Insight · 7 August 2026
AI Summer School #3: Talk, Don't Type
One of the simplest ways to get more from AI: stop typing and start talking.
By Louise Ballard
Originally published on LinkedIn ↗Next time your head is full to the brim and the screen feels like too much, try this. Talk, don't type.
It's one of my favourite ways to use AI, and I do it constantly. Open the little microphone in the chat box and just talk. Ramble out the messy version of whatever is in your head: the email, the strategy note, the holiday list, the half-formed idea.
I do it whilst walking, in the car, wherever I happen to be. Also before I start my day.
If your AI genuinely knows you and your work (see: naked AI, lesson two), what comes back is not a blank page. It's a decent first draft you can start shaping straight away.
That gap, between AI that treats you like a stranger and AI that actually knows you, is the thing we are obsessed with fixing at the moment; it's what we're building at Atheni.
Give the walking and talking a go this week and tell me how you get on.
This piece was first published by Louise Ballard on LinkedIn. Read it there to join the conversation.
About Atheni
Atheni is the AI adoption company. Founded in 2023 by Mackenzie Howe and Louise Ballard, it builds the capability to use AI well — across whatever models and tools an organisation already has. Most companies measure AI adoption by access or logins. Atheni measures depth: whether people are actually changing how they work.