Newsletter February 2024

The future of technical communication - our outlook for 2024

The integration of artificial intelligence and chatbots into technical documentation is creating unique opportunities for intuitive and user-friendly information delivery – and is a challenge for our industry. What will the future of technical communication look like? What will change?

Our first newsletter of the year is a look at what we believe will be the most important issues in 2024.

Our topics

• Artificial intelligence for technical communication
• Digitalization of technical communication
• New professions in technical communication
• The importance of standards in digitalization
• Our new website, the most popular articles in 2023, and last year's milestones

Artificial intelligence for technical communication

The rapid development of artificial intelligence will also revolutionize the creation and use of technical documentation. Technical communicators can already write instructions with ChatGPT, and users can ask chatbots instead of searching the documentation for help.

White paper “Artificial Intelligence in technical communication: application, opportunities, risks, and how it will change our profession”

In our latest whitepaper, Ulrike Parson provides an overview of artificial intelligence and its applications in technical communication. She also looks at the opportunities and risks of using AI and the legal framework for its use in the EU. Download white paper

Watch the videos: Artificial Intelligence presentations

You can now find our YouTube playlist "AI in technical documentation" on with recordings (in German and English) of presentations on this topic. View the playlist

Save the date: NordicTechKomm 2024

Ulrike Parson will give a presentation on “AI in technical communication: use cases, legal aspects, and the future of our profession”. More

Digitalization of technical communication

Increasing product variety and shorter development cycles require product information and technical documentation to be created and delivered quickly, accurately, and efficiently. As a result, the digitalization of content processes and the creation of digital content supply chains are becoming increasingly important to organizations. They break down silos, integrate product data and technical documentation, and reuse content between marketing and documentation.

Find answers to the most common questions about digitalizing technical documentation in these FAQs.

Examples from practice

• Restructuring the documentation landscape at Finnova. See the reference

• How Endress+Hauser is turning its technical documentation inside out. Watch the video (in German)

New professions in technical communication

AI and digitalization are also changing the profession of technical communication. New specializations and roles are emerging. We will gradually introduce the new roles in the parson blog.

Information architect

An information architecture contains the standardized structures for different types of information, providing the foundation for modular content that can be delivered digitally. A modern information architecture is the foundation for the efficient use of AI systems and the personalized delivery of information to users.
 
The information architect for technical communication – a job profile that is becoming increasingly important. Read the blog post

Content engineer

Content engineers develop corporate content based on a defined information architecture. They also organize content from different parts of the organization along the content supply chain defined as part of the organization's content strategy. Read the blog post

Importance of standards in digitalization

Norms and standards play a key role in successful digitalization. They ensure that data and information can be exchanged and processed across companies. parson is therefore also involved in standardization initiatives.

IDiS - Initiative for Digital Standards

SMART standards are intended to make information from standards available in machine-readable form so that they can be directly integrated into further processing systems. The Digital Standards Initiative (IDiS) promotes the development and gradual introduction of so-called SMART standards.

parson is involved in pilot projects within IDiS, including the integration of standards into the administration shell of the Industry 4.0 platform. Learn more

Intelligent Information with iiRDS

Intelligent information provides users with exactly the information they need for a specific task or application situation. Take a look at the iiRDS playlist on our YouTube channel. Here you can view recordings of presentations and webinars on the use of iiRDS and intelligent information. We particularly recommend the following recordings:

• Partner presentation: Danfoss goes iiRDS
• Introduction to iiRDS. A webinar at tekom Denmark in six parts
• Use of iiRDS in companies: iiRDS in the knowledge graph

Our new website, the most popular articles in 2023, and last year's milestones

New website

As our industry evolves, so do our services and projects. In 2023, we have redesigned our website to showcase our intelligent information solutions. 

Most popular articles in 2023

Here are the top five articles from our blog and knowledge base:

• Artificial intelligence in technical communication. Or would ChatGPT get a job with us as a technical communicator? Read the article

• Creating a PDF from HTML – Formatting documents with CSS Paged Media. Read the article

• How to feed a chatbot with your documentation content. Read the article

• Publish DITA content at the click of a button: the DITA Open Toolkit. Read the article

• tcworld highlights: the top 5. Read the article

Milestones 2023

As every year, we have summarized our milestones in 2023. To the milestones