How Can AI Help Developmental Editors?

Table of Contents

Developmental editing is a complex task requiring creativity, strategy, people skills, and a deep understanding of publishing and genre. It’s no wonder we developmental editors tend to think highly of ourselves. When the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI) first entered our personal narratives, it made sense that many of us assumed the technology would not be capable of assisting with this demanding, cerebral higher level of editing.

As AI has become entrenched in writing and lower levels of editing, developmental editors now may be starting to squirm and may be asking: Can a machine truly understand the nuances of a story? Will a bot render my hard-earned expertise into a bunch of algorithms? Is there still a place for me—the human—in this new technological era?

It’s true that AI’s analytical capabilities are well suited to helping developmental editors with many job duties. This article lays out how to use AI for developmental editing in a way that complements your human skills and allows you to improve your editing efficiency without compromising your editorial judgment or integrity—which should never be replaced. When a developmental editor uses AI to quickly identify a manuscript’s flaws, it frees up time to focus on creative solutions, resulting in higher-quality edits completed faster. Sounds too good to be true? It isn’t. Read on.

What Is AI Developmental Editing?

Developmental editing is a type of editing that focuses on improving the “big picture” elements of a manuscript. It analyzes fundamentals like structure, pacing, plot and character development, and theme and synthesizes the information into suggestions for improvement. This guides the author to create a manuscript that is cohesive and engaging and potentially loved one day by readers and critics alike.

AI developmental editing includes the same pieces as traditional developmental editing but adds AI tools to assist human editors with analysis, brainstorming, and reducing the manual workload. In AI developmental editing, tasks are divided, with the AI doing the tasks it can do best and the human editor doing the tasks they can do best.

Why Use AI for Developmental Editing?

Imagine doing your job but doing it faster and easier. Now imagine doing your job faster, easier, and better. Incorporating AI into your editorial workflow opens the doors to big gains in efficiency and quality, when used effectively.

• Speed: You can get back all of the hours you would have spent on your first read-through by having AI do it for you. Thanks to recent technological improvements, some AI tools can analyze entire book-length manuscripts in one go. Within seconds, they can spit out a chapter-by-chapter summary and report of the main weaknesses you would have identified yourself during your first pass. Now you’ll be more prepared when you start page one.

• Quality: AI can be excellent at identifying content gaps, recognizing inconsistencies, and brainstorming ideas and solutions. Working together with it means fewer subtle issues slip through the cracks and you will have options to consider that you may not have thought of on your own. (Think of it like a colleague you can bounce ideas off of.)

Now that you know the key benefits, let’s examine how to incorporate AI in your work.

How Can You Use AI for Developmental Editing?

There’s a place for AI at all stages of the developmental editing workflow, from pre-editing tasks to drafting feedback for authors. Here’s an overview of some ways to use AI in your work.

Step 1: Choose the Right AI Tool

The first step is to choose the best AI tool in the toolbox. This depends on the type of content you are working with.

Shorter Works

If you work on a chapter-by-chapter basis or you’re editing a shorter piece, such as an article or marketing copy, you have more options. Just about any chatbot (such as ChatGPT or Copilot) can handle your developmental editing analyses.

Longer Works

If you work with full-length book manuscripts, until recently, you had to break the document into smaller chunks the AI could take in. Now, there are tools that can do full-length manuscript analysis. One option is Claude, which is a favorite among book editors. The one I’m currently finding to be most accurate and consistent with long documents is Google’s NotebookLM. It also cites which exact page it pulled information from, making it easy to verify its work. Google Gemini also works incredibly well with long documents. (The main difference between NotebookLM and Gemini is the interface.)

Upgrade Your Editing Skills

Step 2: Get Pre-editing Support

Use AI to supercharge your prep work so your time spent editing inside the manuscript can be more focused.

Summaries and Synopses

Prompt the AI to generate a detailed synopsis or chapter-by-chapter summaries so you can quickly get an overview of the material.

Example Prompt: Please provide a synopsis of this book. Include all main points and key concepts.

Claude summarizing a 149-page public-domain philosophical work

Supplementary Documents

Developmental Editing involves tracking many different elements, page by page, as you go. The right AI tool can do this tracking for you and create documents both you and the author may find helpful, such as:

• Character Lists

• Setting Lists

• Plot Timelines

• Subtopic Lists

• Glossaries

Example Prompt: Please extract a list of settings in the book. Include a brief description of each setting.

Gemini extracting the lengthy list of settings from an obscure public-domain fantasy book

Analyses to Identify Issues

Think of the problem areas authors tend to struggle with and ask the AI to analyze them. You can receive structured analyses while leaving room for your creative editorial influence and decision-making. Here are examples:

Plot Analysis

If you know the plot’s intended framework, prompt the AI to fit plot points onto the template to see where the plot may be misaligned.

Example Prompt: Please map the plot onto the Freytag’s pyramid story structure.

Follow-Up Prompt: Explain how well the plot follows the Freytag’s pyramid story structure.

NotebookLM organizing the fantasy book's plot according to the Freytag's Pyramid story structure

Character Analysis

Get help determining the overall strengths and weaknesses of specific characters, whether they make quality heroes or villains, whether they’re relatable, and more.

Example Prompt: Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the main character's arc and offer suggestions for improvement.

Content Gap Analysis

When working with nonfiction, you can prompt the AI to look for areas where adding subtopics could make the work feel more complete.

Example Prompt: Please review chapter 3 and list subtopics the author could add or expand to make the book more comprehensive.

NotebookLM conducting a content gap analysis on the philosophy book

Structural Analysis

This analysis type works with both fiction and nonfiction. Use AI to probe whether the structure fits the expectations of the genre and makes sense.

Example Prompt: Please analyze the book's structure and list any places where the sequence of arguments lack logical flow.

Step 3: Fact-Check and Brainstorm During Editing

Wish you could get a quick second opinion or access your own personal fact-checker while editing? Now you’ve got one.

Fact-Checking

If you question whether you're correctly remembering the detail that seemed unimportant when you read it days ago, you can ask NotebookLM about it. It will review the copy of the manuscript you’ve uploaded and answer.

Example Prompt: Where did Zorak and Zena have the discussion about the magical ring?

Brainstorming

As you edit and come across an element that could be improved, you can ask AI to brainstorm a list of ideas to fix the issue. They won’t all be good, but there will likely be some you had not considered. You can use your experience and editorial judgment to select the best option.

Example Prompt: Please suggest plot events that could take place between chapters 9 and 10 to fill in any gaps in the timeline.

Try AI Editing

Step 4: Drafting Feedback

Through the analyses the AI conducted at the pre-editing stage, you’ll have pages of helpful insights you could put your touch on and incorporate into your editorial feedback. If there are any topics you may need to use careful wording with, such as suggesting the author cut a beloved character or favorite chapter, you could ask the AI for guidance with explaining your reasoning. You’ll want to be mindful not to have it sound like a robot wrote it, but it can quickly get you 80% of the way to the wording you want.

Example Prompt: Please write a compliment sandwich about why the Zorak character should be cut. The first paragraph should focus on a strength of the Zorak character. The second paragraph should explain why Zorak should be cut. The third paragraph should focus on a positive of the Zorak character while maintaining the recommendation to cut.

What Are the Challenges of Using AI for Developmental Editors?

While AI offers developmental editors many benefits, it also has limitations and should not be used without careful human oversight. One common drawback is AI tends to offer ideas that are generic (overused tropes), cliché (end every chapter on a cliffhanger), or simply misaligned with the author’s style (suggesting against experimentation in literary fiction).

Also, since AI isn’t human, it doesn’t know what it’s like to be human. You do. You can better gauge the manuscript’s emotional resonance than any program can. Your human editorial judgment, emotional intelligence, and experience remain integral to the developmental editing process.

Final Thoughts

When used well, AI tools like Claude and NotebookLM can be powerful partners to developmental editors. AI can join its analytical skills with your creativity and empathy to conduct edits that are efficient, comprehensive, creative, and that enable authors to create stronger connections with readers, tell better stories, and make their words have greater impact.

Learn with Erin

Erin Servais teaches editors to upskill with Artificial Intelligence through her AI for Editors courses and customized group training. She is known worldwide as a thought leader in AI education for editors, writers, and other publishing professionals. Learn more at www.aiforeditors.com and www.servaissolutions.com.

This article first appeared in the Independent Book Publishers Association's newsletter.

AI Use Disclosure: The author used AI to assist with creating the outline for this article.

4 Best AI Tools for Editors in 2025

Table of Contents

Thanks to advances in AI editing tools, editors now have powerful technology to help them streamline copyediting and content editing tasks. The trouble is there are so many AI editing options out there that it can be overwhelming. In this article, we'll review the four AI editing tools I recommend the most—ChatGPT, editGPT, NotebookLM, and Claude—and see what they have to offer modern editors. I'll break down their key features, user experiences, pros and cons, and pricing so you can make an informed decision about which ones are right for you.

1. ChatGPT

Link: https://chatgpt.com/

ChatGPT is among the best AI editing tools available because of its versatility. Think of it as an AI Swiss Army knife. It offers editors numerous opportunities to incorporate it into their workflows, from copyediting to content editing to fact-checking, making it an indispensable tool for the modern editor.

Key Editing Features

Copyediting

ChatGPT can perform first-pass copyediting, correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors with stunning accuracy while also aligning text to a specified style guide like The Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Stylebook. Because ideation is a top strength, it excels with writing headlines, titles, subtitles, decks, you name it.

For the legions of editors who aren’t enamored with formatting references, ChatGPT could make your eyes misty. ChatGPT can take author-garbled references and format them in a snap, whether you’re using APA, MLA, Chicago, or another style. Plus, because it is connected to the internet, it can track down current information, such as missing elements in references, and fill in the blanks.

An example of ChatGPT's output

Content Editing

ChatGPT helps with content editing by performing various analyses on text. For nonfiction content, these include readability assessment, sentiment analysis, and content gap analysis. Fiction editors can use it to analyze character, pacing, dialogue, and more.

Research and Fact-Checking

In February 2025, ChatGPT's Deep Research debuted. The ChatGPT Deep Research feature for editors helps verify facts and source credible references, making it invaluable for in-depth editorial projects. Deep Research creates detailed reports by searching current websites, academic papers, and other resources and generating precise summaries and analyses on the topic. First, the user explains the topic they would like to have researched. Next, Deep Research asks clarifying questions. Then, it goes off for up to 30 minutes to find relevant sources and compile the insights, often responding with reports that are 10 pages or longer. Editors can integrate Deep Research into their workflow by using it to verify facts via the report's citations, sourcing trustworthy references, exploring niche topics, and obtaining the latest data or statistics—all without leaving the ChatGPT interface.

User Experience

ChatGPT is incredibly user-friendly because it understands and uses conversational language and its no-frills interface is easy to navigate. This means you don’t need many technological skills to operate it. Plus, for most tasks, it works so fast it will likely complete your request before you can finish your next sip of coffee.

Pros and Cons

ChatGPT for editors wins with its versatility and speed. It is also among the best for ease of use. It can be incorporated into current editorial workflows relatively easily. For instance, you can add documents directly from your Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive. You can also request that ChatGPT return text as a .doc file format.

One downside is the frequency of updates. New features and interface tweaks are rolled out so often that it can be hard to keep up. Also, while there are data privacy options, for users who have plans other than Teams and Enterprise, these settings can be hard to find and vaguely worded.

Pricing

ChatGPT has multiple plans. There is a free plan, which gives limited access, a Plus plan, which is $20 USD per month, and group options.

Register: AI for Editors

2. editGPT

Link: https://editgpt.app/

EditGPT is an AI-powered copyediting tool. It has two versions: a browser extension that works inside ChatGPT and a standalone text editor with a broader range of features. This editGPT review will look at both.

Key Editing Features

Browser Extension

The browser extension lets you edit directly within ChatGPT. It shows the changes ChatGPT made to text and allows you to accept or reject them inside the ChatGPT interface. This integration streamlines the editorial workflow, reducing the number of applications you need.

An example of editGPT working inside of the ChatGPT interface. The red text with strikethroughs indicates text that ChatGPT deleted. The green text indicates text ChatGPT added.

Text Editor

If you’re looking for a low barrier to entry with AI editing tools, try the editGPT text editor available on the editGPT website. Learning the art of AI prompt writing is not required to use this tool. Instead, you can click prebuilt buttons that run editing prompts for you. For instance, you can select “Polish,” “Rewrite,” “Casual,” or “Academic” on your dashboard and then watch as the text changes accordingly. One of the standout editGPT text editor features is the ability to add your own custom prompts, which will then appear as buttons on your dashboard. These can be tailored for the specific audience, tone, or format you seek. Editors can use a sequence of prompt buttons to make quick work of a copyediting project.

User Experience

The user experience with the editGPT browser extension working inside of ChatGPT is easy and convenient. You can very quickly see how many changes ChatGPT made to the text, along with the specific deletions and additions. Users can also see what percentage of the text ChatGPT rewrote. This helps editors quickly determine whether ChatGPT accurately executed the depth of revision requested.

The user experience with the editGPT text editor is rather straightforward and user-friendly. The ability to push a button to run a prompt simplifies the AI editing process significantly, making it accessible even to tech-averse editors. While it may take some initial clicking around to understand the more advanced features, a few minutes of focused exploration is enough to grasp them. The learning curve is not that steep.

Pros and Cons

The editGPT browser extension is nearly all pros. It's easy to use. It's incredibly helpful. It gives you control over the edit without having to leave ChatGPT. The only con is that the percentage of text changed it displays seems to include the words in the prompt, so it's not completely accurate, but it's close enough.

EditGPT’s text editor interface makes AI editing accessible and user-friendly while offering a high degree of control over the copyediting process. One standout feature is the ability to import and export Word files while maintaining track changes. One drawback to the text editor is that some prompt button names are ambiguous, so it takes trial and error to determine the extent of revisions they perform.

Pricing

The editGPT browser extension is free. For the text editor, there is a free plan that allows editing of up to 10,000 words per month, with limited access to advanced features. The Pro plan, currently priced at $10 USD per month, allows up to 200,000 words per month, along with full functionality including importing/exporting documents and saving custom prompts.

RSVP for the Course

3. NotebookLM

Link: https://notebooklm.google/ 

NotebookLM is an AI-powered tool from Google that helps people organize and understand information. It works by analyzing uploaded documents. It can generate summaries and insights based on the uploaded sources. It also has a chat feature you can use to ask questions about the material or to instruct NotebookLM about which types of information to have it collect from the sources.

Key Editing Features

Since NotebookLM excels at analysis and data extraction, there are myriad ways to incorporate this technology into an editorial workflow. Here are some ideas:

• Prompt NotebookLM to generate a detailed synopsis or chapter-by-chapter summaries to get a quick overview of the material.

• Use NotebookLM for manuscript editing to generate supplementary materials like character lists, setting lists, plot timelines, subtopic lists, and glossaries.

• Have NotebookLM be a consistency checker by querying to verify a claim or detail matches what's stated elsewhere in the document.

  
  

User Experience

NotebookLM has a similar interface as other chatbots with the addition of a nifty organizational feature. Output from chats can be stored as "notes" in each "notebook." You can create a notebook, loaded with the project's files, for each editing project, and create notes about the document, such as a setting list and timeline. Then you can use the notebook to hold and organize all of the logistical information about the project for easy reference.

Pros and Cons

NotebookLM is the first publicly accessible generative AI tool that can reliably work with long documents, such as book-length manuscripts, which is something editors have been waiting years for. The reliability comes because it only pulls information from the sources users provide to it, making it far less likely to "hallucinate" (which is when a generative AI model makes things up). It is an incredible assistant for analysis and data extraction, but a limitation is its inability to do copyediting or line editing. While NotebookLM can create many types of notes and helps with organization, it currently offers minimal options for personalizing or structuring the notes to your preferences. It also lacks the ability to export notes to Word or Google Docs. To use NotebookLM, you must have a personal Google account or a participating Google Workspace account.

Being a Google product, data privacy and security are a natural concern. The way Google handles data depends on the type of account you have. NotebookLM states on its homepage that it does not use uploaded sources or queries to train new versions of the model.

Pricing

There is a free version of NotebookLM that offers enough usage for most editors. A paid version with higher usage limits is available through the Google Workspace tiers.

Join AI for Editors Today

4. Claude

Link: https://claude.ai/

Claude is a generative AI, the same kind of artificial intelligence as ChatGPT. When considering Claude vs. ChatGPT for editors, Claude distinguishes itself with stronger guardrails, reduced hallucinations, and superior text rephrasing capabilities.

Key Editing Features

Claude includes nearly the same set of copyediting and content editing capabilities as ChatGPT, making it a versatile option. Claude is known for being the best writer among AI tools in this category. It excels at rephrasing text for readability, tone, and style, and crafting content based on instructions you provide. It’s a good choice for editors whose jobs require writing or rewriting.

User Experience

From a design perspective, Claude is quite pretty. It looks more designed and aesthetically pleasing than ChatGPT. Users with dyslexia may appreciate the option to use a dyslexia-friendly font (shown in image) Overall, it can feel less intuitive to navigate compared to ChatGPT.

Pros and Cons

Claude stands out for its ability to produce quality writing and handle a variety of copyediting and content editing tasks competently. Anthropic, the company behind Claude, emphasizes ethical AI development, which is a big reason some people prefer to use it. It also comes with data privacy built into the system automatically, where ChatGPT requires users of individual plans to opt into data security measures. Another major plus when comparing Claude to ChatGPT is that Claude has stricter guardrails that make it less prone to hallucinations than ChatGPT.

A drawback of copyediting with Claude is it lacks the ease of transparency that ChatGPT has. You can’t add the editGPT browser extension to it, so it’s more cumbersome to discern the edits Claude makes. (You can work around this by pasting Claude's output into a Word document and using the "Compare Docs" feature.) Also regarding usability, while it does have a Google Drive integration, Claude does not have a OneDrive integration, though users can manually upload Microsoft Word documents.

Pricing

Claude offers pricing tiers that begin with a free version that has a usage limit based on demand. The Pro version, priced at $20 USD per month, grants access to Claude's most advanced AI model, which offers better editing and writing suggestions.

How to Choose Which Tools to Use

As an editor, finding the best AI editing tools is essential for simplifying your editorial workflow and improving your work. Carefully comparing features, pricing, and user experience across ChatGPT, editGPT, NotebookLM, and Claude will help you determine the right combination of paid and free AI copyediting and content editing tools.

You don't have to go all-in and buy the paid versions of every program. Keep in mind there are excellent free AI tools for editors that can significantly improve your productivity without any cost, including the basic plans of ChatGPT and NotebookLM. Take a moment to think about what you really need, and then mix and match the paid and free versions that work best for you and your budget. By strategically integrating these tools into your AI editing workflow, you can boost your productivity and quality without breaking the bank.

Erin Servais teaches editors to upskill with artificial intelligence through her AI for Editors courses and corporate training. She is known worldwide as the leader in AI education for editors, writers, and other publishing professionals.

A version of this article first appeared in the Editorial Freelancers Association's newsletter, where Erin is writing a series about AI and editing. AI Use Disclosure: The author used AI to assist with researching and refining this article.

Email Erin: Erin@aiforeditors.com

Editing Beyond the Red Pen: A Beginner's Guide to AI

Picture this: You’re sitting at your desk, polishing pages of text with only a few keystrokes. With each tap of your fingertips, sentences tighten, grammar errors vanish, and punctuation falls perfectly into place. By the time you reach the bottom of your first cup of coffee, you've finished a project that once would've taken all morning.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s what work can be like right now when you know how to use AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. This technology is an evolution in how editors work—like the shift from editing using pen and paper to the word processor. Editors who lean into the AI revolution will be able to edit faster and better (yes, better) plus have job security in an increasingly AI-enhanced workforce.

If you haven’t started exploring AI, the time is now. Go ahead and dive in. Here are six essential tips to help you get started.

1. Be Specific

The number one idea to keep in mind about AI is this:

AI does what you tell it to do, not necessarily what you want it to do.

Clarity is key. Provide the AI with specific instructions so you get the results you want. Instead of prompting it vaguely to “Edit this,” instruct it to “Copyedit this corporate report to improve clarity and to correct errors of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Follow Associated Press style.”

For editing and writing tasks, consider including the following elements to make your prompts specific:

Task (copyedit, rewrite)

Format (blog post, checklist, email)

Audience (grade level, profession)

Tone (casual, friendly, professional)

Example: Instead of "Improve this web page text," try "Please revise this web page text by improving SEO, incorporating keywords related to urban chicken keeping, and making the language suitable for a general audience with a seventh-grade reading level."

Sign Up for AI for Editors

2. Ask Follow-Up Prompts

Think of the initial response ChatGPT or Claude gives you as the first draft of a work in progress. To help it revise, use follow-up prompts. These are instructions you send after your first prompt that allow you to tailor the AI's output to your specific requirements.

Often, follow-up prompts include more details about the format, audience, and tone.

Example: After receiving the AI’s initial edit, you might realize the tone isn't quite right for the target audience. To refine the text, you could use a follow-up prompt like "Please rewrite this to have a more conversational tone."

3. Think Shorter

Many popular AI tools don’t yet have the capability to reliably work with large pieces of text. You can technically upload a 100-page document, but it can’t give you a thorough and quality analysis of it yet.

When content editing, think at the level of chapter and article. When copyediting, think about page and paragraph. This method of chunking content helps tools like ChatGPT to give you focused and precise results.

Know more capability is coming. Learn these techniques now, and you’ll be ready when it’s here.

Example: Instead of uploading the entire manuscript of a novel and asking for a developmental edit, paste a section from a chapter and use a prompt, such as, “Here is the opening of the novel’s chapter 7. Please suggest improvements to better incorporate the setting into the scene.”

4. Consider the Whole Workflow

To make the most out of AI in editing, consider how you can use it throughout your entire editorial workflow, not just with the actual editing part. As you go about your daily work, ask yourself: How can AI save me time?

Here are some other ways to incorporate AI:

Drafting Emails: Quickly generate professional and well-structured emails. Have it make templates for routine emails (like proposal submissions and testimonial requests) and help you find the right words when you have to send awkward and tricky emails (like late-payment requests).

Creating Marketing Material: From catchy taglines to compelling copy, ChatGPT and Claude can help you brainstorm and craft marketing content. To be really efficient, think how you can use AI to repurpose content. Within minutes, it can write the first draft of a blog post and then convert it into a promotional email and social media posts. Now that it has a built-in image generator, it can even create an image to go along with the text.

Researching and Fact-Checking: Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that's like the Google we always wanted. Enter a simple search query, and it quickly composes an encyclopedic summary entry on the topic and cites its sources so you can double-check. Rather than scrolling through pages of unusable links, Perplexity gives you high-quality sources you can trust, making your researching and fact-checking a breeze.

Making Custom Word Macros: ChatGPT can build macros for Microsoft Word that you can use with every project or specific, single-use macros that will save you time with one project.

Enroll in AI for Editors Now

5. Invest in ChatGPT's Paid Version

The editors who dismiss ChatGPT’s capabilities often have not experimented with the paid version. The free version can give you only a fraction of a glimpse into what the paid version can do. It’s like comparing a rowboat with a rocket ship.

The paid version offers quicker response times, vastly improved output, increased accuracy, and priority access to new features. ChatGPT can save you days of work every month and is worth the monthly $20 subscription. You can register for a paid plan here: https://openai.com/

6. You Still Have to Do Your Job

AI is not a replacement for human editors. Editors bring a depth of understanding, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness that AI cannot replicate. It can conduct basic editing with accuracy and offer helpful content-editing suggestions, but it can't fully grasp the nuance or make the context-specific judgment calls that professional editors can. And, just like human editors, it sometimes makes mistakes.

Using these skills will allow AI to augment your capabilities. This will free up time so you can focus on the parts of editing that require your unique human skills. Remember, AI is a powerful tool, but the true artistry of editing still lies in the hands of skilled editorial professionals, human ones.

Erin Servais helps editors upskill through AI. Her AI for Editors course is known worldwide as the #1 AI course for editors of all types, including medical editors, finance editors, education editors, corporate communications editors, and book editors.

A version of this article first appeared in the Editorial Freelancers Association's newsletter, where Erin is writing a series about AI and editing.

Email Erin: Erin@aiforeditors.com