AI Rivalry as a Craft: How Resisting and Embracing Generative AI Reshape Writing Professions
It addresses the impact of generative AI on writing professions, offering insights into evolving practices, but is incremental as it builds on existing adoption studies.
The study investigated how writing professionals adapt to generative AI by interviewing 25 individuals, identifying four strategies for resisting AI to uphold human roles and three for embracing it to streamline workflows and manage AI tasks.
Generative AI (GAI) technologies are disrupting professional writing, challenging traditional practices. Recent studies explore GAI adoption experiences of creative practitioners, but we know little about how these experiences evolve into established practices and how GAI resistance alters these practices. To address this gap, we conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with writing professionals who adopted and/or resisted GAI. Using the theoretical lens of Job Crafting, we identify four strategies professionals employ to reshape their roles. Writing professionals employed GAI resisting strategies to maximize human potential, reinforce professional identity, carve out a professional niche, and preserve credibility within their networks. In contrast, GAI-enabled strategies allowed writers who embraced GAI to enhance desirable workflows, minimize mundane tasks, and engage in new AI-managerial labor. These strategies amplified their collaborations with GAI while reducing their reliance on other people. We conclude by discussing implications of GAI practices on writers' identity and practices as well as crafting theory.