Best AI Tools for Editors

Thanks to AI technology, editors now have really powerful tools to help them do better work faster. The trouble is there are so many AI editing tools out there that it can be overwhelming. In this article, we'll take a look at the four AI editing tools I recommend the most—ChatGPT, editGPT, Perplexity, and Claude—and see what they have to offer modern editors. I'll break down their key features, user experiences, pros and cons, and pricing so you can make an informed decision about which tools are right for you.

1. ChatGPT

Link: https://chatgpt.com/

ChatGPT is the most popular and versatile AI chatbot. Think of it as an AI Swiss Army knife. It offers editors numerous opportunities to incorporate it into their workflows, making it an indispensable tool for the modern editor.

Key Editing Features

Copyediting

ChatGPT can perform first-pass copyediting, correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors with stunning accuracy while also aligning text to a specified style guide like The Chicago Manual of Style. Because ideation is a top strength, it excels with writing headlines, titles, subtitles, decks, you name it.

For the 97 percent (a guess) of editors who aren’t enamored with formatting references, ChatGPT could make your eyes misty. ChatGPT can take author-garbled references and format them in a snap, whether you’re using APA, MLA, Chicago, or another style. Plus, because it is connected to the internet, it can track down current information, such as missing elements in references, and fill in the blanks.

An example of ChatGPT's output

Content Editing

ChatGPT can also help with content editing by performing various analyses on text. For nonfiction content, these include readability assessment, sentiment analysis, and keyword optimization. Fiction editors can use it to analyze character, pacing, dialogue, and more.

User Experience

ChatGPT is incredibly user-friendly because it understands and uses conversational language and its no-frills interface is easy to navigate. This means you don’t need many technological skills to operate it. Plus, it works so fast it will likely complete your requested task before you can finish your next sip of coffee.

Pros and Cons

ChatGPT for editors wins with its versatility and speed. It is also among the best for ease of use. However, one downside is the frequency of updates. New features and interface tweaks are rolled out so often that it can be hard to keep up.

Pricing

ChatGPT offers a free plan, which gives limited access to the newest version, and a Plus plan, which is $20 USD per month.

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2. editGPT

Link: https://editgpt.app/

EditGPT is an AI-powered revision tool. It has two versions: a browser extension that works inside ChatGPT and a standalone text editor with a broader range of features. This editGPT review will look at both.

Key Editing Features

Browser Extension

The browser extension lets you edit directly within ChatGPT. It shows the changes ChatGPT made to text and allows you to accept or reject them inside the ChatGPT interface. This integration streamlines the editorial workflow, reducing the number of applications you need.

An example of editGPT working inside of the ChatGPT interface. The red text with strikethroughs indicates text that ChatGPT deleted. The green text indicates text ChatGPT added.

Text Editor

If you’re looking for a low barrier to entry with AI editing tools, try the editGPT text editor available on the editGPT website. Learning the art of AI prompt writing is not required to use this tool. Instead, you can click prebuilt buttons that run editing prompts for you. For instance, you can select “Polish,” “Rewrite,” “Casual,” or “Academic” on your dashboard and then watch as the text changes accordingly. You can also add your own custom prompts, which will then appear as buttons on your dashboard. These can be tailored for the specific audience, tone, or format you seek.

If you work with references, note the text editor supports reference conversions, with pre-built options for Chicago and APA styles and the capability to create custom prompts for other citation styles.

User Experience

The user experience with the editGPT browser extension working inside of ChatGPT is easy and convenient. You can very quickly see how many changes ChatGPT made to the text, along with the specific deletions and additions. Users can also see what percentage of the text ChatGPT rewrote. This helps editors quickly determine whether ChatGPT accurately executed the depth of revision requested.

The user experience with the editGPT text editor is straightforward and user-friendly. The ability to push a button to run a prompt simplifies the AI editing process significantly, making it accessible even to tech-averse editors. While it may take some initial clicking around to understand the more advanced features, a few minutes of focused exploration is enough to grasp them. The learning curve is not that steep.

Pros and Cons

The editGPT browser extension is nearly all pros. It's easy to use. It's incredibly helpful. It gives you control over the edit without having to leave ChatGPT. The only con is that the percentage of text changed it displays seems to include the words in the prompt, so it's not completely accurate. There may not be a way around this, though. Unless you are using a very long prompt, the percentage will be close enough to give you an understanding of the revision level.

EditGPT’s text editor interface makes AI editing accessible and user-friendly while offering a high degree of control over the editing process. One standout feature is the ability to import and export Word files while maintaining track changes. One drawback to the text editor is that some button names are ambiguous, so it takes trial and error to determine the extent of revisions they perform.

Pricing

The editGPT browser extension is free.

For the text editor, there is a free plan that allows editing of up to 10,000 words per month, with limited access to advanced features. The Pro plan, currently priced at $10 USD per month, allows up to 200,000 words per month, along with full functionality including importing/exporting documents and saving custom prompts.

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3. Perplexity

Link: https://www.perplexity.ai/

Perplexity is a combination of a chatbot and a search engine. Think of it as the Google you’ve always wanted. Whatever your search query, reliable, cited sources and a customized encyclopedia-like answer are seconds away.

Key Editing Features

Perplexity’s features will make this your go-to tool for researching and fact-checking. Instead of sifting through pages of search results that are low-quality but algorithm-friendly, Perplexity writes a well-crafted answer to your query that is based on curated, trusted sources, typically including a mix of journal articles, government resources, articles from reputable news outlets, and content from subject matter experts. It also automatically generates clickable citations, allowing you to go directly to the original source to verify claims.

An example of a search inside Perplexity

User Experience

Of the four tools, Perplexity has the easiest-to-use interface. It has no extra frills and is very intuitive. Because it is part chatbot and part search engine, you can put your queries in a natural question format. A special feature is that it suggests follow-up questions to help you research further. For instance, if you asked “Why is the sky blue?” you would get the suggested follow-up question of “What role do nitrogen and oxygen molecules play in the sky's color?” You can type your own follow-up questions too.

Pros and Cons

Perplexity's biggest pros are speed and quality of sources, which include not just text but also images and videos. However, Perplexity does occasionally include a lower-quality source like Wikipedia or Reddit. If you mainly fact-check and research using journals, there are other tools like SciSpace (https://typeset.io/) and Scite (https://scite.ai/) that specialize in these outlets. Perplexity now has an "academic focus" feature. This does not limit sources to journals, but it does include more journals in the results.

Pricing

Perplexity offers a free plan with limitations on the number of sources provided per query and other features. The free plan could be enough for very basic fact-checking and research, but most will find the Pro version more useful for work. The Pro version is $20 USD per month. 

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4. Claude

Link: https://claude.ai/

Claude is the same kind of artificial intelligence as ChatGPT. Like its counterpart, Claude is a powerful AI tool for editors that provides a range of copyediting and content editing functions. Despite its similarities, Claude has some features and limitations that set it apart from other AI editing tools.

Key Editing Features

Claude includes nearly the same set of copyediting and content editing capabilities as ChatGPT, making it a versatile option. Claude is known for being the best writer among AI tools in this category. It excels at rephrasing text for readability, tone, etc., and crafting content based on instructions you provide. It’s a good choice for editors whose jobs require writing or rewriting.

User Experience

From a design perspective, Claude is quite pretty. It looks more designed and aesthetically pleasing than ChatGPT. But, it can feel less intuitive to navigate compared to ChatGPT.

Pros and Cons

Claude stands out for its ability to produce quality writing and handle a variety of copyediting and content editing tasks competently. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, emphasizes ethical AI development, which is a big reason some people prefer to use it.

However, a notable difference is that Claude is not connected to the internet. This means it can’t integrate fact-checking into the editing process because its accuracy relies solely on its training data, which can occasionally be outdated or incorrect. Alongside Claude, you’d need to use outside fact-checking resources. Also, because you can’t add the editGPT browser extension to it, it’s more cumbersome to discern the edits Claude makes. (You can work around this by pasting Claude's output into a Word document and using the "Compare Docs" feature.)

Pricing

Claude offers a free version with a usage limit that varies based on demand. The Pro version, priced at $20 USD per month, grants access to Claude's most advanced AI model, which offers better editing and writing suggestions.

As an editor, you're always on the lookout for ways to simplify your editorial process and improve your work. That's why it’s important to consider AI editing tools like ChatGPT, editGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Each tool has its own strengths, catering to different aspects of editing. You don't have to go all-in and buy the paid versions of every tool. Take a moment to think about what you really need, and then mix and match the paid and free versions that work best for you and your budget. By strategically integrating these tools into your AI editing workflow, you can boost your productivity and quality without breaking the bank.

Erin Servais helps editors upskill through AI. Her AI for Editors course is known worldwide as the leading AI course for editors of all types, including medical editors, finance editors, education editors, corporate communications editors, and book editors.

Erin serves on the board of directors for ACES: The Society for Editing and has presented about editing, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence for the Professional Editors Network, Editors Canada, the Northwest Editors Guild, the Editorial Freelancers Association, and ACES.

A version of this article first appeared in the Editorial Freelancers Association's newsletter, where Erin is writing a series about AI and editing. Erin collaborated with artificial intelligence to write this article.

Email Erin: Erin@aiforeditors.com

Celebrating One Year of AI for Editors

One afternoon in late spring 2023, I had my lightbulb moment. I’d been pecking around ChatGPT for a few months when I thought to see how well it could copyedit. I fed it some error-ridden text, gave it a rudimentary editing prompt, and watched the future change. 

My first thought was “Wow, that was fast!” Then I checked to see how completely accurate ChatGPT's edit was. That's when I had my second thought: “Wow...a lot of editors are going to lose their jobs if they don’t learn how to use this.” 

It was so clear to me in that moment that the editing profession was about to experience a huge technological transition, one akin to the shift from editing on paper to editing with a word processor. I realized those who didn’t learn this new tech would get left behind, just like then. In that same moment, I decided to make my own transition. I decided to wind down my small editorial agency and focus on teaching editors how to use AI. 

A few months later, I launched my first AI for Editors course. It’s been amazing what has happened since. 

AI for Editors Year One – By the Numbers 

From August 2023 to August 2024, I have: 

• Taught 250 students from more than 20 countries through 140 hours of instruction 

• Given14 presentations about AI to editing organizations like the Editorial Freelancers Association, ACES: The Society for Editing, the Professional Editors Network, and the Northwest Editors Guild 

• Presented 2 (about to be 3) guest lectures to copyediting classes at UNC–Chapel Hill 

• Published 3 articles about editing with AI in the Editorial Freelancers Association’s newsletter, The Freelancer 

• Appeared on 1 podcast (The Editor’s Half Hour)

I’ve also grown the course from 4 lessons to 7, adding a lesson on how to use AI to help with content editing, a lesson about using AI for fact-checking, and a lesson about AI editing ethics. 

Earlier this year, I started offering students who complete weekly assignments a certificate of completion when they graduate; and now new students receive a huge prompt library of 200+ prompts I created to jumpstart their AI prompting. 

Plus, I've hired 2 people to assist me with the course:  

• Amy Frushour Kelly of Frushour AI Consulting & Editorial: Amy teaches the lesson on AI editing ethics. 

• Molly McCowan of Inkbot Editing: Molly is the AI for Editors online community curator. She helps by giving students feedback on their homework, sharing AI articles and insights, and generally making our online community a valuable place to be. 

Both Amy and Molly are AI for Editors graduates. 

AI for Editors Students Have Had a Big Year Too 

As I've paused to celebrate the birthday of the AI for Editors course, I've also reflected on the incredible impact it's had on students' careers. I've stayed in touch with many course graduates and have been delighted by the personal stories of transformation and success I've had the privilege of hearing about firsthand.

AI for Editors students have reported jaw-dropping results: 

• Editing 26% faster than before 

• Quintupling the number of words they edit per month 

• Landing new jobs at exciting companies 

Many students sign up for the course when they are between jobs and are looking to upskill to gain marketable job skills. Others are trying to transition from freelance to full-time work. Gratefully, I’ve had many students update me with good news. 

Earlier this week, I received another email from a past student who told me that during his interview, the hiring manager seemed very excited about his AI knowledge. He credited taking the AI for Editors course with helping him land his new position. 

Of all of the big achievements from the past year, it’s the moments like this that make me feel the proudest. 

Here’s What the Students Had to Say 

Here's a small sampling of feedback I've received from students during our first year.

“AI for Editors was a well-crafted, practical, and informative learning experience. Erin Servais expertly led the class through a series of themes that made AI accessible to editors and demonstrated its benefits for our roles. Ms. Servais is a gifted presenter and teacher—she really knows what she's talking about and what she's doing. I left the course a stronger editor and practitioner of AI tools, understanding how to use them effectively while recognizing the necessity of our expert editorial oversight.” 

—Michael Martin 

“This course is the only one of its kind and is essential for any editor to remain relevant as technology continues to become more and more sophisticated.”

—Nadia Geagea Pupa 

“AI for Editors was a well-rounded, up-to-date exploration of how AI platforms can best be leveraged specifically within an editorial workflow. Although these tools are evolving at a crazy rate, Erin somehow manages to keep up to date on the latest changes and is able to convey them to the class in real time. More importantly, Erin goes beyond instruction in mere technicalities by emphasizing how to think about these unusual and powerful tools. Effective and safe use of AI tools requires a bit of a mental paradigm shift, and the small class platform allowed for ample time to pose questions and discuss these more subtle aspects of our new AI reality. This class has made me feel more empowered to use AI tools in my workflow, which I am sure is in no small part due to Erin's dynamic, expert guidance and the collegial class atmosphere. AI will definitely have long-lasting effects in the editorial and scholarly worlds—taking this class and becoming a part of Erin's AI-for-Editors community is one way not to be left behind.” 

—Karla D. Passalacqua

“There were so many valuable things I learned in this course—how to use AI to edit, track changes, research, etc.—but the most valuable thing was probably that AI is a tool to help editors thrive in their jobs, not something meant to take their jobs.” 

—Katie Letts 

“I went into the class fearful of changes in the editing world, because I love what I do and want to keep doing it as long as I can. The class reassured me that humans will still be needed in the process. The subject of AI elicits understandable fear, even anger, and Erin's funny, knowledgeable, at times self-deprecating, kind approach was perfect for the course.” 

—James Gallagher

“I am a line editor, copyeditor, and proofreader, and I was quite leery of engaging with ChatGPT 4 prior to taking this course. I was afraid that AI editing tech would leave me unemployed, or that I would be left behind in my field due to my ignorance of how to use this technology. With her knowledge, enthusiasm, kindness, and sense of humor, Erin made this technology seem much less daunting, and she taught us practical tools to use in our editorial practices. I learned how to use ChatGPT 4 as a tool in copyediting, which will eventually make my work more efficient, and in developmental editing, which will help me in my own writing.” 

—Stephanie Marshall Ward 

Looking Ahead to Year Two 

While I will continue to teach the flagship AI for Editors course, I am also adding 2 new services to the AI for Editors repertoire: the Advanced AI for Editors course and AI for Editors corporate training. 

Advanced AI for Editors 

I am currently building the curriculum for the Advanced AI for Editors course, which will launch in October 2024 as a 6-week course focused on advanced AI editing skills. Here's a breakdown of the schedule:

Week 1 – Back to the Future: AI for Editors Tech Update

Week 2 – Prompting Like a Pro: Advanced Prompting Strategies for AI Editors

Week 3 – AI for Line Editing: Structural Editing Techniques

Week 4 – DIY GPT: Creating CustomGPTs for Writing Analysis and Editing

Week 5 – Inside editGPT and Perplexity: An In-Depth Tour of Two Top AI Editing Tools

Week 6 – From Ideation to Publication: Integrating AI into Your Writing and Editing Workflow

This course will be open to students who’ve graduated from the introductory AI for Editors course. 

Corporate Training 

Word of mouth is a wonderful thing. Earlier this year, I started having managers who’d heard about my course reaching out to me to inquire about training their editorial teams. I began conducting more and more custom AI for Editors corporate trainings to small teams, and I plan to launch it soon as an official service. Trainings will go beyond editing to include using AI for writing and content planning. You can download a guide to my initial offerings below.

AI for Editors Training Proposal

.pdf

Download PDF • 4.82MB

If you want to make sure you hear updates about these services when, sign up for the AI for Editors newsletter. 

Thank You! 

There’s no doubt this has been the most exhilarating and successful year of my professional life. It’s the people who’ve joined me on this ride I have to thank: the students (all 250 and counting of you), the people who’ve attended my presentations and webinars, the fellow AI enthusiasts I’ve recruited as friends and comrades, and all of the people who gave me a chance. I want to end this amazing year with gratitude to you. Thank you.

Erin Servais helps editors upskill through AI. Her AI for Editors course is known worldwide as the leading AI course for editors of all types, including medical editors, finance editors, education editors, corporate communications editors, and book editors.

Erin serves on the board of directors for ACES: The Society for Editing and has presented about editing, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence for the Professional Editors Network, Editors Canada, the Northwest Editors Guild, the Editorial Freelancers Association, and ACES.

Email Erin: Erin@aiforeditors.com 

AI Editing: Separating Facts from Fiction

As AI grows in popularity, it's normal to worry about how it will affect what we do as editors. But here's the thing: a lot of these concerns are based on misunderstandings about what AI can and can't do and how AI fits into the editing process. In this article, we’ll tackle these misconceptions so you’ll have a better understanding of how AI tools work and see how they can combine with essential human skills to help us be even better editors.

Misconception 1: It’s Not Safe to Use with Clients’ Text

There are ways to use AI tools that provide data security. You need to know the specific settings for your tool of choice, however, because each is different. For instance, in ChatGPT, there is a setting you can switch on that stops the company from storing any text you put in their system long-term and using it to train new versions. Claude automatically does not use text to train new versions. Google, however, has humans reviewing text you put into its Gemini chatbot, and it uses that data to train new models.

Whichever tool you use, it’s important to have your client’s or employer’s permission before you use AI with their text. Have a conversation with them to explain how you’ll use AI and the security measures you'll take to protect their work. It’s also wise to include a clause in your contract that makes it clear you’ll use this technology.

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Misconception 2: It Can’t Be Trusted

For many editors, getting the facts right is part of our jobs. It’s understandable we’d be worried about earlier AI models’ “hallucinations,” the term for when AI generates incorrect information. But there has been much improvement over the last several months that should alleviate this concern.

There are several quality AI-powered research tools available now. My favorite for general use is Perplexity. This works similarly to a search engine. You type in your query, but instead of getting pages of links of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability, you receive an answer akin to a personalized encyclopedia entry along with citations and links to sources that are overwhelmingly top-tier outlets like research journals, encyclopedias, and trusted news organizations. ChatGPT and Gemini also have access to the live web and can cite their sources when instructed to do so. This speeds up research and fact-checking immensely and ups the trust factor with AI tools because you can see exactly where they are getting their information.

Misconception 3: It’s Cheating

AI can handle a lot of tasks on editors’ to-do lists and vastly speed up the process. When the work is suddenly so much easier, of course it can feel like using AI is cheating. Think about this: Was using spellcheck cheating? Or what about the dictionary? Was it cheating when you had to thumb through the pages to find the entry because you did not have every word in the English language memorized? Was it cheating when editors moved from marking up paper to using word processors?

Editing has always been a collaborative process between editors’ own knowledge, experience, and skills and the tools they've used—style guides, reference books, and technology. AI can be seen as another tool in the editors’ toolkit. When you use AI, it’s giving you suggestions, but you are still the one making the decisions of which suggestions to accept. You are still in control, using your knowledge of what is best for the writer and the reader.

Misconception 4: It's Not a Good Editor

Right now, AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude absolutely can conduct copyedits (straightforward checks for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style) as well as humans can. I’ll admit that ChatGPT and Claude are often more accurate at copyediting than I am—and way faster, completing in seconds an edit that would take me hours.

I’ve found the editors who say AI isn't very skilled aren’t using the tools correctly. For example, they’ll use a vague prompt like “edit this” and then claim victory when it doesn’t make the precise changes they want. AI does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. If you want it to make a precise type of change, instruct it to do so.

AI is also quite good with content editing. It excels with idea generation. When you instruct it to examine a particular aspect of the text and offer suggestions for improvement, it can come back with so many ideas, some novel ones you may have never thought of on your own. You won’t want to pass along every idea it comes up with to the author, but it can certainly give you good ideas and help to spark ideas of your own.

Misconception 5: It Can Replace Human Editors

I have heard multiple horror stories about entire editorial teams being laid off and replaced with...wait for it...Grammarly. Instead of writers sending their work to editors, writers are told to send their own work through Grammarly. And we all know how trustworthy Grammarly is, right? (I’m cringing. I encourage the use of many AI tools, but Grammarly is not among them.) Clearly these decisions are being made by people far removed from the day-to-day editorial process, and they are being made with shareholders and bonuses in mind, not readers. Because AI cannot and should not replace human editors.

These algorithms can catch mechanical errors, suggest improvements in grammar and syntax, and improve readability. However, AI can struggle to grasp the nuances of language, such as irony, sarcasm, or subtle shifts in tone. Since AI is built to follow formulas, it also struggles with allowing the creative freedom authors employ when purposefully bending or breaking language “rules.” And it cannot fully appreciate the cultural, historical, or personal backgrounds that shape a writer's voice and message.

Editing isn't just fixing spelling and pushing commas around. Editing involves a lot of soft skills. Editors build relationships with authors. We provide personalized guidance, and we make judgment calls based on our experience, what we know about the author, and what we know about helping the author do their best work for the reader. Human editors offer encouragement and education and nurture talent. Grammarly is not going to grow legs, hop out of the computer, and sit down with the author and explain to them, in precisely the way they know works best for that individual person, how they can improve.

Some companies care more about budgets than creating quality writing, however. This means if editors are to surf this technological wave successfully, they need to learn how to use AI tools so they can do their jobs faster and better than before—AI augmented, with their humanity intact.

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Let's be real: AI is here, and it's only going to become a bigger part of our editing lives. By understanding what AI can and can't do, we can learn to use it as another powerful tool in our editing toolkit. It can help us with the nitty-gritty mechanics of editing, speed up our research and fact-checking, and even spark new ideas for improving a piece of writing. But AI can't replace the human touch we bring—our ability to connect with authors, understand the nuances of language, and make judgment calls based on our experience and expertise. With AI assisting us, we have more time to focus on what we do best: helping writers write well.

Erin Servais helps editors upskill through AI. Her AI for Editors course is known worldwide as the #1 AI course for editors of all types, including medical editors, finance editors, education editors, corporate communications editors, and book editors.

Erin serves on the board of directors for ACES: The Society for Editing and has presented about editing, entrepreneurship, and artificial intelligence for the Professional Editors Network, Editors Canada, the Northwest Editors Guild, the Editorial Freelancers Association, and ACES.

A version of this article first appeared in the Editorial Freelancers Association's newsletter, where Erin is writing a series about AI and editing. Erin collaborated with artificial intelligence to write this article.

Email Erin: Erin@aiforeditors.com