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Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc. | |
CULTURE
Yapping not tapping
More and more employees are now talking to AI voice dictation tools rather than clacking the keys. Will ‘voicepilling’ make everyone more productive — or just more annoying?
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EIGHT MONTS AGO, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman announced, with an unusual level of pride and satisfaction, that he was obsessed with talking to his computer. Not just in the sense of chatting with a chatbot — no, literally talking at the computer.
“I am voicepilled,” he wrote. “Being voicepilled is that moment of realization that once you start seriously using your voice to interact with technology, you unlock a new way to amplify your ability.”
He is far from alone. In the tech and white-collar sectors, interacting with your computer (which is to say, increasingly, your AI agents) via voice commands is becoming more of an accepted norm. Once regarded as an accessibility function, voice-to-text is becoming the preferred method of interacting for more and more computer workers.
“I’m talking to my computer all the time now,” said Gusto co-founder Edward Kim, speaking to The Wall Street Journal. “I don’t type unless I absolutely have to.”
The paper cites one venture capitalist who described AI startup offices as “like showing up at a high-end call centre,” where “everyone is chatting with AI.” Headsets in the office, WSJ said, are more often about chatting to AI assistants than they are about playing music or podcasts.
The sudden rise of voice-to-text is a technology story to a degree — voice-to-text apps have proliferated widely in the vibe-coding era, enabled by access to powerful and inexpensive AI transcription models that can be downloaded right to your phone. One Toronto startup, Superwhisper, was one of the first to bring a product like this to market in 2023.
“If you’re talking about replacing every keyboard on the planet, it’s just such a huge market,” said Superwhisper founder Neil Chudleigh, speaking to The Globe and Mail. (And he’s not wrong — the market for dictation tools is expected to grow from nearly USD$4 billion in 2026 to more than US$16 billion by 2035).
The only problem? Many people think it’s kind of annoying.
“You kind of feel like Tony Start talking to Jarvis,” said Kim. One company founder told WSJ her talking to her computer habit had made things a bit difficult on the home front, as it was annoying her husband.
But the voicepilled among us believe that, with time, everyone will be yapping, not tapping. “It’s the societal change that needs to happen,” said Tanay Kothari, co-founder voice-to-text app Wispr. “You are not a crazy person for talking to your computer.”
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HEALTH & SAFETY
Buzz kill
Can an employer legally stop workers from using a substance that is entirely lawful — not just while they are on the clock, but every hour of every day? The answer appears to be yes, at least in aviation
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TOKIN’ FLIGHT ATTENDANTS with Air Transat were dealt a major bummer decision by the Man (in this case, an arbitrator in Quebec), which upheld a zero-tolerance cannabis policy for flight attendants that had been introduced in 2018, but challenged by CUPE, the flight attendants’ union.
The union had challenged the zero-tolerance policy on the grounds that it infringed on employees’ private lives, and attempted to make the case that impairment dissipated within hours of use. The arbitrator did not agree. “I am of the view that passenger safety on an aircraft must take precedence over the right to privacy in this case, and more specifically, the possibility for cabin crew to consume cannabis when they are not on duty,” the arbitrator wrote.
The union is, predictably, unhappy with the decision. “It could lead to disciplinary action against flight attendants who have consumed cannabis several days, or even weeks, before a workday,” said CUPE’s Air Transat local president Marie-Hélène Nadeau, who then turned to argue that if the flight attendants’ job requires such “extreme discipline” outside of work, “they will have to compensate our members accordingly.”
Whatever you think about the safety debate at play, in a way, this kind of cannabis policy feels very dated — a relic of a time where there was more anxiety around cannabis legalization. As StratCann noted in its coverage of this story, upholding a cannabis ban cuts against the general trend, even in other safety-sensitive positions. In 2024, for instance, the RCMP shifted to a more relaxed “fit for duty” standard, while members of the Armed Forces are only prohibited from using cannabis for certain periods before duty, depending on the position. And Transport Canada employees have to be clean for four weeks before reporting to work.
What will be interesting to see is whether or not this empowers other employers to roll back on rollin’ up. “The ruling does not give employers a blank cheque to regulate every aspect of their workforce's private lives,” wrote Jim Wilson at HR Reporter. “But it does confirm that in industries where a worker’s off-duty behaviour can directly affect the safety of others, the scales can tip decisively toward the employer.”
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Terry Talk: When the world paused, people showed up. Will we?
| After seeing Come From Away at the Grand Theatre with the Ahria team and clients, Ahria Consulting president & CEO Terry Gillis reflects on a story that goes beyond the stage. It highlights how, even in difficult moments, people choose kindness, generosity and community. Each year on September 11, Ahria closes its offices and gives employees $100 to do good work in the community, inspired by the same spirit. This year, we extend this challenge to London’s business community: How can we show up and make a difference where we are? | | | |
SOCIAL MEDIA
Keepin’ it real
LinkedIn is fighting back against AI slop, taking new steps to reduce the reach of posts that bear the hallmarks of AI-generated drivel
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YOU KNOW THE type.
It’s written in snappy one liners, not boring paragraphs.
It tells the reader that what they thought was X, is actually Y.
And most of it, LinkedIn now says, is “low-effort, AI-generated content that may sound polished on the surface but lacks any real unique perspective or substance.” And they’re now ready to crack down on it.
“When AI is overused, especially at scale and in an automated way, it dilutes the valuable insights that real human conversations can spark,” wrote LinkedIn’s VP and executive editor, Laura Lorenzetti. “It’s okay to use AI to help you write, but your posts and comments need to represent your voice and your perspectives. The ultimate value comes from the human behind the tool.”
So, just how is LinkedIn going to combat this? Well, AI of course.
According to Fast Company, the company views this AI problem as one with an AI solution. While they won’t say exactly what they are going to be targeting (since to do so would make it easy for the AI to get around it), Fast Company reported that their new systems, set to be rolled out over the coming months, will target three types of AI content: generic thought leadership posts and comments, attention-bait videos and automation tools.
But some were quick to point out that LinkedIn is a company that is integrated with the AI tools and content they’re now trying to police. “LinkedIn is also trying to walk a fine line here,” wrote Engadget’s Karissa Bell. “The platform offers a bunch of its own generative AI tools, including a big “rewrite with AI” button in its post composer.”
She also points out that the kind of empty, personal-brand marketing posts that are being targetted here were a pre-AI phenomenon as well. And humans can produce slop just as prodigiously. “I feel like I see just as many LinkedIn posts bemoaning the slopified nature of the LinkedIn feed as AI slop itself,” Bell said.
But, if it makes LinkedIn a better experience, you may thank them for it in the near future. According to Lorenzetti, their new tools have about a 94 per cent accuracy rate. “This kind of content is far less likely to spread beyond someone’s immediate network, and you’ll see less of it from outside your network in your feed,” she said.
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TIME OFF
Will vacation inflation affect your summer travel?
Travel is still on, but rising costs are reshaping summer vacation plans
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YOU’RE NOT ALONE if you’re looking at an empty summer vacation calendar, and then at your bank account, and then at the price of gas, and then back worryingly at your summer vacation calendar wondering what to fill it with. It’s set to be a pretty quiet year one the vacation front for many professionals, according to new data from Deloitte’s summer travel survey.
According to Deloitte, only 45 per cent of respondents are planning to take vacations this year — the lowest since 2020, signalling a potential end to the post-Covid travel boom.
“One key to understanding the mindset of travellers this summer is that the share of budget increasers who cite high prices and the share who say travel has become more important to them have both risen sharply,” Deloitte’s survey states. “General affordability is a major concern for non-travellers, but a growing number of those staying home specifically highlight the high cost of travel. Also compounding matters somewhat are creeping concerns about safety and trip disruptions.”
Canadian businesses are catching on to this. In a Statistics Canada Survey released last week, just over one in six businesses said they expect an increase in sales over the upcoming summer, and fewer than one in 10 in the hospitality sector expect an increase in profitability.
One thing HR experts don’t want to see is the cost of travel discouraging people from taking a break, though. “Mentally, we hold summer as a space where we get to solve a lot of our burnout,” said management professor Allison Gabriel, speaking to Charter. “Doing that puts a lot of pressure on summer to be incredibly restorative.” However, she added that workplaces need to keep encouraging people to use vacations as a long-term strategy for being able to work sustainably. “It's just not enough to assume that summer is going to mitigate or minimize the heavy workload that a lot of people are experiencing,” she said.
For many Canadians, that means a local staycation. And there, interest remains strong enough that tourism operators are staying optimistic. “We’re seeing even a little bit of a pickup of people wanting to get out and travel,” said Leger Central Canada’s Andrew Enns. “And certainly, we’re seeing, you know, that pickup in that interest to travel again within the country.”
YXU CEO Scott McFadzean agrees. He told CTV News London recently that shorter-distance vacations can help travellers save a dime or two. “There is a lot of good options to save some money by flying right here from home,” he said.
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