Tools

A short list, grouped by the job you need doing, not by what the technology is called.

Deliberately not exhaustive. You can't choose from five hundred options, so this is the shortlist worth knowing about. Nothing here is sponsored and no links pay anything.

Chat assistants

General-purpose. Where most people start.

Name What it does Cost

ChatGPT Ask questions, draft text, work through a problem in conversation. Free tier

Claude Same shape as ChatGPT, generally stronger on long documents and careful writing. Free tier

Gemini Google's assistant, closest to hand if your work already lives in Google Workspace. Free tier

Microsoft Copilot Sits inside Word, Excel, and Outlook rather than in a separate tab. The version bundled with a work Microsoft 365 account behaves differently to the free one. Free tier

Writing & editing

Drafting, tightening, and checking your own words.

Name What it does Cost

Grammarly Catches errors and awkward phrasing as you type, in most apps. Free tier

Notion AI Drafting and summarising inside documents you already keep in Notion. Paid

Data & analytics

Spreadsheets, charts, and questions about your own numbers.

Name What it does Cost

Julius AI Upload a spreadsheet and ask questions about it in plain English; it makes the charts. Free tier

Rows A spreadsheet with AI built in, for people who think in spreadsheets already. Free tier

Copilot in Excel Writes formulas, explains existing ones, and builds charts inside your own workbook. Needs a Microsoft 365 plan that includes Copilot. Check with IT before assuming you have it. Paid

NotebookLM Load your own documents and ask questions answered only from those documents. Answers stay grounded in what you uploaded, which makes it easier to check. Free tier

Meetings & notes

Recording, transcribing, and summarising what was said.

Name What it does Cost

Otter.ai Records and transcribes meetings, then produces a summary and action items. Free tier

Fireflies.ai Joins your calls as a participant and writes up what happened. Free tier

Granola Takes notes alongside your own typing rather than replacing them. Free tier

Fathom Meeting recorder and summariser aimed at sales and customer calls. Free tier

Research & search

Finding things and reading long documents.

Name What it does Cost

Perplexity Search that answers in sentences and shows the sources it used. Free tier

Elicit Finds and summarises academic papers on a question. Free tier

Consensus Searches research literature and shows where studies agree and disagree. Free tier

Images & design

Making or editing visuals without a designer.

Name What it does Cost

Canva Design tool with AI generation and editing built in; the gentlest starting point. Free tier

Adobe Firefly Image generation and editing, trained on licensed material. The licensing story matters if the output is going in front of clients. Free tier

Midjourney Image generation with the strongest results and the steepest learning curve. Paid

Ideogram Image generation that handles text inside images better than most. Free tier

Audio & video

Editing recordings, voice, and clips.

Name What it does Cost

Descript Edit video and podcasts by editing the transcript, like a document. Free tier

ElevenLabs Turns written text into natural-sounding speech, and clones voices. Free tier

HeyGen Creates presenter-style videos from a script without filming anything. Free tier

Opus Clip Cuts long videos into short vertical clips for social. Free tier

Automation

Connecting tools together so steps happen on their own.

Name What it does Cost

Zapier Connects apps so an action in one triggers something in another. No code. Free tier

Make Same job as Zapier with a visual canvas; more capable, more to learn. Free tier

n8n Automation you can run on your own server, if that matters to your IT department. The self-hosted route needs someone technical. The hosted version does not. Free tier

Last checked July 30, 2026. Pricing and free tiers change often, so treat the cost column as a hint, not a promise, and confirm on the tool's own site. Something out of date or missing? Tell me and I'll fix it.