A few days ago, I had dinner with an old classmate who has worked in a government agency for over a decade. Holding his glass, he sighed and said that writing materials these days is getting harder and harder. I asked him what was wrong—was it that his leaders had higher and higher demands? He shook his head and said it wasn't that the leaders were demanding more; it was that sitting next to him was an opponent that never gets tired—an AI writing assistant.
That remark stunned me for a moment. Official document writing used to be widely regarded as an iron rice bowl. Which work unit doesn't need someone who can write materials? From small notices and briefings to large summaries, reports, and leaders' speeches, a skilled writer was valued wherever they went. But now, things really are a bit different.
I asked him to explain in more detail. He took out his phone to show me and said that nowadays young people in their unit basically run the first draft through AI first. Enter a few keywords, choose the document type, and in tens of seconds a decent-looking draft comes out. The format is proper, the subheadings are neatly parallel, and even phrases like "attach great importance" and "vigorously implement" are arranged clearly for you. He said that something he stayed up all night struggling to produce was finished by someone else in ten minutes, and it really left a bad taste in his mouth.
Later, I tried several AI writing tools myself, and they really do have something. If you tell it to write a notice about carrying out safety production inspections, it immediately builds the framework for you: guiding ideology, inspection scope, key content, work requirements—not one missing. If you ask it to write an annual work summary, it also knows to divide it into three parts: achievements, problems, and next steps. You can even ask it to imitate a certain leader's speech style, and it can learn about seventy or eighty percent of it.
But if you say AI can completely replace people in writing official documents, I think it's still too early. Official documents may look like format and boilerplate on the surface, but at their core they are about a sense of propriety. What can be said, what cannot be said, and to what extent it should be said—these subtleties are not something AI can grasp anytime soon.
For example. For the same matter, a report to a superior should highlight difficulties and request support, a notice to subordinates should emphasize responsibility and deadlines, and a letter between peers should be polite and leave room for flexibility. AI often fails to grasp these subtle differences in tone. What it writes may look quite plausible at first glance, but upon closer reading, it always feels a bit lacking in "human touch"—that sense of proportion and timing that only comes from years of immersion in the system.
There's something even more critical. Behind official documents are often complex interpersonal relationships and interest games. Which department should be praised, which department should be given a warning, which historical legacy issues should be avoided, and which new situations must be pointed out—none of these can be figured out by algorithms. The value of veteran writers lies precisely in knowing "why to write it this way," not just "how to write it."
So I think that rather than saying AI has taken away the rice bowl of official document writing, it's better to say it is changing how this rice bowl is eaten. Those "word movers" who only know how to use templates, pad word counts, and copy and paste are indeed in danger. AI does this work faster and more accurately than you, and it doesn't complain about overtime. But writers who truly understand the business, human relations, and propriety become even more valuable. Because once AI handles the repetitive manual labor, people can free up energy to ponder deeper things.
My old classmate later came around too. He said that now the young people in his unit use AI to produce first drafts, and he is specifically responsible for revising them. Revising what? Revising the places AI cannot see—turning empty talk into honest words, boilerplate into useful words, and universally applicable words into words targeted at the actual situation of their own unit. With these changes, the draft immediately becomes different. The leaders acknowledge it, and the young people are convinced.
In the end, no matter how powerful a tool is, it is still a tool. AI writing assistants can save you effort, but they cannot think for you. Whether you can hold the rice bowl of official document writing steadily in the end still depends on whether the person holding it has real ability. Those who treat AI as an opponent may really be eliminated; those who treat AI as a helper may end up eating even better.