We are talking less more than ever and it’s damaging, AI is also contributing. A quiet shift is happening in how people communicate that has health and business implications. Researchers are estimating people are speaking hundreds of fewer words per day, resulting in a sizable decline in regular conversation. What feels incremental at the individual level adds up to something much larger: millions of words, and thousands of interactions, disappearing from daily life. Spoken conversation is one of the primary ways people build relationships, process emotion, align understanding, flag concerns, and form deeper connections. When we speak less, we connect less, learn less about each other, and weaken the social fabric that supports well-being and performance. Today, advances in AI are making communication faster and more efficient but also, in some cases, thinner and more uniform. AI can short-circuit communications altogether. For businesses and what we do everday, this trend has important implications. Fewer spoken interactions lead to weaker team cohesion, lower psychological safety and trust, reduced well-being, and less organizational effectiveness. So much so that social health is increasingly being recognized as a critical part of workforce well-being. Remember, people do business with people. Not emails, texts or even AI. AI is a tool and for special purpose use only!

For the last two years, owners have been holding on by their fingernails. Bridge debt coming due. Rate caps expiring. Refis that don't pencil. Insurance and taxes eating margins alive. They've been extending and pretending. That window is closing. I'm seeing it in real time. Deals coming back to market. Sellers who wouldn't return a call in 2021 suddenly getting realistic. Lenders quietly pushing notes. The owners who bought at the top can't hold on any longer. Now, let me be straight with you: it's still hard to find deals. This isn't 2010 where everything was on sale. You have to dig, underwrite hard, and be patient. But here's the thing. The people who win in the next cycle are educating themselves right now. Learning to underwrite. Learning debt structures. Learning what a real deal looks like versus a trap. Because when the opportunity shows up, and it will, you don't get time to learn. You either know how to move, or you watch someone else take it. The market doesn't wait for you to get ready. Start now.