Salomé FOEHN, Sulaxana RAMACHCHANDRAN, William MOHAMMED

Paris Diderot University, July 2018

Abstract

Machine-learning is gaining momentum as an artificial intelligence (AI) technology. There has been a recent upsurge in text-based conversational interfaces such as Facebook Messenger, IBM’s Watson and SAP’s Recast.AI. This type of computer programme is called a chatbot, which is the focus of this study. In this paper, the non-customer-oriented applications of chatbots and the evolution of professional practices of technical writers were investigated. The main research question is “will chatbots impact the technical communication industry in the middle term, and in what ways?”. We mainly used a SNCF case and a comprehensive comparison of job offers to illustrate our claim. As the authors expected, chatbots will not replace technical writers but will, instead, oversee the birth of a broad range of thought-after, more specialized jobs at the interface between computer science and technical communication.

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