The not-boring way to do product documentation (with AI)

If you're building a product, you’ll know how important good documentation is. Whether it’s a PRD, terms of service, training manuals, SOPs… documentation is an essential element of product development.

And yet, many companies treat product documentation as a box-ticking exercise.

Teams rush through the process, copying boilerplate terms of service, and recycling the same user guides for every client.

What if AI could turn the mountain of documentation into more of a molehill? (Spoiler alert: it can.)

Research shows that 65% of businesses now regularly use AI tools like ChatGPT to help develop their products and services.

This article explores using AI for product docs—how you can turn tedious paperwork into streamlined processes that actually drive your product's success.

1. Create a perfect PRD (even if you've never written one)

A Product Requirements Document (PRD) is an important artifact used in product development. It lays out all the essentials about a product before it’s built. Featuring specific use-cases, it also tells your team what to build, why to build it, and how to know when they've built it right. You can think of it as a bit like your product's blueprint and battle plan rolled into one.

But PRDs are notoriously tough to do well. Even with robust templates in place, product managers can often find themselves staring at the page wondering where to begin.

If this sounds familiar, your problems are solved with the help of AI.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini can help you create a PRD, even if it’s an unfamiliar process.

Here's how:

1. Get your bearings. Have ChatGPT explain PRD components and their importance.

2. Build through conversation. Let ChatGPT interview you about your product, answering questions about goals, target users, and your product’s core features.

3. Create your first draft. Have ChatGPT structure the PRD based on your conversation. Review what's missing and decide what additional sections you need

4. Future-proof your process. Use ChatGPT to help turn your finished document into a reusable template.

Doing this helps you build a repeatable process that gets better every time you use it. Plus, research shows that AI can make you up to 40% more productive—so you can spend less time on paperwork and more time on important tasks.

2. Turn a PRD into a product strategy deck in minutes

Your PRD might be perfect, but let's face it—not everyone has the time (or inclination) to read a detailed requirements document. Stakeholders usually prefer their information in bite-sized, visually appealing chunks.

And that's where a strategy deck comes in.

But creating one?

You’re looking at hours of copying, pasting, and reformatting, turning your carefully crafted PRD into presentation-friendly content.

With AI, though, you can whip up an engaging strategy deck in minutes, not hours.

Here's how:

1. Start in ChatGPT. Brief it on who this deck is for, then ask it to analyze your PRD's structure and identify key presentation points.

2. Go deeper, asking ChatGPT to extract your product's story and suggest compelling ways to present your data visually.

3. Now build your slides. You’ve two great options here:
   • Ask ChatGPT to create VBA code (Visual Basic for Applications) that will create a PowerPoint presentation in minutes, or
   • Take everything from ChatGPT and upload it to Gamma, a visual presentation tool that uses AI to create high-quality decks super-quick.

4. Polish and perfect until it’s in a share-ready state.

Tip: You can go a step further and have ChatGPT help you think of questions you might be asked, and draft speaker notes if you’re going to be presenting the deck in person.

3. Draft Terms of Service without needing a whole a legal team

Let's talk about everyone's favorite subject: Terms of Service (ToS).

Many companies take the same approach to ToS: copy-paste generic legal templates or spend a fortune on custom legal work. Neither approach is ideal—generic terms might leave gaps in your protection, while custom legal work... well, just look at your budget.

But what if you could create Terms of Service that are both legally sound and specifically tailored to your product?

Here's how AI helps you thread that needle:

1. Start with Claude (ChatGPT or Gemini work too). Give it your product name, a brief description of what it does/its key features, your target audience, and your pricing model. Then ask it to define what key sections should be included in the ToS.

2. Work through each of the sections of the Terms of Service, using Claude to help you draft them one-by-one. You’ll likely want to include:
   • User rights and responsibilities
   • Liability and warranty disclaimers
   • Privacy and data handling policies
   Of course you’ll need to read Claude’s responses carefully, adjusting wherever needed to the terms are accurate and specific.

3. Once you’re done, have Claude produce a full and finished document ready for legal review (if needed).

4. Tailor product usage guides to each user

Generic user guides are like one-size-fits-all clothing—they rarely fit anyone perfectly. Wouldn’t it be great if you could customize guides for different user types?

That used to be a luxury only enterprise companies could afford. But thanks to AI, you can now create personalized product documentation that speaks directly to each type of user, without doubling your workload.

Here's how:

1. Open up ChatGPT or Claude and give it your current user guide—if you don’t yet have one, create a document with essential product usage details.

2. Prompt ChatGPT to highlight areas that might commonly require customization for specific clients.

3. Collect client information and use ChatGPT to customize the guide based on their specific needs and setup.

4. Have ChatGPT start drafting customized content for the user guide. You can enhance its relevance by incorporating client-specific scenarios, too.

5. Generate the final customized guide with ChatGPT and review before sending to any clients or customers.

Bonus: When features change, AI can help you propagate updates across all versions while maintaining each guide’s unique voice and focus.

Ready to level up your product documentation?

Product documentation was once a time-consuming necessity. PRDs that took weeks to write. Terms of Service that needed expensive legal help. User guides that may or may not have matched what clients actually needed.

Now, AI helps you:

• Create professional PRDs quickly

• Convert strategies into engaging presentations

• Generate clear, protective Terms of Service

• Develop personalized documentation

These methods are already helping product teams reduce time spent on documentation time while improving quality. Are you ready to dive in?