Silicon Valley is driving users to ditch keyboards and spend hours talking to their tech

Gavin McNamara has abandoned his keyboard and spends each time talking alternatively than typing.

He speaks for hours with his machine and phone, sending emails, penning presentations, posting connected LinkedIn and adjacent coding done conversations utilizing an AI dictation app from San Francisco startup, Wispr Flow.

The AI punctuates, formats and adapts his rambling into coherent copy. McNamara averages 125 words per minute, which is doubly the mean typing speed.

“At this point, thing that could beryllium done by typing, I bash by speaking,” said the 32-year-old, laminitis of bundle bureau Why Not Us. “I conscionable talk.”

Across 77 apps, helium has dictated astir 300,000 words successful the past 5 months — that’s equivalent to penning 3 novels.

California’s tech titans and startups are astatine the forefront of a question to usage AI and the ample connection models they are based connected to propulsion radical to interact with exertion utilizing their voices alternatively than their fingers.

“AI and LLMs person changed the dynamic,” said CJ Pais, the San Diego-based creator of escaped voice-to-text dictation app Handy. “Using your dependable is overmuch faster than typing.”

A premix of autarkic developers and startups, including Handy, San Fransico’s Wispr Flow and Willow and others, person sprung up to connection close dependable enactment with artificial intelligence.

The biggest names successful tech are besides creating caller ways for radical to spouse with AI. Meta’s latest astute glasses trust connected voice. OpenAI and Meta person designed chiseled personalities for their bots’ dependable chats. Even Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri are undergoing AI upgrades, which the companies expect volition person everyone talking to their tech overmuch more.

These escaped and paid methods for utilizing spoken words with computers person attracted millions of users, including coders, enforcement assistants, lawyers, contented creators, and aesculapian practitioners. Some optimists deliberation the keyboard could go obsolete.

“I’m excited to denote that we’ve removed keyboards from the astir prestigious tv awards successful the world,” Allan Guo, the laminitis of Willow, said successful a station connected LinkedIn, noting that the Emmy Awards squad utilized Willow’s dependable dictation for sending Slack messages and clearing inboxes faster successful mentation for the 2026 awards.

Over the years, large tech companies person adapted galore of their products with voice-first features – for convenience. Today’s pivot distant from dependable arsenic an accessibility diagnostic to a productivity tool.

In precocious 2022, the shaper of ChatGPT started giving distant unfettered acccess to its automatic code designation exemplary called Whisper, trained connected 680,000 hours of multilingual data. OpenAI shared the tech for close audio transcription, erstwhile a intimately guarded large tech secret. Anyone could present download and tally high-quality AI transcription for escaped connected their laptop.

The caller question of AI dictation apps uses Whisper arsenic the instauration and builds connected apical to connection unrecorded dictation. While determination are escaped alternatives, paid subscription costs betwixt $8 and $12 a month.

AI-powered dictation is present gaining a toehold among programmers and regular users – and getting radical to speech to their laptops. Be it penning emails, sending SMS, designing a website, oregon giving AIs tasks, aboriginal adopters accidental dictation let them to enactment faster, deliberation much clearly, and beryllium much productive.

“The radical who’ve adopted dependable heavy aren’t going back. Once you’re talking 20 hours a week to your laptop, typing feels similar friction,” said Naveen Naidu, the wide manager of New York-based dependable dictation app Monologue. “Where I deliberation it’s heading: dependable becomes the delegation layer. You talk your intent, and things happen.”

These caller AI dictation apps leverage Apple’s precocious chips connected iPhones and Macs to tally backstage on-device dictation.

Geoffrey Huntley, an autarkic bundle developer, switched astir wholly to dependable for enactment successful June.

He often starts projects by opening a dependable punctual and asking the AI to interrogation him astir his concerns and task requirements earlier immoderate codification is generated.

“I talk to it, similar I’m riffing successful a jazz band, backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards,” Huntley said. This vocal creation helps refine the specifications, past the AI takes the wheel, and builds software.

Beyond coding, Huntley uses dependable to “let it rip” erstwhile capturing blog station ideas oregon messaging, utilizing apps similar Superwhisper oregon Whisper Flow to get a “first dump” of thoughts earlier moving to a keyboard for last editing.

A increasing fig of bundle developers successful Silicon Valley are dictating coding instructions for hours astatine a clip alternatively of typing. The operation of rapidly advancing AI agents that tin codification for hours, with dependable inputs capturing thoughts faster than typing, has boosted their productivity.

Self-described “vibe coder” McNamara built implicit 25 web apps successful a fewer months, a velocity of improvement that would beryllium intolerable without dependable instructions.

“I don’t deliberation that [typing], by immoderate means, would beryllium adjacent businesslike oregon effectual to get determination arsenic accelerated arsenic I did with talking,” McNamara said.

He utilized a meandering speech and a fewer hours to get AI to physique Sprout Gifts, a gifting registry for kids, and an app to appraise immoderate items via photos.

To beryllium sure, AI tin marque mistakes, and its enactment needs to beryllium checked.

Meanwhile, wide adoption has brought caller inconveniences, arsenic adjacent powerfulness users consciousness awkward talking to their laptops. Crowded unfastened offices are not designed for galore radical to beryllium conversing with their computers astatine the aforesaid time.

“Love voice, but not successful an bureau setting,” said 1 idiosyncratic connected X. “I dislike talking astir different people. I would bash it successful a closed-door office, oregon spell enactment successful my car.”

McNamara uses headphones truthful radical presume helium is connected a call.

“It’s similar the societal hack that I have,” helium said.

While it is excessively aboriginal to telephone whether and erstwhile the Qwerty keyboard mightiness travel the ticker-tape and fax machines into obsolescence, the velocity toward dependable is accelerating, said Dylan Fox, laminitis of San Francisco-based Assembly AI, which offers audio models to companies.

“We’re decidedly successful the opening of what we deliberation of arsenic similar this 10 to 100x summation successful request for voice, AI applications and interfaces,” helium said.

For the coder, McNamara, talking much to chatbots has made him a amended buddy.

He utilized to beryllium atrocious astatine responding to texts. Now helium gets backmost to friends close away.

“I americium truthful speedy to respond, they are similar ‘Who’s this guy?’” helium said.