Voices of Freelance Professional Writers on AI: Limitations, Expectations, and Fears
This addresses the underexplored impact of AI on writers' practices and concerns, but it is incremental as it surveys existing users without proposing new methods.
The study surveyed freelance professional writers using AI tools to explore adoption across 25+ languages, ethical concerns, and user expectations, revealing insights on non-English support, misinformation, and usability.
The rapid development of AI-driven tools, particularly large language models (LLMs), is reshaping professional writing. Still, key aspects of their adoption such as languages support, ethics, and long-term impact on writers voice and creativity remain underexplored. In this work, we conducted a questionnaire (N = 301) and an interactive survey (N = 36) targeting professional writers regularly using AI. We examined LLM-assisted writing practices across 25+ languages, ethical concerns, and user expectations. The findings of the survey demonstrate important insights, reflecting upon the importance of: LLMs adoption for non-English speakers; the degree of misinformation, domain and style adaptation; usability and key features of LLMs. These insights can guide further development, benefiting both writers and a broader user base.