Over the past two years, the market has been flooded with sparkly artificial intelligence tools that promise to improve our writing. Generative AI’s primary function is content creation, and chatbots are its most accessible form, so it is not surprising that the number of so-called “copilots” has grown quickly. However, many are based on the same large language models and produce varying results. It is widely accepted that, without the human touch, AI favours cliched, repetitive content. This is especially the case for tasks used in a professional setting, such as drafting emails and marketing content. Saying that, bespoke AI writing aids can be beneficial when used correctly. They can significantly speed up tasks, highlight grammatical errors you didn’t notice, keep your copy’s style on-brand, formulate scattered ideas, and help you overcome writer’s block. The best tools will also gear the user away from generic content that both puts off readers and flags AI detectors. To help writers cut through the noise and find the AI that will do the best with the task at hand, TechRepublic has compiled a list of the top five tools for different writing tasks. SEE: Scale Your SEO Writing With This AI-Powered Tool for Google Sheets Best AI writing tools: Comparison table Tool What it does Cost LLM Grammarly Checks spelling, grammar, clarity, and style. Free for basic plan. Proprietary. ChatGPT Powerful, multipurpose chatbot. Free for basic plan. GPT-4. Jasper Produces written and visual content in a brand’s style. $39/£30 per month, per user. GPT-4. Flowrite Writes emails, social media posts, and other everyday messages. $5/£4 per month for 15 messages. GPT-3. DeepL Translate Accurately translates text into 30+ languages. Free to translate up to 25,000 characters a day; $28.74/£22.18 per month for unlimited. Proprietary. Best for spelling and grammar: Grammarly The Grammarly widget suggests spelling, grammar, and style changes as you write. Image: Grammarly/Screenshot by TechRepublic Grammarly is one of the most well-known writing aids. It has been around since the pre-ChatGPT era, aiding users with their spelling and grammar wherever they’re typing, be it Word, Gmail, Teams, or just their to-do list. Additionally, the Grammarly widget will include suggestions on sentence structure, style, and clarity, on top of highlighting the typical typos and misplaced apostrophes. You can apply these edits with just a click. This writing tool goes deeper with its suggestions than a simple spellchecker, especially if you upgrade to Pro level. One of the coolest things I’ve noticed is how it can direct you away from unconscious biases in your writing, such as suggesting “spokesperson” over “spokesman.” But it can also highlight “weak” choices of adjectives and when a more optimistic, convincing, formal, or otherwise appropriate word could be used within the context of the sentence. Grammarly is more powerful than other AI writing assistants, in part, because it uses a proprietary LLM, rather than relying on offerings from OpenAI or another tech giant. Plus, if you like chatbots, it has also recently added the GrammarlyGO writing assistant that can respond to prompts based on your text. Price Free for basic plan. Pro level costs $12/£10 a month and includes plagiarism detection, tone adjustment, sentence rewriting, and more. Top features Spellchecker, plagiarism checker, personalised weekly email with writing stats. Pros and cons Pros Cons Regarded as the most accurate tool for spelling and grammar. Poor for fiction writing. Provides explanations with each suggestion. Over-reliance can make text read generically. Best for generating ideas: ChatGPT ChatGPT is useful for writers looking for starting points or fleshing out ideas. Image: OpenAI/Screenshot by TechRepublic By now, it would take a dedicated technophobe to have not heard of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The chatbot has become almost synonymous with generative AI, since its release in November 2022 brought the power of the technology into the public consciousness. While it has brought about much valid criticism regarding its hallucinations, biases, security issues, and environmental impact, it can certainly prove helpful when writing if used responsibly and smartly. ChatGPT’s intelligence means that it can interpret disparate ideas or half-baked questions, so it is useful for brainstorming. For example, if there’s a word on the tip of your tongue, you can prompt the bot with what it sounds like, the letter it starts with, and a general definition, and it is likely you’ll get your answer. The chat interface makes it easy to build on ideas, and the LLM’s wide breadth of knowledge means it can give you a starting point for almost any topic. However, those that use ChatGPT regularly can quite easily spot its telltale signs; lists of threes, bullet point lists, “in the ever-evolving landscape,” to name just a few. This means that it is unwise to copy and paste large chunks of outputted text without any amendments. ChatGPT’s ideas are also often basic and vague, as everything it generates is based on already-published text, so use with caution. SEE: ChatGPT vs Google Gemini (2024): What Are the Main Differences? Price Free, for the most part. If you would like access to OpenAI’s most powerful LLMs, then you will need at least a “ChatGPT Plus” membership, costing $20/£16 a month. Top features GPT-4 access, DALL-E image generation for paid users. Pros and cons Pros Cons One of the most intelligent LLMs available for personal use. Its default output is recognisable in style, so should be edited before publication. Useful for overcoming writer’s block, as it can suggest starting points. Prone to inaccuracies when asked factual questions. Best for creating marketing content: Jasper Jasper is a content-generating tool especially for marketers. Image: Jasper/Screenshot by TechRepublic Unlike ChatGPT and Grammarly, Jasper is intended to aid writers working in a specific industry: marketing. Users will feed it information about the company, be it tone of voice or product details, as “memories” to draw from. Then, its chatbot interface can respond to prompts asking for blog and social media posts, product descriptions, emails, scripts, and other marketing content. On top of being knowledgeable of the products and services, Jasper’s