“Where’s the voice data processed? Where is it stored? How can it be accessed? Enterprises are very, very focused on governance and data security and data privacy,” she said.
Too soon to ditch the keyboard?
Despite growing interest in the technology, it’s still unclear whether a large number of workers will choose talking over typing. And remains to be seen whether startups that offer a best-of-breed AI dictation app can gain traction, or fade if the technology simply becomes embedded within the software ecosystems of larger tech firms.
Workers are more familiar with voice technology, thanks to AI assistants in smartphones and smart speakers at home. That, said Bell, could improve the prospects of wider use in business settings.
“Voice interaction feels less niche than it did about five years ago,” she said. “Overall, the technology is improving quickly…, but how we’re really going to determine success is whether we can change human behavior.”
Arnold is bullish about the use of voice technology in the workplace: “Five or 10 years [from now], we won’t think twice about it. It’ll just be the norm.”
Bell is more cautious.She sees potential for AI dictation as a supplementary tool for communication-heavy work. “I don’t think it’s going to replace the keyboard, but I do think it could become a secondary interface,” she said.
Even Patalano doesn’t expect AI-assisted voice dictation to entirely replace typing “Your speaking voice and your written voice will always, to some degree, be different, and that’s okay: we should probably lean into that,” he said.
“I think there will always be a place for wordsmithing, crafting, writing – and the same with coding, too. There’s going to be lots of cases where every single word matters.”
He plans to continue using AI dictation, whether with Wispr Flow or other similar tools that might emerge in the future.
While a lack of accuracy slowed adoption in the past, continued advances could open the door to wider workplace uptake.
“When I try to use a voice tool and it misses even once, you kind of throw up your hands and walk away, because the cost of having to correct it is way more than the benefit of using it versus typing,” Patalano said. “But, especially with the improvements in LLMs and AI models generally, the accuracy of these is going to keep getting better and better.
“I’m already looking for more and more opportunities to use voice instead of having to type.”
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