Emails have replaced letters. Text messages supersede phone calls. An entire generation has stopped using voicemail. And everything — from our relationships with friends and family to interactions with coworkers to the way we pay our bills and schedule appointments — is moving online.
Communication has become more frequent and instantaneous, yet more varied and important. Each message we send to a friend or family member presents an opportunity for misunderstanding. And our jobs increasingly require successful teamwork and collaboration.
But effective communication is difficult. The internet, and the rise in geographic and professional mobility, helps us connect with more people of diverse backgrounds, but nuances of communication can get lost in the shuffle. It requires talent, skill, and effort to clarify one’s thoughts and feelings and to articulate those in a way recipients will understand.
What if we could harness the power of artificial intelligence to help every English speaker communicate what they mean? What if we could help people truly understand each other?
What would happen if we democratized effective communication?
Where We’ve Been
Nine years ago, we founded Grammarly with the goal of using technology to help people communicate what they mean. While social media, email, and collaboration tools have increased the frequency and speed of communication, Grammarly has always focused on improving the substance of communication.
From the very start, we’ve invested in linguistic technology to provide actionable feedback that helps Grammarly customers improve their writing. Through a combination of natural language processing and advanced machine learning technologies, we’ve approached our goal in stages.
Initially, we focused on creating software to improve writing accuracy — namely spelling, grammar, and punctuation. We started with a tool that enabled students to follow rigorous standards of academic writing. Realizing the need for better writing existed beyond academia, we soon began to offer Grammarly to anyone looking to communicate better in English — from crafting an error-free social media post to perfecting a cover letter for their dream job.
Over time we expanded beyond accuracy, with the goal of making writing not just mistake-free, but more compelling and easier to read. We introduced feedback along two new dimensions: clarity and effectiveness.
As a social media expert, it is imperative that you know about this awesome tool @Grammarly which assists you in communicating effectively with your audience so that your language is clear, precise and professional! pic.twitter.com/DQX73NZBVs
— Mariel Lantero (@mariel_lantero) February 15, 2018
Managed to score a 100 on my first law newsletter on defamation suits. ?? I’d like to thank @Grammarly and my parents for helping me get to this moment. ?
— Madison Bluth (@madisonbluth) February 13, 2018
Ok, everyone needs to install @Grammarly keyboard right now. Your tweets will thank you.
— M’BlockU (@skitzMcgurk) November 17, 2017
Where We’re Going
As we continue to grow our team and evolve our AI-powered products, we ultimately have our sights set on something bigger: becoming a true communication assistant that improves how people connect with and understand each other.
We’ll also continue to deliver our products with an easy, pleasant user experience — wherever communication happens. That includes continually integrating our products into more platforms, sites, and collaboration tools.
In the short term, we’ll roll out a series of updates that expand Grammarly’s ability to assist with communication. We’ll apply natural language processing and machine learning to further develop our feedback on clarity and effectiveness. This means taking the context of a written message into consideration — its intent, audience, style, and emotion — and providing suggestions on advanced elements of communication, like conciseness and tone. In doing so, we hope to continue bridging the gap between how people express themselves and how they’re understood.
Making this possible requires evolving aspects of Grammarly’s interface and the way we deliver our suggestions to customers. We’re starting with a new Grammarly Editor that will make it easier for users to understand and interact with our clarity and effectiveness feedback.
We’re not stopping there. Long term, we’ll add new ways to help people facilitate clearer, stronger communication, with the eventual goal of becoming a comprehensive communication assistant that promotes true understanding. Realizing this vision means growing our team to deliver on the technical innovation at the core of our products.
In an increasingly polarizing world, Grammarly seeks to increase connection and understanding with one another.
We believe in empowering everyone to communicate clearly, effectively, and confidently. We’ve made great strides on our path to effective communication, and we’re just getting started.
