Content Operations helps you publish content people will trust

Where do Gen-AI bots get information?

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.

Initially, Gen-AI had access only to the data used to train it. Now they have access to the whole of the web. Some can also access information that is behind a paywall, while others are given access to private content. With Gen-AI having access to all this content, it is leading to some trust issues. Whoever you’re trying to communicate with may no longer be reading a specific web page or PDF you’ve published.

You can’t control how well Gen-AI performs, but you can control what they’re looking at. Fortunately, high-quality content for humans also happens to be high-quality content for Gen-AI.

Content ROT undermines trust

The familiar challenges of poor-quality product content matter more now, not less. Keeping information up to date and relevant while avoiding duplication has always been important, and at 3di, we know we tend to get called in when these get out of control.

A short-hand way to think of it is that you’re trying to minimise Content ROT:

• Redundant – Duplication, when it leads to confusion.
• Obsolete – Out of date or simply wrong.
• Trivial – Correct, but not adding enough value.

Although Gen-AI tools may get better at parsing ROT content, people currently find it much easier than AI at working out what’s trustworthy. But when people only see a Gen-AI understanding of ROT content, trust will completely break down; people won’t know whether the problem was with your content or with the AI failing to make sense of it.

Content Operations (Content Ops) is how you create and manage technical content assets related to your products; assets that deliver value for your business by reducing costs and enhancing the customer experience. ContentOps is how you keep your content fresh! 

It also considers what Gen-AI needs to parse correctly; content features that help it understand the context of any given piece of content. You can hide some of those features so they don’t get in the way for human readers, but they are there for the Gen-AI.

To be clear, although Content Operations encompasses strategy, people, processes and tools, it doesn’t always need a large dedicated team. But it does need to be integrated across the business, with a shared understanding of why the impacts of content ROT will worsen as more people (inside and outside your company) use AI to find information.

Use Content Operations to build trust

The game has changed, and the stakes are getting higher. As the capabilities of Gen-AI accelerate, we have to find a way to harness them and minimise any breakdown in trust.

For technical content about your products, establishing a Content Operations approach will give you a fighting chance.

The quality of your product content matters now more than ever, and you can do something about it. Minimise content ROT, and make sure it’s AI-ready.

3di can help – whether it’s with any one of strategy, people, processes or tools or in combination as a coherent Content Operations capability.

To find out more about our Content Operations services, why not get in touch with us here, or call us on 01483 211533.