Get ready for the whisper-filled office of the future

How will work settings change if we spend more and more time talking to our computers? A recent Wall Street Journal feature examines the growing popularity of dictation apps like Wispr, especially now that they can be linked to dynamic programming tools, and what that might mean for office etiquette.

One venture capitalist said that visiting startup offices now feels like stepping into a high-end call center. Gusto co-founder Edward Kim apparently tells his team that in the future, offices will look “more like a sales floor.” (As someone who still bears scars from when his office was briefly moved to the sales floor, let me say: Oh no.)

Kim claimed that he now only writes when he has to. But he admitted that constant dictation in the office can be “a little embarrassing.”

Likewise, AI entrepreneur Molly Umkraut-Mueller said her husband had become annoyed by her new habit of whispering into her computer, so late-night work sessions now required sitting apart, or “one of us would stay at his desk.”

But Wispr founder Tanai Kothari insisted that all of this will seem “normal” one day, just as it became normal to spend hours staring at your phone.