Stenos Thriving in the Digital Age:

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How Stenographers Can Adapt and Flourish Amid Disruption

The rise of digital technology has reshaped countless industries, and stenography is no exception. Court reporting, once dominated by skilled stenographers on shorthand machines, now faces increasing pressure from digital recording and automated transcription tools. Many within the field fear that their craft is at risk of becoming obsolete. However, if history has taught us anything, it’s that survival in the face of disruption depends less on the technology itself and more on how an industry responds to it.

Take the case of Kodak. For years, Kodak was synonymous with photography. It wasn’t technology that doomed the company—it was their inability to adapt their business model to leverage the opportunities digital technology provided. Similarly, stenographers don’t have to see digital disruption as a death knell for their profession. Instead, they can adapt and thrive by embracing what makes them irreplaceable while finding ways to integrate technology into their workflows.

The Kodak Parallel: Ignoring a Changing Market

Kodak didn’t fail because it lacked technological innovation. In fact, the company invented the digital camera in 1975. The problem was that Kodak clung to its traditional business model, which revolved around film sales. They failed to recognize that consumers were shifting their focus from capturing memories with film to sharing and storing them digitally. By the time Kodak acted, competitors like Canon and Sony had dominated the digital camera market, and smartphones made personal photography accessible to everyone.

For stenographers, this serves as a cautionary tale. Digital transcription tools and AI-powered voice recognition are becoming more accurate and accessible. Companies offering digital solutions promise lower costs and faster turnaround times, challenging the traditional role of stenographers in the courtroom and deposition settings. Ignoring these changes or clinging to old ways of working could leave stenographers vulnerable to the same fate Kodak suffered.

The Human Advantage: What Technology Can’t Replace

One of Kodak’s key mistakes was undervaluing what customers actually wanted in the digital age: convenience, ease of use, and immediacy. Stenographers can learn from this by focusing on the value they provide that digital tools can’t replicate.

Court reporting is about more than transcription; it’s about accuracy, context, and accountability. A stenographer’s skill lies in their ability to ensure that the record is clear and complete, even in chaotic or high-stakes situations. They can capture nuances like overlapping speech, emotional tones, or unclear statements that technology often struggles with.

Additionally, stenographers play an important role in managing the courtroom dynamic. They can provide immediate readbacks of testimony, clarify unclear remarks in real-time, and act as an impartial party in contentious cases. These human elements add a layer of reliability that no digital solution can match—at least not yet.

The key for stenographers is to emphasize these advantages. By positioning themselves as irreplaceable professionals who go beyond mere transcription, the Responsible Charge, they can make a compelling case for why their skills are still essential, even in an era of technological disruption.

Embracing Technology as a Tool, Not a Threat

Kodak’s downfall was partially due to their fear of cannibalizing their existing business with digital technology. They didn’t embrace the inevitable shift, and by the time they tried to pivot, it was too late. Stenographers can avoid this mistake by viewing digital tools as an opportunity, rather than a threat.

Stenographers began using digital audio recording as a backup over 20 years ago, but this practice has remained largely undisclosed. They are hesitant to provide the audio to attorneys due to concerns that a privileged conversation between an attorney and their client may have been inadvertently captured. In order to safeguard confidentiality, a stenographer would need to learn how to use audio editing software, such as Sony Sound Forge, to remove any “off the record” discussions. The time and cost of training for this added responsibility are significant barriers to offering this service. However, digital reporters are already providing similar services at no extra charge.

It’s time to be open about the digital audio recording tools that have been in use for over two decades to ensure an accurate record. However, releasing the audio presents an additional challenge: it would require careful scoping and editing to align it with the transcript, which would add costs and potentially extend the time needed for transcript production. That said, reporters could sell their edited digital audio files, certifying that the edits were done under their direction to remove off-the-record discussions while guaranteeing a full and accurate recording of the proceedings. This would allow them to introduce a new service fee for this offering, which would help cover the costs of sound editing software, training, and the extra time spent proofreading transcripts. By adopting this approach, reporters position themselves as tech-savvy professionals capable of delivering both accuracy and efficiency while offering a full-service solution.

Stenographers can also embrace technology to enhance their skill set. By training in emerging tools like Advantage Software’s new Eclipse “Boost” feature, which integrates automated speech recognition (ASR) into their computer-aided transcription (CAT) software while capturing the verbatim record, they can achieve realtime outputs with a 100% translation rate. This ensures consistent results across all reporters and increases satisfaction for realtime receivers, such as judges, attorneys, and the deaf and hard of hearing. Rather than resisting change, stenographers can align themselves with it, creating new value for clients who are navigating the same shifts.

Adapting the Business Model

Kodak’s failure to innovate wasn’t just about technology; it was about business strategy. They stuck to their traditional revenue model and failed to explore new ways to serve their customers. Stenographers can take a different path by rethinking how they deliver their services.

Stenographers have expanded their reach by offering remote deposition services, a growing trend in a post-pandemic world. This has helped meet the demand for services worldwide. Stenographers have also been attaining credentials in multiple states, which allow them to cover a greater territory and increase their workload and revenues.

Another avenue is education and consultation. Stenographers possess a wealth of knowledge about legal procedures and record-keeping. By offering training sessions or consultation services on how to manage accurate records, they can establish themselves as trusted advisors in addition to skilled practitioners.

Advocating for the Profession

Part of Kodak’s downfall was that they failed to educate the public about the value of their technology in the face of digital disruption. Stenographers must actively advocate for their profession to ensure that decision-makers in the legal field understand their value.

This could mean engaging with legal organizations to set standards for transcription quality, lobbying for regulations that require human oversight in legal record-keeping, or participating in public awareness campaigns to highlight the risks of relying solely on automated solutions.

By being proactive, stenographers can ensure that they remain a vital part of the legal ecosystem, even as technology evolves.

A Balancing Act for the Future

The future of stenography doesn’t have to be an “either-or” scenario. It’s not about choosing between traditional stenography and digital transcription, but finding the right balance. By blending their human expertise with the power of technology, stenographers can adapt to changing market demands while preserving the core of their profession.

The legal field may be changing, but it will always require accuracy, reliability, and accountability—qualities that stenographers are uniquely equipped to provide. Just as Kodak could have thrived by redefining its role in a digital world, stenographers can ensure their survival by embracing change, showcasing their unique value, and evolving their business models.

In the end, survival in the face of disruption isn’t about fighting technology; it’s about working with it to create something better.

Published by stenoimperium

We exist to facilitate the fortifying of the Stenography profession and ensure its survival for the next hundred years! As court reporters, we've handed the relationship role with our customers, or attorneys, over to the agencies and their sales reps.  This has done a lot of damage to our industry.  It has taken away our ability to have those relationships, the ability to be humanized and valued.  We've become a replaceable commodity. Merely saying we are the “Gold Standard” tells them that we’re the best, but there are alternatives.  Who we are though, is much, much more powerful than that!  We are the Responsible Charge.  “Responsible Charge” means responsibility for the direction, control, supervision, and possession of stenographic & transcription work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in the profession, and by sealing and signing the documents, the professional stenographer accepts responsibility for the stenographic or transcription work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable stenographic and professional standards have been met.  This designation exists in other professions, such as engineering, land surveying, public water works, landscape architects, land surveyors, fire preventionists, geologists, architects, and more.  In the case of professional engineers, the engineering association adopted a Responsible Charge position statement that says, “A professional engineer is only considered to be in responsible charge of an engineering work if the professional engineer makes independent professional decisions regarding the engineering work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional engineer’s physical presence at the location where the engineering work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the engineering work.” If we were to adopt a Responsible Charge position statement for our industry, we could start with a draft that looks something like this: "A professional court reporter, or stenographer, is only considered to be in responsible charge of court reporting work if the professional court reporter makes independent professional decisions regarding the court reporting work without requiring instruction or approval from another authority and maintains control over those decisions by the professional court reporter’s physical presence at the location where the court reporting work is performed or by electronic communication with the individual executing the court reporting work.” Shared purpose The cornerstone of a strategic narrative is a shared purpose. This shared purpose is the outcome that you and your customer are working toward together. It’s more than a value proposition of what you deliver to them. Or a mission of what you do for the world. It’s the journey that you are on with them. By having a shared purpose, the relationship shifts from consumer to co-creator. In court reporting, our mission is “to bring justice to every litigant in the U.S.”  That purpose is shared by all involved in the litigation process – judges, attorneys, everyone.  Who we are is the Responsible Charge.  How we do that is by Protecting the Record.

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