-severity outage, particularly once you’ve been woken up in the midst of the night time. After I’m figuring out learn how to doc one thing, I do a whole lot 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 inner AI assistant why somebody may use one thing makes a part of the writing course of a lot sooner (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 remodeled 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 instantaneous contextual insights, Cisco’s inner 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 inner AI assistant amplifies my skill to empathize with customers and ship clear, related content material that meets their wants, even in high-pressure eventualities. 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 business.

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