Writing assistants check spelling and grammar, suggest style improvements, translate, and increasingly rewrite or draft text with generative AI. They run as browser extensions, desktop plug-ins, keyboard integrations or built-in features of office suites. People use them for emails, reports, legal drafts and anything else that needs polishing. Grammarly is a familiar reference point.
What sets this category apart is that the tool sees text at the moment it is written, often before anyone else has read it. Because it works across applications, it can see content from email, chat, documents and web forms alike, including contracts, personnel matters and unreleased plans. Cloud-based checks send that text to a server, so jurisdiction, retention and any use of customer text for model training are the central questions. Vendors differ in what they promise here, so read the data processing terms rather than the marketing page.
When choosing a European option, look at whether processing can happen locally or on EU infrastructure, whether you can disable generative features, and how administrators can limit which applications the tool is active in. Language coverage matters for European working languages, as does an on-premise option for sensitive teams.