I have no concept of how it's used in other fields, but I'm a teacher and its applications around my job seem obvious. Everyone's mind goes to kids using it cheat, which they do, but for me, it's a great tool for writing simple, understandable tests/quizzes. I'm not great at dumbing myself down when I write, so a machine that can write like a reasonably smart high school student helps me dumb down perfectly.
http://i.imgur.com/hso8CUi.gif