A text message can be skim read, or read again, or just glanced at, and you can get what you need in a few seconds. Or you can read it more fully, and properly take it in, which takes a few more seconds. Then you move on with your life.

A voicenote can feel like hard work because you have less control; you are at the mercy of the speaker.

Danish schools are asking students to orally defend their essays as a way of combating AI cheating. But the idea isn't new: it's a viva. And perhaps this old-fashioned emphasis on speaking, listening and debate points to something much bigger about education, work and the way AI is changing communication.

My clients are, without exception, intelligent and successful professionals, most of them working in English as their second or additional language, and doing really well.

Their 'communication skills' are excellent…

As long as it's written English.

I'm always reminding the people I work with that in order to achieve effective communication we should think about pausing as something we do for the listener: a pause creates space in which to process information, so your thoughts are more digestible. Then listeners can pick up on their value.

This week I was featured in an article in the Daily Telegraph, one of the UK's main national newspapers, to talk about politicians' voices, and whether it’s possible to tell if they’ve had public speaking coaching.

'Brain fog' is another way of describing how it feels when we lose focus. How do we stay ‘in the moment’ and keep focused on what we want to talk about?