The End of Typing?
New research suggests Gen Alpha will rely exclusively on voice messaging for communication when they enter the workforce. Will that be positive or negative?
They’re doing it on their mobile devices. They’re doing it on social media. And pretty soon they’ll be doing it at work.
Voice notes and voice-to-text messaging are now among the most popular ways for younger generations to communicate personally—and, increasingly, in the workplace. New research shows that by the time the oldest members of Gen Alpha enter the workforce in 2030, they won’t even need a keyboard: Rather than type prompts, they’ll talk to AI agents; rather than send emails or engage in chats, they’ll send recorded messages to colleagues.
Researchers have compared the adoption curve of previous tech breakthroughs, such as smartphones and streaming media, to “voice AI.” They’ve found that the new medium is following a similar path to mass acceptance. “The use case for your voice over typing with generative AI is growing rapidly,” says Lewis Cohen, managing director of service development at Korn Ferry’s AMS unit.
Right now, only 14% of people surveyed say they prefer voice to typing when interacting with generative AI. But don’t scoff—once smartphones and streaming media reached that threshold, adoption took off, surpassing 50% within three years. According to the survey, past trends suggest that adoption of voice AI will rapidly move from the fringes to the mainstream by 2030.
That data aligns with how Gen Alpha is adopting voice AI in their personal lives. One survey of seven- to fourteen-year-olds found that 48% used voice commands with AI rather than typing. In another example, more than 2.5 billion voice messages were sent over a three-month period on a social-media platform whose user base is primarily younger than 24 years old (with 20% of users younger than 18). Jenna Young, head of creative in the Culture, Change, and Communications practice at Korn Ferry, says she sees a similar preference for voice messaging in her own Gen Alpha children. “They are very much into an active dialogue with AI,” she says. “They think of it as conversational and a chat.”
The irony, of course, is that the generation whose communication skills have been most in doubt is talking more than ever. Yet experts are divided over whether talking to AI is actually building the interpersonal-communication skills that employers say younger workers lack. Optimists like Young are encouraged by the fact that younger generations are relying more on verbal communication in the workplace. “It leaves open space for collaboration and conversation and inviting people in,” she says.
But others express concerns: that voice AI will slow learning and development, recognition of non-verbal cues, and even the productivity it’s meant to accelerate. Listening to voice notes takes longer than reading, for instance, and recordings not as easily searchable as text, says David Farris, sector leader for the Professional Services practice at Korn Ferry. Broadly speaking, research shows that 65% of people learn best using visual methods—video, text, reading, and writing—while only 30% do so via auditory ones. “Voice AI is another communications channel, but it isn’t going to develop professional skills,” he says.
For firms, the growing adoption of voice AI is about more than the communication preferences of younger generations. It’s about figuring out how to take those voice inputs and translate them seamlessly across workflows, says Janet Mertens, managing director of data, insight, and analytics at the Korn Ferry Institute. “True adoption of voice tech is going to be dependent on how firms absorb and transform with it to deploy at scale and measure impact,” says Mertens. For instance, she says, firms will have to figure out who owns voice-AI-generated output. Is it the responsibility of the sender or the receiver to clean it up and get it work ready? “Voice AI is convenient for the creator, but maybe less so for the receiver,” says Mertens.
More practically, Cohen says leaders have to be careful about where their employees are using voice AI. Open office plans, to cite one example, aren’t optimal environments for coworkers to speak out loud into ChatGPT all day long. “What about the possibility of sensitive information being overheard?” asks Cohen.
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