IF YOU THINK AI IS A BETTER, LOWER-COST ALTERNATIVE TO A HUMAN EDITOR FOR YOUR MANUSCRIPTS, YOU SHOULD THINK AGAIN.

If you use AI to reformat your reference list, it might “hallucinate” and add references that don’t even exist. ChatGPT, for example, has a 37.1% hallucination rate.

AI tools are programmed to agree with the user, and this can increase inaccurate responses by as much as 98%.

Prompting and reprompting AI takes a considerable amount of time, and time is money. It can take an average of 78 prompts to complete a single piece of writing.

Incorrect outputs from AI can confuse and fatigue you.

Using AI can be risky. As of August 2025, 45 copyright lawsuits against AI companies are pending.

“Human editors write frequent comments to the author, querying various aspects of the writing. For example, they might need to ask the author for clarification when the intended meaning is unclear; they will point out missing important information….None of these issues will be highlighted by an AI editor…” –Rachel Baron, PhD, Managing Editor for Social Sciences at AsiaEdit

SOURCE: Tin, R, Shaughnessy, M. Know Your Worth: How to Justify Human-Powered Editing to AI-Enamored Clients. Session presented at American Copy Editors Society VCON 2025; September 2025; Virtual.