AI assistant for consultants Mac (2026): voice help for email, decks and calls

What an AI assistant for consultants on Mac does all day

Lazur is a voice assistant that lives in the notch at the top of your Mac screen. Hold ⌥⌘ and ask about anything you can see. It answers out loud. When you ask where something is, it draws a circle and a label around it on your screen. That covers most of the work a consultant hands it. It explains a formula you did not build. It finds a button in a tool you use twice a month. It reads back the point of a long client thread while you walk to the next room.

Lazur also drafts and types text. Hold fn to dictate, and the words land at your cursor in any app. You can save snippets, keep a personal dictionary for client names and use clipboard slots for figures you need twice. Lazur does not click buttons, edit files or run apps for you. When a step needs a click, it guides you one click at a time and waits for each one.

Where a consultant's day actually goes

Most of the week goes to communication, not building. Microsoft's Work Trend Index for 2023 found that the average employee spends 57% of work time communicating in meetings, email and chat. The other 43% goes to creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Those numbers cover knowledge workers in general. We did not find a survey that measured consultants' admin, email or typing time on its own.

Asana goes further. Its Anatomy of Work Index, built on more than 10,000 knowledge workers, says 60% of a person's time at work goes to 'work about work'. That covers chasing updates, meetings that did not need to happen and jumping between tools. Over a year, the average knowledge worker in its data spends about 103 hours in unnecessary meetings, 209 hours on duplicative work and 352 hours talking about work. Asana's page does not state the survey year, so treat those hours as a rough guide.

Email is the biggest drain, and fewer messages is only part of the fix

Microsoft found that the heaviest email users, the top 25 percent, spend 8.8 hours a week on email. For a consultant, the load is not only volume. Each client thread has its own history, its own tone and its own person who wants an answer by Friday. Much of the time goes to reading context before you can write one useful line.

Email time usually leaks in four places.

• Reading a long thread top to bottom just to find the last decision.
• Writing the same status update three times, once per stakeholder, with small wording changes.
• Starting a reply from a blank box instead of from a draft you can edit.
• Missing a deadline buried under newer messages in the same thread.

Lazur helps with the first three. Ask it to explain the thread on screen, then dictate or draft the reply. Your review is the last step. Read every line before you send. A reply to a client is still your work, sent under your name.

Outlook for Mac: what changed in 2026 and what to check first

Outlook for Mac changed a lot this year, and some changes affect how you run a client week. Microsoft's release notes show the main dates. Version 16.108 on April 14, 2026 brought a redesigned Settings screen. Version 16.110 on June 16, 2026 added Import PST, which brings email, calendars and contacts in from PST files.

Version 16.113 on September 16, 2026 added work hours and work-location settings, plus Editor Settings and accent color. Version 16.114 on October 14, 2026 lets supported Microsoft 365 apps appear in the left rail. It also lets you pick a third-party online meeting provider when you create an event. The 2026 notes also list editable messages in the Outbox.

Microsoft's release notes do not clearly separate new Outlook from legacy Outlook. Legacy retirement dates conflict across the sites we checked, and we could not confirm one on a Microsoft page. Do not plan your month around a date you have not verified. Check your version first with Outlook > About Outlook, then compare it with the release notes.

Import PST without leaking an old client archive

A PST file from a past engagement can hold a whole client's history. Before you import one, check your firm's rules on archived client email. Import only what you are allowed to keep on this Mac. Delete nothing until your records policy says you can. Lazur can explain each screen of the import dialog, but it cannot tell you what your firm allows.

Find the Settings change fast

The Settings screen was redesigned in 16.108, so older guides may show a path that no longer matches. Ask Lazur where the setting lives. It points at the control on screen instead of sending you through menus that may have moved.

Client calls, decks and models in the same afternoon

Decks and models are where consultants spend the other 43 percent of their time. Lazur works with whatever is open in front of you. Describe the goal, and it points at the right place. Ask what the chart on screen shows, or where the summary table sits in a long model.

Excel models before a steerco

Models break in small ways. A formula shows a reference error, a total ignores a row, or a link points at a file you moved last week. Hold ⌥⌘ and ask what the formula does. Lazur explains it out loud in plain words. For a full walk through pivot tables, read how to make a pivot table in Excel on Mac, or see the Excel page.

Research before a client call

Lazur can run research in its own Chrome tabs. The work happens in the background, and it comes back with a summary and a report. Use it for public material only, such as a client's recent press releases, a regulator's published guidance or a competitor's annual report. Ask for sources with each claim, then open them yourself before you repeat anything to a client.

Keep confidential material out of research prompts. A search query is not a private note. Write the question in general terms, and keep the client's own figures in your engagement files.

Dictation between meetings without losing the detail

Hold fn to dictate. The words appear at the cursor, in whatever app you are using. Dictate your notes right after a call, while the details are fresh. Within minutes most people forget the one sentence the client actually meant, so capture it first.

• Add client names, project codes and acronyms to the personal dictionary before your first call.
• Save a snippet for the paragraph you repeat, such as your standard next steps.
• Use a clipboard slot to hold a figure you need in the next paragraph.
• Read each dictated paragraph once before you send it. Speech tools still miss names.

Curious how your speaking pace compares with typing? Try the typing speed test and the speaking versus typing test. Test accuracy on your own client names with the dictation accuracy checker.

Privacy, client data and your firm's rules

Lazur listens and looks at the screen only while you hold the shortcut. When you ask a question, the audio and the screenshot go to AI providers to get an answer. They are not stored. Content is never used to train AI models. Those are product practices. They are not a compliance certification, and this page does not claim one.

Three mistakes come up often. Consultants screenshot a client's HR file to get a quick summary. They paste board figures into a research prompt. They dictate a client's name into a shared document without checking who can see it. Each one takes seconds, and each one can outlast the project.

Setup for your first client week

1. Get Lazur from the download page and open it. The free trial has no credit card, and it starts the first time you open the app.
2. Allow microphone and screen recording when macOS asks. Lazur needs both to hear you and to see what is on screen.
3. Hold ⌥⌘ on an open Outlook message and ask what it needs from you. This tests the shortcut on something real.
4. Add your client names to the personal dictionary, then dictate one test paragraph and read it back.
5. Compare plans and limits on the pricing page before you decide to stay on a paid plan.

Common mistakes with an AI assistant for consultants

• Expecting it to click through a task for you. It guides one click at a time, which is slower but keeps you in control of the file.
• Trusting a summary without its source. Open the link before a claim goes into a deck.
• Asking about the wrong window. Lazur reads what is on screen, so bring the right file forward first.
• Skipping the privacy check on a restricted project. One screenshot can carry a whole client's name list.
• Letting a new Outlook layout surprise you before a big send-out. Read the release notes for your version first.

What the time savings can and cannot prove

We did not find a study that measured how much time Lazur saves a consultant, and this page does not claim one. The figures here describe the work and the average knowledge worker. They are not results from Lazur. The best test is your own log. Track one week without the assistant, then one week with it, using the same kinds of tasks.

Compare the email hours and the search time. If those numbers do not move, the tool is not helping, and that is a fair result. Lazur also answers only about what it can see. A file closed in another window is invisible to it until you bring it forward.

Next, try one task. Pick the email thread you dread most this week, hold ⌥⌘, and ask Lazur to explain it. Then check whether the reply takes less time than usual.