Typing in the Age of AI: More Essential Than You Think

“Why should they learn to type when in a few years we’ll just talk to computers and AI will write everything for us?”

We hear this question more and more, and it makes sense on the surface. Voice assistants keep getting better, AI tools can generate entire texts from a spoken prompt, and technology seems to be pushing us toward a future where keyboards are relics of the past.

But there’s a problem with that idea. A fundamental problem that has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with how our brains work.

Typing isn’t just hitting keys: it’s thinking

This is the key point, and it’s worth pausing here.

When we speak, our tongue moves faster than our thoughts. We start sentences without knowing how we’ll finish them, we ramble, we repeat ourselves, we jump from one idea to another. It’s natural — spoken language is fast, spontaneous, and imprecise by design. It works perfectly for casual conversation, but for expressing complex ideas clearly, it has a serious limitation: we don’t have time to think about what we’re saying while we’re saying it.

Writing is different. When we write — whether it’s an email, a report, a prompt for an AI, or just an important message — our brain works at a different pace. We have time to organise our thoughts before putting them down, to choose the precise word, to review and correct as we go. Writing is, in truth, a way of thinking more clearly.

And this is where typing comes in: if typing is a struggle, if you have to hunt for each letter on the keyboard, that thinking process breaks down. Your attention shifts from what you want to say to finding where the right key is. Writing stops being fluid, and with it, so does thinking.

Mastering the keyboard isn’t a mechanical skill. It’s freeing your mind to focus on what truly matters: what you’re actually thinking.

But if AI writes for us, why bother?

Precisely because of that. AI tools don’t eliminate the need to write well — they amplify it.

Think of it this way: for an AI to give you a good result, you need to give it a good instruction. And the best instructions aren’t dictated off the cuff with something like “write me a thing about this quarter’s sales, you know, something nice”. The best instructions are written, detailed, clear, with context and nuance.

In other words: the more powerful AI tools become, the more important your ability to write precisely what you need will be. And for that, you need typing to not be an obstacle.

There’s more. The vast majority of professional communication — emails, reports, proposals, documentation — remains and will continue to be written. Even when AI helps you draft something, the reviewing, adjusting, and decision-making about the final text is done by you. At a keyboard.

Crossed laterality: what happens in a child’s brain when they type

If everything above applies to any adult, there’s an additional layer for children and teenagers that makes typing especially valuable: neurological development.

When a child learns to type properly with all ten fingers, they’re practising something neuroscience calls crossed laterality: the coordinated use of both hands (and therefore both brain hemispheres) simultaneously but independently. Each hand controls a different group of keys, and the brain must coordinate both sides in real time.

Why does this matter? Because crossed laterality doesn’t just improve typing ability. Its benefits extend to:

• Fine motor coordination: the precision of finger movements transfers to other activities requiring manual dexterity.
• Focus and sustained attention: maintaining a typing rhythm without looking at the keyboard demands a level of concentration that trains the attention span — something increasingly difficult to develop in the age of screens and notifications.
• Reading-writing connection: when typing, a child is reading (or thinking) and writing simultaneously, which strengthens the link between comprehension and expression.
• Confidence and independence: a child who has mastered the keyboard works faster on schoolwork, feels more capable with technology, and relies less on adult help to produce their assignments.

It’s not just “typing fast”. It’s a complete cognitive workout disguised as a practical skill.

Teenagers: the perfect moment (and the most wasted one)

Adolescence is an especially good window for developing solid typing skills. The brain still has enormous plasticity, teenagers already use keyboards daily (though many with two fingers and their eyes glued to the keys), and the benefits apply immediately: school essays, computer-based exams, written communication…

Yet this is the stage where typing gets the least attention. The assumption is that they “already know” because they’re digital natives. But being a digital native doesn’t mean you can type well, just as growing up around cars doesn’t make you a good driver. The skill requires specific training.

A teenager who has mastered touch typing writes a school essay in half the time it takes one who hunts and pecks. And not just faster: better — because their attention is on the content, not the keys.

Adults: it’s never too late (and you’ll notice fast)

If you’re an adult and typing still requires conscious effort, you’ve probably been compensating for years without realising it. You avoid long emails, you simplify messages that deserve more detail, you put off that report because “it takes me so long to write”.

Typing for adults doesn’t require months of intensive practice. With a structured method and a few weeks of consistency, the improvement is noticeable. And what changes isn’t just speed: it’s your relationship with the act of writing. It stops being a chore and becomes something natural.

A skill with an expiry date… that never expires

Keyboards have been with us since the 1970s. They’ve survived the mouse, touchscreens, voice assistants, and handwriting recognition. Every generation of technology has predicted their demise, and every generation has ended up typing more than the last.

AI won’t change that. What it will change is the value of being able to express yourself in writing with clarity and speed. And that, paradoxically, makes typing more relevant today than ever.

Ser, no encajar. Be, don’t fit in. That applies to how you communicate too.

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Want your children — or yourself — to learn to type properly? At After School we teach typing with a structured method, for all ages, adapted to each person’s pace. Get in touch and we’ll tell you how it works.