A 3di tools evolution – learning to harness the potential of AI 

We’ve always been good at finding the sweet-spot 

At 3di, we have spent over 20 years assessing and getting the best from industry-leading content tools. We’ve invested in R&D to hone how we deploy them so that it’s more efficient for us to deliver the value our customers need. In 2004, we were lucky to have an opportunity to help Nokia expand their early research with the emerging DITA xml standard and start to implement it as a new technical content framework. From 2003 and then for 12 years, we were one of Roche Diagnostics’ content partners, and our localization team was leading the way with getting FrameMaker and its various add-ons to play nice with Roche’s multi-lingual, highly-regulated content. For the last 10 years, we’ve been helping one of the world’s leading Telcos with their help site that supports one of their business telephony solutions. MadCap Flare was, and remains, the perfect solution for them.

And even with tools we’ve grown to love, such as XTM Cloud and Madcap Flare, that affection has been born as much by stretching (and breaking) them from time to time, as it has been by their features, and the quality of the support teams. Our goal has always been to use tools that can be deployed to function in their sweet-spot; anything else isn’t efficient or sustainable. But finding that sweet-spot and aligning it correctly with each customer’s specific challenge is not easy. 

“We’ve learnt over the years, that when we hire the brightest technical writing and localization talents, that helps us attract customers with hard content problems to solve, and getting the best from tools has always part of the solution.” 

Learning to harness the potential of AI 

Recognising the threats and risks posed by the emergence of GenAI tools has naturally been part of our team’s discussions over the last couple of years. But it’s not been our focus. The 3di management team reflected recently that 3di has a head start on many of our industry peers. We have a unique combination of factors in our favour: 

• Understanding the fine detail of technical content lifecycles is part of our DNA. We have always delivered both technical writing and localization, so we care that content is designed and built to make it easier to manage and translate. 
• We’ve developed the habit of seeking out ways of standardising and automating individual steps of the content lifecycle. That’s how we’ve become more efficient and competitive as a service provider. 
• Creating and managing technical product content for hundreds of customers, over 20 years, has honed our ability to focus, pivot, and focus again. 
• We’ve always been tools agnostic, but not methodology agnostic. Clear, structured, topic-based, and singled-sourced content is more effective, whatever the tooling. 
• We’ve attracted talented people and have the R&D habits embedded so that they can innovate and thrive. 

So, since the spring of 2024, we’ve applied the same discipline and instinct for innovation to get the best from LLM-based GenAI. A year or so on, we now have a suite of AI-enabled tools we deploy alongside the industry-leading content tools. We’re excited that our unique technology ecosystem enables our customers to be confident that their technical content can become, and continue to be, a valuable asset for their businesses. 

We’ve started deploying this initial suite of AI-assisted tools as part of delivering our services: 

We’ve created tools that save us time, and add value 

Agenor Hofmann-Delbor, our Head of Technology, leads our efforts to monitor the latest developments in AI and other technologies to see how they could contribute throughout the content lifecycle. His team use their experience of working on live customer projects and (rather too much) debate across the whole 3di team to then decide on where to focus development. 

Our first AI-assisted tools are now part of the authors’ and service managers’ toolbox, deployed to speed up tasks and add value to the content. For example: 

• 3di Migrate – We’ve deployed AI to fast-track analysing legacy content, making it quicker to migrate into new tools. 
• 3di Validate – We’ve combined AI with Vale to enable our writers to check technical content for style and formatting. 
• 3di Enhance – This tool enables us to automatically update styles and metadata to improve navigation, search and AI parsing. 
• 3di Report – Our AI-backed service management tool helps our team monitor and report on how your content is improving. 

Our customers are starting to see the benefits too 

When businesses work with 3di, they’re getting a combination of industry best-practices, and our own expertise honed from working with hundreds of customers. With our evolving technology suite added to the mix, we are now even better equipped to solve specific technical content challenges. Our combination of tools and experience enables us to: 

• Meet specific needs, quickly – When we understand what customers are trying to achieve, we’ll be able to combine the tools and technology in a way that makes it quicker for us to deliver. We’ll often use proven templates, scripts and automated workflows, but in a combination that’s unique to each customer.  
• Target the benefits of AI – We use AI to optimise processes, and to accelerate recognising and replicating patterns, not to create content. As we have always done, smart use of technology means our people and customers’ can focus on what’s really worthy of their effort.  
• Ensure documentation is future-proof – Our customers’ content may well be consumed by AI in future; in ways we can’t yet predict. We’ll deliver clear, structured content that will be easier for people to read now, and easier for AI to parse later.   

Creating content that’s ready for AI 

Whether you know it or not, your content will need to be AI-ready. It needs to be ready for an audience that will increasingly use AI to find, access, and parse your content. If you want AI to interpret your content correctly, some good practices are already emerging. 

We’ve been making content that’s easy to find, understand and use for over 20 years. Effective technical content has always been lean, clear, accurate and well-structured. That’s what GenAI tools need too. Well, it is if you want to be able to trust what it tells you. 

“GenAI interfaces will become powerful everyday tools to help navigate large sets of content, focus in on relevant details, and combine content to answer questions. 3di has the expertise to help ensure your technical content is ready.” 

Any questions? 

If you have any questions about our new tools or how we can deploy them to help you achieve your goals with your documentation, why not get in contact with us? We are always happy to chat about our latest developments and how they can help you.