Grammarly’s strategic suggestions launch this week is a clear signal the company is about infinitely more than simply editing content, evolving from an editing aide to providing situational and goal-oriented communication assistance.

As the name suggests, Grammarly’s strategic suggestions is about providing strategic insights and guidance, shortening the time to value, and helping users tailor messages to get the results they seek.

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating — I’m one of those folks who never thought I needed Grammarly. A self-professed word nerd, I love writing, spend a massive amount of time writing and I also mentor and edit other writers’ work. A Comms major in college, 20 years as a marketing brand strategist and comms/messaging expert, I spend all day every day communicating in some fashion or another, so I very much understand and champion the power of good storytelling. And isn’t that what writing is all about? Storytelling, communicating, connecting, compelling action — all those things.

Once I put aside my preconceived notions and started using Grammarly, it changed my writing game forever. I not only use Grammarly daily across email, social channels, in chats and in the endless amount of writing I do, I can routinely be found extolling its virtues to anyone who will listen.

In today’s business world, communication is what we do — all day, every day. Research done by The Harris Poll in partnership with Grammarly, 2024 State of Business Communication, shows just how much time we spend communicating — does this look like how you spend your days? I know it mirrors mine.

That’s why Grammarly’s strategic suggestions launch is exciting. More communication in the workplace, and a better, more strategic assist in messaging development — that’s a win all the way around.

The down low on Grammarly’s strategic suggestions

At its foundation, Grammarly helps writers improve the wording of messages, adjust tone and write clearer, more succinct messages. Grammarly’s strategic suggestions takes the assist Grammarly provides another step further and acts like a built-in writing mentor and adviser.

Forget to mention and thank people on the team for their role in getting something done? Not to worry, Grammarly’s strategic suggestions have got your back. Overlook emphasizing the most important part of your message? Grammarly’s strategic suggestions has got you covered there as well. Focus a little too much on the “I” instead of the “we” in your message? Grammarly will help you sound like the team player you want to be instead of a glory hound.

Since Grammarly works alongside users all day every day, the AI-powered functionality learns the nuances and uniqueness of each users’ communication style and the suggestions it can serve up will become increasingly more personalized and more suited to specific situations over time.

How Grammarly’s strategic suggestions works

 So, how does Grammarly’s strategic suggestions work? While Grammarly has been good at catching mistakes and helping users write clearer, more concise, more accurate messages, with the advent of large language models and generative AI, there are new capabilities integrated into the solution that understand the intent of what you’re trying to do, write or accomplish. Grammarly’s strategic suggestions can take your communication up a notch, pointing out what might be missing and providing guidance on improving messaging. Whether you’re trying to tailor a message to a specific audience, nail the key takeaways of a message, or anticipate questions that might arise, Grammarly’s strategic suggestions are designed to help users craft the right messages the first time, reducing the time it takes to get things done.

The generative AI lift is real — so is the generative AI divide

Communication is the name of the game in the professional world, and more effective business communications have a significant impact on the bottom line. Generative AI is quickly proving to be a game-changer, boosting productivity and reportedly saving as much as one day per work week. For today’s professionals, writing tasks is one of the biggest use cases for gen AI, illustrating the importance of business communication.

The challenge is that while many executives are adept at using generative AI, their knowledge worker counterparts are not as far along on the adoption curve. From that 2024 State of Business Communication report, data indicated that while knowledge workers spend a whopping 88% of their work week communicating, only five in 10 use generative AI in their communication efforts — compared with nine in 10 business leaders’ use of generative AI for business purposes and yes, Houston, we’ve got a divide.

Even more compelling, it’s estimated that closing that divide could result in a savings of some $1.6 trillion annually. Reskilling and upskilling on this front is, or should be, a business imperative.

Why it’s time to rethink Grammarly

If you’re like me and made the mistake of eschewing the use of Grammarly as a writing, communication and productivity partner, it’s time to rethink that. Unlike some competitors new to the scene with AI-powered writing tools, Grammarly has been in the trenches alongside customers for 15 years, with a 30 million-strong customer base and some 70,000 teams using the solution.

That deep expertise in business writing is significant — and it’s I think it’s fair to say beyond competitor capabilities — regardless of what those competitors might like you to believe. The models powering Grammarly’s strategic suggestions have been trained on 15 years’ worth of anonymized business writing data and I don’t know that there’s a competitor out there that can boast that depth when it comes to linguistic expertise.

Grammarly is in use across 96% of the Fortune 500 and the company ranks seventh on the Forbes Cloud 100, has been recognized as one of Time’s Most Influential Companies, and was recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in AI. As you might expect, especially from an enterprise-grade solution, security and data privacy are foundational throughout Grammarly’s product offerings.

Grammarly’s strategic suggestions will be rolling out to its Premium, Business and Education plan users today and will continue through May 2024. If you use it, do come back and let me know what you think — I’d love to hear your feedback.

Images: Grammarly