When I first got online in the late 90s, I remember being fascinated by Philips FreeSpeech, one of the early voice recognition programs. The promise was: talk to your computer and watch your words appear on screen.
But like many early adopters, I discovered the reality was far from seamless – requiring extensive training sessions, and dealing with frequent misunderstandings.
This early experience with voice recognition technology mirrors a broader pattern we see with innovations that are ahead of their time. Like QR codes, which waited decades for their moment.
QR codes, invented in 1994 by Denso Wave in Japan, took nearly 25 years to become ubiquitous. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to go contactless that these pixelated squares became an essential part of our daily lives.
Voice input has followed a similar path. While we’ve been talking to our devices for years, the interaction has been largely confined to basic commands: “Set a timer,” “Navigate to,” or dictating quick messages on our phones. The experience was functional but far from natural.
Enter ChatGPT and other AI chat assistants. Suddenly, voice input has its breakthrough moment. The key difference? Natural language processing (Something also promised in 1998 on the box of Philips FreeSpeech). We’re no longer restricted to specific commands or precise phrasing. We can speak naturally, as I’m doing right now to draft this blog post, and AI understands context, nuance, and intent.
This shift has fundamentally changed how I work in 2024. Voice input has moved beyond simple smartphone commands to become a productive method for content creation. Whether I’m drafting blog posts, brainstorming ideas, or writing emails, I find myself talking to AI assistants more than typing (at least in home office).
AI has transformed voice input from a convenience feature into a tool by removing its biggest barrier – the need to speak in “computer language”
This isn’t just an incremental improvement. It’s a breakthrough that’s changing how we interact with technology, making it more natural, efficient, and accessible.
If you’re a content creator spending hours typing away, I encourage you to explore voice input with AI assistants. The technology has matured to a point where it can dramatically speed up your creation process and transform your workflow as it has mine.
Note: This post itself was drafted using voice input with AI, following my recent experiments with voice-to-text for content creation. You can find more of my AI-assisted content creation experiences in my recent posts: