In the event you’re as outdated as I’m, you bear in mind when drafting a doc meant scribbling illegibly on a yellow authorized pad, then typing your rooster scratch up on an electrical typewriter and finally a PC or Mac. Over time, as most of us acclimated to expertise, we slowly and typically reluctantly educated ourselves to draft straight on the keyboard which turned the default mechanism to create work product.
This isn’t a nostalgia play however moderately, an instance of how expertise rewires how we work. And we’re on the cusp of the identical shift once more. Solely this time the bounce isn’t from paper to keyboard however keyboard to voice. And whilst you could also be considering that you simply’ll by no means give up the written phrase, there are compelling the reason why solos and smalls ought to make voice their drafting software of selection in an AI age.
Voice Has Come a Lengthy Method
Though dictation has been round for not less than a century (first by human scribes, then by extra rudimentary instruments like Dragon Dictation), it wasn’t till not too long ago that AI-powered transcription was actually prepared for prime time. Fashionable speech recognition methods routinely hit 90% accuracy in quiet conditions with respectable microphones, and newer fashions proceed to enhance. On the similar time, the underlying voice AI market is anticipated to climb from about $3.14 billion in 2024 to a projected $47.5 billion by 2034, which displays the truth that companies are literally deploying these instruments at scale. So in case your final expertise with dictation was a clunky desktop program that mangled half your sentences, it’s time to take a re-assessment.
The Pace Benefit Everybody Already Is aware of About
Let’s begin with the apparent benefit of voice: it’s quicker than typing.
A Stanford study discovered that talking is 3x quicker than typing -or 150 phrases per minute for speech versus 40 phrases per minute for the typical typist. Even skilled typists cap out round 65-75 phrases per minute. Do the mathematics: A 500-word shopper e-mail takes 12.5 minutes to type but only 4 minutes to dictate which represents a 68% time financial savings. For busy solo and small agency practitioners, the time saved can add as much as 10+ hours back per week.
Voice additionally saves time by letting you’re employed whilst you’re doing one thing else. As an alternative of leaving courtroom, climbing into your automobile, and making an attempt to thumb out a couple of cryptic notes in your cellphone within the parking zone, you may hit report and dictate a full abstract of the listening to whilst you drive. By the point you stroll again into your workplace, that stream-of-consciousness recap has already been transcribed right into a written abstract, able to drop into your file, your follow administration system, or a draft movement. For solos and small companies, that form of “discovered time” between places is commonly the one place you may reclaim an hour from an already overscheduled day.
A Higher Technique to Deal with the Clean Web page
Speech can also be simpler in tackling the blank-page downside. I don’t find out about you however for me, the standard recommendation to “simply write something” to beat author’s block by no means labored. Even a minute of staring on the ensuing clunky textual content was too demoralizing. However whenever you discuss as a substitute of kind, you may freely suppose out loud, wander, and circle again. AI can seize your ramblings, clear up the tangents, and tighten the construction in order that by the point you see it on the display screen, it already appears to be like like an actual draft as a substitute of a large number you need to rescue.
Voice Preserves Authenticity
Voice additionally preserves authenticity. It will possibly additionally assist us talk our shoppers’ place extra successfully. More and more, shoppers are counting on AI to summarize their case once they attain out for assist — which can flatten their unique voice. However giving shoppers a software — like an AI chatbot or a transcribed consumption interview — can seize your shoppers’ precise language verbatim, and make their story extra genuine. As for attorneys, you may deploy the idioms and cadence you wish to protect in your writing and instruct AI to retain your distinctive voice even because it cleans up the grammatical errors and verbal tics.
For all of its advantages, voice gained’t work for each state of affairs — notably for the form of sophisticated precision writing required for an appellate transient, a multi-footnote legislation overview article, or a contract for a billion-dollar transaction. Nonetheless, there are a myriad of different use circumstances akin to demand letters and settlement negotiation narratives, inside memos, and case technique and shopper communications. And sure, you’ll must edit and refine — however you need to try this with any writing.
Tricks to Implement Voice
So, when you’ve made the choice to make use of voice, the following query is: what do you have to use to seize it?
Wispr Flow has emerged as a quiet gold customary amongst AI‑savvy attorneys, due to its highly effective engine, robust accuracy, and seamless integrations into authorized workflows. Google Docs Voice Typing can also be surprisingly good for one thing that’s free and already sitting in most attorneys’ toolkits. And almost each main AI platform you’re already utilizing — Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT — now affords some form of built-in voice recording mode, so you may discuss by a problem and get a cleaned-up transcript or draft again as a substitute of staring down a clean web page.
The identical ethics cautions that apply to each different use of AI govern right here. Select a platform that doesn’t prepare in your recordings, makes use of robust safety, and offers you management over retention. In the event you’re recording or transcribing shopper conversations, always obtain informed consent.
Voice isn’t just a brand new enter methodology; it’s a manner for solos and small companies to maneuver quicker whereas nonetheless retaining authenticity. While you mix fashionable transcription with mild AI cleanup, you get drafts that preserve your genuine voice and your shoppers’ actual tales, whereas reclaiming hours you may’t afford to waste on the keyboard. In the event you’re severe about staying human in an AI-driven market, making voice your selection is among the easiest, highest-leverage strikes you can also make.
Carolyn Elefant is among the nation’s most acknowledged advocates for solo and small agency attorneys. She based MyShingle.com in 2002, the longest-running weblog for solo practitioners, the place she has revealed 1000’s of articles, assets, and guides on beginning, working, and rising impartial legislation practices. She is the writer of Solo by Selection, broadly considered the definitive handbook for launching and sustaining a legislation follow, and has spoken at numerous bar occasions and authorized conferences on expertise, innovation, and regulatory reform that impacts solos and smalls. Elefant additionally develops sensible instruments just like the AI Teach-In to assist small companies undertake AI and she or he persistently champions reforms to degree the taking part in area for impartial attorneys. Alongside this work, she runs the Regulation Places of work of Carolyn Elefant, a nationwide power and regulatory follow that handles selective advanced, high-stakes issues.
