AI Can Help Write an Article, but It Can't Stand Behind It

Raluca Budiu, an editor at Nielsen Norman Group, explains that the firm uses AI to write and critique articles, but only a human expert decides whether it publishes them.

Nielsen Norman Group (NN/G), a user-experience research and training firm, uses AI throughout its editorial process. Raluca Budiu, who has edited its articles since 2013, describes what AI does there and what people still do. Since August 2026, the EU's AI Act has required disclosure of some AI-generated text, unless a person has reviewed it and takes responsibility for it.

• Editors use AI tools such as Grammarly and ChatGPT to make writing clearer, to fit fixed formats such as the 160-character summary, and to adapt material from courses and podcasts.
• AI also critiques drafts by flagging doubtful claims and gaps in an argument. It never certifies that a claim is correct, so the editor or the author goes back to the source.
• In one example, ChatGPT noticed that an earlier draft of the article contradicted itself, and Budiu restated its central principle more precisely.
• NN/G does not name AI as an author. Human experts decide whether an argument is sound and whether NN/G puts its name behind the piece.

A team that uses AI to write or check its work can still require one accountable person to trace each claim to its source before release. The application beyond NN/G is an inference and is not the author's claim.

16 September 2026: when AI helps produce work, a person still checks it before others rely on it.