Ai and indexing

I am interested in following the latest trends in AI and book indexing. Please read on if you would like to know more about how two indexing societies (Society of Indexers and American Society for Indexing) are investigating the use of AI in book indexing.

The American Society for Indexing (ASI) launched initiatives in response to AI indexes. The ASI formed a committee to "investigate the potential impacts of AI on indexing" and updated their AI and book indexing statement on March 25, 2026 with recommendations for editors, publishers and indexers. The AI Committee reviewed IndexStudio, an LLM-based indexing service which can be read here. They also reviewed AI-Indexing, a web-based indexing software developed by Ben Vagle. To date, the ASI has released three white papers on AI. The first is titled "LLM-Generated Book Indexes: Can They Replace Professionally Created Indexes?". A supplement to the white paper on AI and indexing was subsequently released. The third white paper is "AI and Book Indexing: Trajectory Data". The abstract is copied below.

"While AI can be a highly useful tool in some situations and with some highly-defined problem spaces, book indexing does not appear to be one of them. This paper supplements our previously-published white papers by comparing the effectiveness of large language model AI chatbots, across multiple generations, at indexing a book or book chapter. Our earlier white papers indicated that AI-generated indexes fail to reflect subtopics and related topics, preventing readers from having appropriate access to all indexable material; that AIs under-index, failing to pick up on significantly discussed terms; at the same time they also over-index, cluttering the index with irrelevant entries and redundant subheadings; and that AI-generated indexes also fail a standard copyeditor’s test for accuracy. The current paper indicates that AIs have not improved significantly on any measure."

The Society of Indexers (SI) is also reviewing AI and indexing. The statement on AI and indexing can be read here.

In a blog post Tanya Izzard defines jargon related to AI, discusses AI and publishing, the human skills of indexing, what current AI tools can do, the possibilities and obstacles for AI and what indexers can do.

In The Indexer Volume 42, Number 4, Tanya Izzard in an article titled “Generative artificial intelligence and its performance at indexing tasks” explores how Claude and Adobe AI Assistance handled doing an index.

At the 2024 Society of Indexers conference, George Walkey gave a short presentation on how publishers are using AI.

Finally, Stephen Ullstrom ponders if AI indexing is nearly here and describes the responses Microsoft Bing gave when asked about indexing.

Fortunately, I think the indexing profession is safe at the moment and indexing will have to be done by humans for some years yet. Currently, I do not use any AI to compile my indexes, but who knows, maybe AI will be a useful tool for indexers to use in the future.

 For anyone writing a book which needs a proofread or an index, hire a professional from AFEPI (Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers of Ireland) , the Society of Indexers, or CIEP (Charter Institute of Editing and Proofreading) to lighten your load!