Draftsmith 2.0 Sharpens Professional Writing in Ways We Never Thought Possible

We’ve launched a new version of Draftsmith. It’s called “2.0”, but that number doesn’t begin to describe how different it is.

We’ve changed the AI.

We’ve changed how users work with the AI.

And we did it with inspiration from a source you would never guess! Here are all the details.

What is Draftsmith?

Draftsmith is a Word add-in that sharpens professional writing. It helps with plain English, trimming word counts, improving fluency for English as a Second Language (ESL) writers, and much more.

Draftsmith is designed to be more trustworthy than other AI applications. It doesn’t generate text, so it doesn’t hallucinate. Instead, it helps you deliver your very best writing every time.

Draftsmith works directly in Microsoft Word. So, where other AI applications make you copy and paste between different windows, Draftsmith’s suggestions are integrated directly.

We released the first version in November 2023. Draftsmith 2.0 is based on almost 18 months of feedback and improvements.

A better AI Model for better suggestions

You might imagine that better AI models will create better suggestions in Draftsmith. We thought so too. However, it doesn’t work like that.

Mignon Fogarty describes one of the most advanced AI models this way, “OpenAI o1 is dramatically better at math, science, and coding than previous models, but is actually a bit worse at writing and no better at editing.”

So our analytical linguist did a deep dive.

We’ve looked at several models, and we’ve carried out detailed tests of GPT 3.5, GPT-4o, and GPT-4o mini. Other models will be better for other purposes. However, for Draftsmith, GPT-4o mini delivers the best results. It’s not just the best for language, it’s better for the environment too.

Draftsmith 4o mini is an SLM (small language model) instead of an LLM (large language model). That means the environmental impact of working with AI is much less than other options such as ChatGPT.

When it comes to trust, our promise remains the same. Draftsmith 2.0 works entirely on Microsoft Azure - the provider that our users say they trust most. That means nothing you provide to Draftsmith is ever used for training AI models. Nothing is stored. And nothing is seen by any other people.

The best of both worlds: Our new approach to sentence and paragraph checking

The first version of Draftsmith was based on comprehensive testing that showed the AI gives the best results at the sentence level. Tom Waddell’s person-in-the-box framework explains why sentence-level results are so good.

The problem users had is that sentence-by-sentence checking was too slow.

Draftsmith 2.0 makes everything faster. It shows an entire paragraph at the same time. The AI still works with each sentence separately. This gives the most accurate suggestions and helps to preserve the nuance and meaning of the original text. The difference is that it’s faster for users because you can think and work with the entire paragraph at once.

Inspiration from a surprising source

The word “inspiration” and “dating apps” are rarely used in the same sentence. But in this case, it’s true! We really did take inspiration for Draftsmith from dating apps.

When you think about it, dating apps take one of the most complex human choices and reduce it to “accept” or “reject” with one swipe. Fortunately (or unfortunately), editing text can’t be reduced to such a simple choice!

However, for speedy operation with an AI assistant, that notion of accept or reject is helpful. Draftsmith 2.0 lets you go through the AI’s suggestions and accept or reject each one.

Technically, the final product works more like the “Back” button on a browser than a dating app. But that’s probably for the best. We’ll admit to the surprising source of inspiration, but we didn’t want to take it too far!

The fastest way to work with AI

Touchscreens aren’t just for dating apps, and keyboards aren’t just for gaming! Draftsmith works from a touch screen, mouse, or keyboard. You choose whatever is fastest for you.

If you’re working on an iPad or tablet, the touch screen is a revelation. You can accept and reject suggestions with the swipe of a finger. It’s easy, and a surprisingly fun way to edit!

The keyboard controls are even faster to work with than the touch screen. It’s as easy as:

1. Down arrow: Next sentence

2. Up arrow: Previous sentence

3. Left arrow: Toggle back to original text

4. Right arrow: Toggle back to suggested text (or get a new suggestion)

5. Enter: Edit some text in the sentence (then Esc to exit editing)

More Englishes

A key request from users of Draftsmith 1 was support for English other than just the AI’s default American English. We’ve built in support for UK, Canadian, and Australian English.

Understanding context

One of the biggest differences between professional writing and other documents is that when professionals work in Word, the document is much more than just text.

If you’re copying and pasting into an AI application, then what do you do with all the complex components of professional documents? What’s the purpose of using an AI at all if it overwrites footnotes, quotes or hyperlinks? If you end up losing citations or formatting, the time-saving that AI offers is immediately lost.

Draftsmith is different

Draftsmith 2.0 is trained not to interfere with quotes, hyperlinks or citations. Where careless copy and paste can overwrite a footnote, Draftsmith preserves it. our AI tool also looks for formatting such as bold or italics, and warns you not to accidentally go over it.

Other AI applications end up slowing professionals down because you can spend longer fixing AI text than you saved with AI in the first place! Draftsmith 2.0 is designed for professionals so that it really saves you time.

There’s more to come

Our focus has been on delivering a version of Draftsmith that helps professionals to sharpen writing faster and better than ever before.

Now that it’s here, we’re not slowing down! We’re going to increase the accuracy of suggestions even further. We’re going to make the product easier to understand and we’re going to make it much more customizable. Draftsmith is delivering more than we ever imagined possible, but it’s going to get even better.

How to get Draftsmith 2.0

If you’ve already got Draftsmith, there’s no need to do anything. The upgrade will be there next time you launch Draftsmith in Word.

If you haven’t got Draftsmith, you can click to get a seven-day free trial.

We’ve created training resources, including a quickstart guide or a longer introductory video. If you have any problems with setup or any questions, our support team is run by real experts (not AI) - click for Draftsmith assistance.