How I Use AI TOOLS as a UX Writer and UX Writing Business Owner

I’m currently a part-time UX Writer, a freelance UX Writer, and the business owner of a UX Writer education business, and over the last two years, I’ve increasingly integrated AI tools into my everyday business, work, and even life. 

Recently, I noticed something:

Many people talk about how important it is to “adapt or get left behind” when it comes to AI, but they rarely explain how they actually use AI tools in their daily work — let alone show real results.Often, they stay pretty vague, and it’s always only about if you use tools, not how exactly you use them.

That’s why I wanted to share how I actually use AI in my everyday life as a UX Writer, business owner, and also: human being.

The AI Tools I Use Frequently

Honestly, it only comes down to very few tools that stuck with me after lots of trial and error. Over the past two years, I’ve tested a lot of AI tools, and the broad majority turned out to be buggy, produced low-quality results, or had terrible usability. Many made big promises they couldn’t keep, for example, writing catchy, creative, and unique headlines based on unique selling points or building ready-to-use wireframes or prototypes that actually work. Still, I keep testing new tools and stay curious about what’s out there, and every other month or so, I discover a tool that is somehow promising and put it through the long-term test. Here’s what I stuck with: 

Grammarly

I use Grammarly mainly for ensuring readability and spotting typos in blog articles and other public texts, both for my UX Writing job and for my business. Grammarly has done a great job simplifying especially long-form content for me, even though their AI-based rephrasing tool has some serious shortcomings — for example, it criticizes your text for using passive voice, which in many cases is completely fine and doesn’t need fixing.

ChatGPT

Absolutely my main tool. I use it for brainstorming, rephrasing, research, drafting — basically everywhere a supportive "thinking partner" (and writing partner) can help. It’s also the tool that is advancing most effectively, and I’m always surprised how much better it becomes with each update. Plus, it’s the only AI tool I’ve worked with so far that actually has a bit of flair and personality, which makes working with it genuinely fun. It’s also simple to use and easy to control, which makes a huge difference when you want to get reliable results quickly.

Gemini

I use Gemini when I want an alternative opinion or a second perspective beyond what ChatGPT suggests. For example, when I’m brainstorming ideas for my job or my business, I often ask ChatGPT first and then run the results through Gemini to see if it can add something useful to my collection. Works like a charm.

Canva AI Image Creator

For my (very simple) purposes, the AI-based Canva Image Creator has turned out to be one of the most effective image generation tools. I regularly use it to create blog post thumbnails and simple visuals. However, you really have to know how to write strong prompts if you want to get images that match the style and idea you had in mind. Also, without a good prompt, the generated images often turn out biased, random, or simply not usable.

Gamma

While many AI-based presentation tools claim to build decks almost automatically, I found most of them pretty messy. Gamma, however, is great at creating simple first presentation drafts based on my notes. I still heavily edit them afterwards and manually adjust them to match my presentation style, but it gives me a really solid base to start from – especially when my notes and desk research results feel overwhelming.

What I Use AI for in My UX Writing Work

Some background first: In my part-time job, I work as a UX Writer at a startup in the energy sector. I’m part of a team that operates at the intersection of UX and Marketing, which means that from time to time, I don’t just work on UX-specific tasks, but also support broader Marketing and communication strategy projects. Here’s what I use AI-based tools for in this role:

Brainstorming 

After an initial round of personal and in-team brainstorming on a Miro board, we often use ChatGPT to generate possible campaign ideas, explore themes, and even come up with first concepts for claims or imagery. I’m often surprised at how good some of the ideas actually are.

Finding synonyms and alternatives

One of the things I use AI for is finding synonyms and alternative phrasings, even in my native language, German. Sometimes I just need a slight shift in tone or nuance, and usually, AI can help speed that up – even though it might take a few rounds.

Rephrasing sentences or paragraphs

Same thing here: sometimes I feel that a sentence I wrote doesn’t quite hit the nail on the head. Then I give my first draft to ChatGPT, explain why I’m unhappy with it, and ask for a more suitable phrasing. It usually suggests a few options, and with at least one of them, I find what I was looking for.

Researching for tools, products, and solutions

When I’m looking for a new tool — whether for user research, data analytics, or something else — I often ask ChatGPT for ideas. However, I only use it for an initial round of suggestions, because once you dig into details like “free tools” versus “paid tools” or specific features, the answers often turn out to be unreliable.

Instructions for using tools

One of my favorite use cases: asking ChatGPT how to use a certain tool, especially more complex tools (most recently, I used it to build my first workflow in KNIME). It often gives clearer and more interactive instructions than YouTube videos or official company tutorials.

First drafts for blog posts

I’m not a content writer, so long-form copywriting doesn’t come easy to me — but in a small company, I’m sometimes asked to do it. When I write blog posts for my company, I first pour my outline, my desk research results, and my thoughts into a virtual document. Then I ask ChatGPT to create a rough first draft. Sometimes I send older blog articles along to help match the tone and style. However, heavy editing is always necessary afterwards.

Correcting typos and grammar flaws

Yup, especially useful for longer texts that don't contain any confidential information, like blog posts, newsletters, or public website texts. Here, I use both Grammarly and ChatGPT. 

Competitor analysis ideas

Sometimes I ask ChatGPT which competitors exist in our field or what companies from other industries I could learn from, for example, in terms of sustainability communication. However, I never rely on AI-based tools for the results of a competitor analysis, because they are often generic, outdated, or even incorrect.

Legislation research

Since I work in a highly regulated industry, laws and directives have a big impact on how we communicate with customers. I often ask ChatGPT about legal texts — for example, what a directive says, where I can find it, what it applies to, or if it can give me a list of dos and don’ts based on that regulation. Of course, the results always need to be cross-checked with the original law texts before using them, but for an overview, this is pretty helpful.

What I Use AI for in My Business Owner Work

Again, some background information for context: Next to my part-time job as a UX Writer, I run a small UX Writing education business, where I create online courses and webinars, and also publish content on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, my newsletter, and my blog. Here’s how AI tools help me with that:

Gamma for presentation first drafts

Gamma structures my notes into a visual presentation quite well. However, I only use it as a rough starting point. Major manual work is always necessary afterwards.

Canva and ChatGPT for image creation

For my blog post thumbnails and small visuals, I use Canva. I often ask ChatGPT to help me craft better prompts to eliminate bias and really get the motive and style I want. And to be honest, many AI-generated images still don’t work well. It’s a constant process of trial and error, but it’s still the best option I’ve found so far. 

Rephrasing messages

I sometimes ask ChatGPT to refine my business emails, LinkedIn posts, and website texts to make them sound a bit more friendly, spot-on, or professional. This is especially helpful because my business is operated in English, and I am not a native speaker.

Strategy sparring

For medium- and long-term planning, I use AI to brainstorm ideas, test different scenarios, and either suggest or help me evaluate different strategies — including giving me pros, cons, and potential risks. Once I decide on a strategy, I also use ChatGPT to plan out the details. I don’t always stick to the plan exactly, but having a first draft makes it much easier than starting from a blank page.

Applying My "10 % Better" rule

My absolute favorite: if you follow me on Instagram or YouTube, you know this one. Every time I finish a project – whether it’s a newsletter, a YouTube script, or a blog post – I ask myself: "How can I make this 10 % better?", and AI sometimes helps me find that little cherry on top.

What I Use AI for in My Personal Life

Individual motivational messages

I start most mornings with a little motivational note created just for me by ChatGPT. I trained it to ask me a handful of questions about my goals, worries, hopes, and plans for the day, and then it gives me a personalized motivational message along with a few suitable affirmations. And honestly, I love everything about this. 

Ideas for trips and activities

Whether it’s date nights, weekend trips, or just staying in because of bad weather, ChatGPT usually comes up with great ideas for things to do. I often ask it for twenty or more suggestions and then pick out what fits best.

Diet and workout plans

I often use AI to find meal inspiration based on what I have at home or what my recent nutrition goals or health needs are. I also ask ChatGPT about the pros and cons of certain diets – like intermittent fasting – and what I need to keep in mind if I want to try them. The same goes for workout plans and new forms of exercise I want to test.

Light health issues

Probably not always the best idea in general, so copy with caution: for very basic, non-personal topics – like the aftercare of a surgical wound – I sometimes ask ChatGPT. It has helped me in situations where I wasn’t sure whether I could self-treat or should consult a doctor. However, I make a clear point of not adding anything too private, sensitive, or serious.

Handling… uhm… tricky situations

Yes, I sometimes ask AI for basic advice on socially or emotionally challenging situations. I don’t take the advice blindly, of course, and always reflect before taking action, or even argue with ChatGPT (poor thing) about whether it’s really the right decision. But if I’m perfectly honest, it has helped me quite a lot in the past.

What I Don’t Use AI for

Client data or user research data analysis

I don’t do any task that requires me to paste customer messages, user interviews, or internal project notes into AI tools — ever. This is not only about protecting the privacy of our customers and partners. It’s also about adhering to the European AI Act, which went into practice in 2025 and clearly states that companies can be punished for this. The best strategy: don’t even start, don’t even try. 

Asking for research sources or citations

AI is still terrible at correctly quoting research papers, literature, or even people. If you ask me, this is the most likely use case where hallucinations happen. Tools like ChatGPT confidently invent sources (including people) or mix them up. You simply can’t trust them for that.

Core content creation

I never ask AI to come up with blog post topics, social media content ideas, or newsletter messaging. Tools like ChatGPT aren’t really intelligent tools in the way many people imagine – they are algorithm-run, self-learning language generators. They are great at producing written content, but they’re not brilliantly creative sources that truly enrich a community’s discourse (and all the superficial, unoriginal AI-generated LinkedIn and Facebook posts prove this point). They rarely add anything new to the conversation, so the real ideas, the messaging, and the value behind my content — that’s still all me. ♥️

Image (re-)creation of real people

I don’t feed photos of myself or others into AI tools to generate images. To me, it’s unethical and insanely dangerous to upload images and videos into black-box systems that we, as end-users, don’t fully understand. This applies especially to images of children and those who didn’t or couldn’t consent. That Ghibli-styled image of yours may look cute (even though it arguably steals from an artist who didn’t consent to having their style used) — but if you’re being honest, you have no idea what happens to your uploaded image.

Help with YouTube scripts

I want my YouTube videos to sound natural and authentically me, and no AI tool has mastered real voice and tone adoption yet. For this use case, tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT have proven pretty worthless.

AI Video editing

So far, I haven’t found a single AI tool that actually does a good job cutting or color grading YouTube videos properly. But since my videos don’t usually require a lot of editing anyway, I haven’t gone out of my way to find the perfect automated solution yet.

Final Thoughts: Stay Curious And Don’t believe the hype

Every day, a new AI tool is hyped on LinkedIn. And every day, someone claims it will revolutionize your workflow. Following that narrative, we should all be working with twenty tools by now, right?

I cannot confirm that from my own practice. In reality, most tools I tested didn’t do a good job. You can tell that many companies rushed their AI tools onto the market to benefit from the current hype and user openness – but most aren’t yet ready to deliver great results.

From my practical experience, most tools produce insufficient quality and offer poor usability. Only some were interesting, and very, very few actually have the potential to revolutionize your workflow.

My advice? Focus on those few. Don’t worry about not having dozens of AI tools under your belt. Instead, keep testing, stay curious, and stick to the ones that truly help you, and focus on mastering them deeply. That will take you much further than chasing trends, wasting money, or trying to appear "advanced."

In the end, it’s not about looking futuristic. It’s about actually working better — because that’s what will get you ahead.