AI role in LLM-assisted writing: collaborator/advisor versus tool

Investigate design approaches to transform large language model-powered writing systems (such as GhostWriter) to enable the AI to act as a collaborator or advisor rather than solely as a tool, and determine whether most end-users prefer or require such collaborative roles or are instead satisfied with AI operating strictly as a tool.

Background

The paper studies GhostWriter, an LLM-powered writing design probe that aims to enhance personalization and user agency. Through two user-study sessions with 18 participants, the authors observed diverse perceptions of the AI’s role, with participants variably describing it as a tool, collaborator, or advisor.

Synthesizing these observations, the authors highlight a key unresolved direction: whether and how to design LLM-assisted writing systems to support AI in more collaborative or advisory roles, or whether users are adequately served by AI functioning primarily as a tool. This motivates a focused inquiry into concrete design transformations that enable these roles and into user preferences regarding them.

References

For instance, how can we transform LLM-powered writing systems to allow AI to serve more as collaborators or advisors rather than mere tools? Alternatively, perhaps for most end-users, AI functioning as a ``tool'' already yields satisfactory outcomes, and they would not need AI to take on more collaborative roles. These are open questions that warrant further investigation and could supplement existing work on designing productivity/creativity support tools in the age of AI (e.g.,).

— GhostWriter: Augmenting Collaborative Human-AI Writing Experiences Through Personalization and Agency  (2402.08855 - Yeh et al., 2024) in Section 7: Limitations and Future Work

During planning, one writer may already be able to form several organizations while another is still developing the relations from which an organization can arise. Calling both episodes planning leaves open whether assistance completes an available organization or intervenes in the development of what the writer can form.

— Early Epistemic Settlement in AI-Assisted Writing  (2609.09332 - Wang, 8 Sep 2026) in Section 1, Introduction