The short answer: enable AI cleanup in AICHE's enhancement panel, then speak naturally without saying "period" or "comma". AICHE adds punctuation, capitalizes properly, fixes grammar, and formats paragraphs automatically in 2-3 seconds.
Speaking "comma" and "period" out loud breaks your train of thought. With AICHE, you speak naturally and the punctuation, capitalization, and paragraph breaks land in the right places automatically.
- Open AICHE and locate the enhancement panel on the left side of the window.
- Enable the "AI cleanup" toggle before recording (it stays enabled for future recordings).
- Press your hotkey (⌃+⌥+R on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+R on Windows/Linux) and speak conversationally: "hey can you review the PR I pushed yesterday it fixes the authentication bug we discussed."
- AICHE transcribes your speech, then AI cleanup adds punctuation and formatting: "Hey, can you review the PR I pushed yesterday? It fixes the authentication bug we discussed."
- Text appears at your cursor, ready to send. No manual editing needed.
Heads-up: AI cleanup adds 1-2 seconds to processing time. For quick, informal notes where formatting doesn't matter, disable it to get raw transcription in under 2 seconds.
The pro-tip: AI cleanup handles multi-sentence dictations intelligently. Speak three related thoughts in one recording, and it creates properly punctuated sentences with correct capitalization, useful for email responses or Slack messages.
What AI Cleanup Actually Does
AI cleanup is a post-processing step that runs after transcription. Raw speech-to-text output is a flat stream of lowercase words with no punctuation - "hey can you look at the PR i pushed yesterday it fixes that auth bug we talked about." AI cleanup turns this into "Hey, can you look at the PR I pushed yesterday? It fixes that auth bug we talked about."
The processing handles several aspects simultaneously:
Sentence boundary detection. The model identifies where one thought ends and another begins based on meaning, not just pauses. This is more accurate than rule-based punctuation because it uses context - a rising inflection mid-sentence doesn't become a question mark.
Punctuation insertion. Periods, commas, question marks, exclamation points, colons, and semicolons are placed based on sentence structure and meaning. Commas appear at natural clause boundaries, not at every breath pause.
Capitalization. First word of sentences, proper nouns (names, places, product names), and acronyms get capitalized correctly. "i talked to sarah about the aws migration" becomes "I talked to Sarah about the AWS migration."
Paragraph breaks. For longer dictations (30+ seconds), AI cleanup detects topic shifts and inserts paragraph breaks. This produces readable multi-paragraph text from continuous speech.
Filler and stutter removal. "Um", "uh", "like", false starts, and mid-sentence restarts get cleaned out without losing the actual content.
Raw Transcription vs. AI Cleanup
Without AI cleanup, you get exact transcription of your speech - every word in order, no punctuation, no formatting. This is useful in specific situations: when you need to preserve exact phrasing for a legal transcript, when you're dictating into a field that applies its own formatting, or when speed matters more than polish.
With AI cleanup enabled, you get text that reads like you typed it carefully. The meaning is identical, but the presentation is cleaner. For most users, AI cleanup should stay on permanently - the 1-2 seconds of extra processing saves far more time than manual editing would take.
How It Handles Different Types of Content
Short Messages (Under 20 Words)
Quick Slack replies, one-line emails, brief comments. AI cleanup capitalizes the first word, adds terminal punctuation, and fixes capitalization of proper nouns. Processing is nearly instant.
Medium Messages (20-100 Words)
Email responses, meeting notes, chat messages with context. AI cleanup adds commas at clause boundaries, builds 1-2 sentences from run-on speech, and handles question marks for interrogative phrases.
Long Dictations (100+ Words)
Multi-paragraph emails, documentation, detailed explanations. AI cleanup builds paragraph structure, keeps tense consistent throughout, and tightens the flow between sections. This is where the enhancement provides the most value - manually punctuating and formatting 200 words of raw speech takes minutes; AICHE handles it in seconds.
Combining With Other Enhancements
AI cleanup pairs naturally with other enhancements in AICHE's pipeline:
AI cleanup + custom vocabulary. Your custom vocabulary entries (50 per user, synced across platforms) lock in product names, people, and technical terms so transcription nails the words; AI cleanup handles the punctuation, capitalization, and sentence shape on top. Together, they produce text that's both accurate and polished. This is the recommended default for most users.
AI cleanup + Software Development profile (Pro). For code-heavy speech: API names, kebab-case flags, snake_case identifiers, library names. The profile tunes the recognition pass; AI cleanup handles the punctuation and sentence breaks around it.
AI cleanup + Auto-categorization. For long dictations that cover multiple topics. AI cleanup handles sentence-level formatting; Auto-categorization groups notes into topics like Work, Ideas, or Life with no manual tagging. The combination produces well-organized, properly punctuated notes from stream-of-consciousness speech.
Result: dictate a 150-word email in 60 seconds of speaking. AI cleanup formats it with proper punctuation, capitalization, and paragraph breaks. Text that would take 6 minutes to type and another minute to proofread.
Do this now: enable AI cleanup, press your hotkey, and dictate "this is a test message it should have punctuation and proper formatting automatically" to see the transformation.
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