AI Behavior Index
☰
Home/By Use Case/AI for Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry
By Use Case

AI for Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry

Creative writing is the most contested AI use case. The Authors Guild's 2025 survey found 45% of published fiction writers now use AI tools in some part of their creative process — primarily for brainstorming, overcoming writer's block, and developmental editing. Publishers Weekly's 2024 salary and jobs report found 53% of publishing companies using AI, up from 23% in 2022. But over 90% of non-user fiction authors report concerns about hallucinations, the erosion of writing's value, and "bland AI slop." This page tracks adoption among fiction writers, the tools they use, what they use them for, and the persistent split in the writing community.

4 visualizations 6 sources Last updated June 2026 Free to embed
Loading chart...
Source: Authors Guild 2025 writer attitudes survey, covered in Publishers Weekly November 2025.
CHART 1 · PUBLISHING INDUSTRY TRAJECTORY

Publishing companies using AI, 2022–2025

Loading chart...
Source: Publishers Weekly annual salary & jobs reports 2022–2025. Tracks share of publishing companies using AI in any business function (editorial, marketing, production, etc.). Adoption more than doubled over three years.
CHART 2 · WHAT WRITERS USE AI FOR

Top fiction writer AI use cases

Loading chart...
Source: Authors Guild 2025 survey; Authors A.I. 2025 working-novelist interviews. Tasks ranked by frequency among AI-using writers. The average writer using AI does 3.6 different tasks with it weekly.
CHART 3 · TOOL PREFERENCE

Most-used AI tools among fiction writers

Loading chart...
Source: Authors Guild 2025 survey (ChatGPT is "by far" the most commonly used tool); MyLifeNote, Codingem, Sudowrite tool-comparison roundups 2025–2026. Specialized fiction tools include Sudowrite (proprietary "Muse" model trained on narrative prose), NovelCrafter (long-form manuscript management), and NovelAI (story generation with fine-tuned models).
CHART 4 · THE COMMUNITY SPLIT

Writer attitudes: support vs concern about AI in fiction

Loading chart...
Source: Authors Guild 2025 survey for primary user/concern data ("more than nine out of ten" non-user fiction authors concerned about hallucinations, erosion of value, and "bland and boring AI-generated slop"); Reddit r/selfpublish 2024 community poll for 60/40 sentiment split. Concern is nearly uniform among non-users; among heavy users, attitudes are more favorable but concerns persist.

About this data

The AI Behavior Index is the research arm of OneChat AI. This page focuses on AI applied to fiction (novels, short stories) and poetry — distinct from technical or business writing. It draws primarily on the Authors Guild's 2025 writer attitudes survey, the most authoritative recent data source on AI use among published writers, supplemented by Publishers Weekly industry tracking and community case studies.

Two caveats. First, "use AI in some part of the creative process" is a broad threshold — it includes writers who use AI only for marketing copy, blurbs, or research, not just direct prose generation. Direct prose generation remains a small share of total AI use. Second, vendor-published figures (e.g., Sudowrite's "67% of novelists use AI") tend to be higher than independent Authors Guild data and should be treated with caution; this page uses Authors Guild's 45% as the more defensible figure. Data is refreshed when major surveys publish. If you have a study to suggest or notice an error, contact us at research@aibehaviorindex.org.

Related topics in By Use Case

By Use Case

AI for Academic and Research Writing

Updated recently
By Use Case

AI for Blog Posts and Article Writing

Updated recently
By Use Case

AI for Email Drafting at Work

Updated recently
By Use Case

AI for Legal Writing: Briefs, Contracts, Memos

Updated recently
By Use Case

AI for Resume and Cover Letter Writing

Updated recently
By Use Case

AI for Screenwriting and Scripts

Updated recently
For Journalists & Researchers

Use this data in your work.

Every statistic, chart, and graphic in this index is free to use and cite, with full source attribution. Can’t easily find what you need? Use our search bar to search by keyword, topic, or category.

✉️
Talk to our research team
Need a specific cut of data, an interview, or a quote? Email us — we typically respond within one business day.
research@aibehaviorindex.org →

How the data works

Every statistic shown is sourced from a publicly available study, survey, or report. We aggregate, organize, and contextualize this data — but the underlying research is conducted by the cited sources. Click any source link to access the original methodology. If you run into any issues or have a study to suggest, contact us at research@aibehaviorindex.org.