It's The End Of Text Prompting

Also, this could also be the death of vibe coding as we know it

Author

Aashish Pahwa
September 04, 2025

In partnership with

Hey there

Something big happened recently that will change how you work with AI.

OpenAI dropped their gpt-realtime model and made the Realtime API publicly available. And this isn't just another model upgrade.

This is the first AI model that processes speech natively without converting it to text first.

Let me explain why this matters for your AI business:

The Death of "Vibe Coding" as We Know It

I know you know about "vibe coding". It's this trend where non-developers build apps by describing what they want to AI and letting it handle the code.

But here's what most people missed: vibe coding was just the warm-up act.

While everyone was busy building wrapper apps with Cursor and Claude, OpenAI was working on something much bigger – eliminating the need for typed prompts entirely.

Why Voice-First Changes Everything

Think about it: when was the last time you had a breakthrough idea by typing? Most of our best thoughts come when we're speaking, walking, or explaining something to someone else.

The gpt-realtime model understands:

  • Emotions and tone

  • Multiple languages and accents

  • Visual input (you can show it images while talking)

  • Context from interruptions and natural speech patterns

And it responds in real-time. No more waiting for text generation. No more prompt engineering headaches.

The Anthropic Reality Check

While OpenAI was perfecting voice, Anthropic launched Claude for Chrome – essentially giving Claude the ability to browse the web and click things for you.

But here's the problem: it's still fundamentally text-based. You type what you want, Claude clicks around, and reports back in text.
That's not the future – that's just a fancier chatbot.

What does this mean for Your Business?

If you're building anything in the AI space right now, ask yourself:

  1. Are you still limiting yourself to just text? While you're optimizing prompts, someone else is building voice-first experiences that feel like talking to a human consultant.

  2. Are you solving yesterday's problems? Most AI tools are still trying to replace typing. The real opportunity is replacing the need to type at all.

  3. Are you ready for the interaction shift? We're moving from "prompt and wait" to "speak and collaborate."

The Real Opportunity

Here's what excites me most: most businesses haven't even started thinking about voice-first AI.

While everyone's building ChatGPT wrappers, there's a massive opportunity to:

  1. Create voice-first customer service that actually understands emotion

  2. Build AI coaches that can hear frustration and adapt their approach

  3. Develop collaborative tools where AI becomes a thinking partner, not just a text generator

I've been testing the Realtime API in their sandbox, and honestly? It feels like using the iPhone for the first time after years of BlackBerry.

The Prompt Engineering Shift

Remember all those "Ghost Rider" prompt systems people were sharing to make AI sound more human? The techniques where you feed AI your writing samples to lock in your voice?

That's about to become irrelevant.

When AI can hear the way you actually speak – your pauses, emphasis, the way you build ideas – it doesn't need to fake your voice. It can collaborate with your authentic communication style.

What I'm Doing About This

I'm completely rethinking my AI strategy. Instead of building more text-based tools, I'm exploring:

  • Voice-first brainstorming sessions for content creation

  • Spoken feedback loops for rapid prototyping

  • Audio-native workshops where AI helps facilitate real-time discussions

The pricing has dropped 20% from the preview version, and the quality metrics have improved significantly. This isn't experimental anymore – it's production-ready.

Your Move

Here's my challenge to you: spend 10 minutes in OpenAI's Realtime API sandbox this week. Don't try to prompt it. Just talk to it. Tell it about a problem you're trying to solve.

Pay attention to how different it feels from typing. Notice how your ideas develop differently when you're speaking versus when you're crafting the perfect prompt.

That feeling? That's the future of AI interaction.

Are you building for that future, or are you still optimizing for the past?

Let me know what you discover. I'm genuinely curious about your experience.

- Aashish

P.S. If you want to get deeper into this shift, I'll be discussing voice-first AI strategies in my communities. The WhatsApp groups are getting interesting discussions about practical implementations:

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