Will Technical Writers be replaced?

I was recently talking to one of my friends and I told her of my plans to apply for Google Season of Docs. She was not aware of what it was. So I explained to her about GSOD and Technical Writing. The immediate question she asked me was

"Don't you think technical writers will be replaced by AI?"

At first I was a little taken aback.

So I decided to research more on what technical documentation is and its significance. I am a person who loves writing for fun. I also love tech. I would love to be at a job where both of it is combined. So I jumped into the ratholes of The internet, looking for the information and opinions that I needed.

Technical writing is anything that translates technology into words.It should be simple enough for people to understand.

It could be user manuals, guides, or code documentation. Since I study computer science, I looked into the necessity for code documentation. And everyone has the same thing to say, it's for you to understand your code. Imagine you start a project and you stop it for some reason. You might not understand what's in it the next time you come back. Or maybe another developer will join the project mid-way, he might not understand what is going on or he could take less time to understand the code through documentation. There are also technical writers who translate complex technical diagrams.

A new thing I discovered was there are writers working in other areas of engineering as well, which is obvious but for some reason, I never thought of it.

Now on to our debate about whether writers are gonna be replaced, I would say I don't know.

Technical writing is projected to grow at 7% by U.S Labour of Statistics in 2022-2032. But we also cannot ignore the rate at which AI is growing. Or roughly Technology is growing. No one would have thought of smartphone addiction 50 years ago. So it's hard to predict what will happen.

There are different opinions regarding this. Many people say they will be replaced, some say they won't be. I would say people who are creative and can think critically will survive. As of now, AI can be used to generate monotonous pieces of text but it would definitely take someone experienced to translate a complex wiring diagram with accuracy.

But again, we never know what will happen. It's always best to keep up with the times and learn new things. Maybe, we will have a bot drawing wiring diagrams and plans for buildings in the future.

It's going to be okay in any case and AI will surely generate opportunities for us in the future.