Top 20 AI Tools to Boost Productivity

Artificial intelligence holds the power to be either a boon or a bane for entrepreneurs. When misdirected, it can induce FOMO, anxiety, and fears of falling behind the curve, leading business proprietors to feel a pressing rush and their teams to dread job loss. However, when leveraged wisely, the advantages are immense. Achieve more in less time, amplify impact with minimal effort, and enhance earnings while cutting costs.

AI extends far beyond ChatGPT, with its potential being exceedingly vast. A myriad of tools are emerging everywhere, each vowing to revolutionize your professional and personal landscape.

Being a large language model (LLM), ChatGPT stands out as a highly valuable AI tool for sparking creative content ideas, encompassing generating catchy hooks and titles, analyzing data via Code Interpreter, utilizing a variety of plugins, and meticulous proofreading for newsletters. Although there's a hesitation towards employing ChatGPT or any other AI tool for composing newsletters due to concerns over hallucinations and misinformation, as AI tends to generate verbose and hard-to-read copy lacking a human touch, it's highly appreciated for ideation, proofreading, and serving as an instant sounding board or co-editor.

On the other hand, Claude 2, another esteemed LLM, is often viewed as a less mechanical counterpart to ChatGPT. With a higher context window reaching up to 75,000 words, Claude 2 remains updated, possesses the capability to read multiple files akin to Code Interpreter and comes at no cost. The prowess of Claude 2 lies in dissecting exceptionally lengthy articles or providing copywriting suggestions. There's also a consensus that Claude 2 exhibits a more human-like interaction, making it a preferable chatbot for communication.

Midjourney, as described, stands out as a superior-quality AI image generator. This platform is employed to craft images and thumbnails for newsletters. It is accessible via Discord and operates on word prompts, effectively eliminating the necessity for photographers, models, and intricate setups. Users can simply articulate the desired image, and behold it materializing on the screen. If needed, re-prompting allows for edits before finalizing the image, which can then be downloaded for publication.

The utilization of Photoshop for social media and newsletter content has been described as extremely avid, marking a significant shift in content creation. The newly introduced feature by Adobe employs the Adobe Firefly image creation model, enabling the expansion of any image to the bounds of imagination in mere seconds. Unlike Midjourney, which generates assets from the ground up, Photoshop amplifies what's already available. By leveraging Adobe's automation tools, there's an opportunity to significantly enhance imagery outputs.

Notion serves as a pivotal space for storing notes, often regarded as an indispensable extension of one's cognitive realm, averting mental overload. Beyond simple note-taking, Notion AI fosters ideation and mind mapping, while the addition of Super enables direct website creation from these notes sans coding. For instance, the website Supertools, which is a repository of AI tools, was conceived from a Notion database facilitated by Super.

Rewind acts as a digital retrospective tool, meticulously documenting interactions across Mac laptop or phone screens, thereby enabling a revisit to specific content as needed. This proves invaluable for avid researchers or individuals sifting through a plethora of information daily. Amidst the daily traversal through numerous pages and apps, Rewind aids in recollecting and organizing seen content by themes, which can be leveraged for research, presentations, or newsletter compilation.

Automation tools like Make, Bardeen, and Zapier are instrumental in streamlining workflows, each exhibiting its unique strengths. The prowess of these tools is remarkable, enabling the automation of rudimentary tasks without any manual intervention. Numerous automations have been crafted, one notable automation ensures that responses to social media posts are directly channelled to a private Slack, negating the need to juggle multiple platforms. This setup allows for a selective response to intriguing replies or even facilitates automated responses through integration with ChatGPT. The recommendation is not to overthink what to automate initially but to begin with simple automations and gradually advance as familiarity and comfort with these tools grow over time.

Fireflies is a burgeoning tool being explored for semi-automating meeting notes, especially during interactions with AI tool creators keen on being featured in The Rundown. It diligently transcribes and distils meetings into succinct summaries for convenient future reference. Although not every minutiae from every meeting is crucial, the provision to revisit forgotten aspects is a comforting feature.

Wondercraft AI, epitomized by its slogan “effortless podcast creation, for the AI era,” ingeniously morphs written content into captivating podcast episodes. The tool has been employed to transmute newsletter editions into audio renditions, presenting itself as a remarkable asset for creators striving to manage time amidst a multitude of tasks.

Vimcal

Described as a calendar app enhanced with AI capabilities, Vimcal is employed for efficient time management as it orchestrates a schedule to optimize work periods. This is particularly useful for bustling entrepreneurs juggling numerous meetings, tasks, and an ever-burgeoning inbox. Vimcal, self-proclaimed as the "world’s fastest calendar," holds the distinction of being the only calendar tailored for remote work scenarios.

Portrayed as an "AI-powered email designed for high-performing teams" on its website, Superhuman acts as an email assistant, streamlining email productivity. Although not entirely AI-driven, it has significantly quickened the email handling process with its automated organizational systems. Noteworthy AI features encompass the ability to draft a complete email from minimal notes, mirroring your tone and voice impeccably. With a deluge of emails arriving daily, Superhuman efficiently categorizes them to prioritize responses. Additionally, integrating scheduling systems is feasible to prevent double-booking occurrences.

Originating as a spell checker, Grammarly has evolved over time, now harnessing AI for enhanced functionalities such as paraphrasing and text generation. It's a constant companion, aiding in rectifying minor mistakes across various platforms like newsletters, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and providing a quick synonym search to enrich text quality. It's a handy tool for spotting errors and diversifying word usage.

Touted for its ability to craft visually appealing content sans the design hassle, Gamma is a go-to tool for swift slide deck preparation. Acting as an automated presentation generator, it spins out comprehensive presentations based on a few settings and prompts, while also accommodating real-time modifications. Though the output may need slight tweaks, a significant chunk of the work is accomplished right after the initial prompt engagement, saving time and effort.

Taplio and Tweethunter emerge as scheduling companions for LinkedIn and Twitter respectively, both imbued with AI functionalities. They are utilized for pre-scheduling content, saving valuable time. A notable feature shared by both is their ability to suggest optimal posting times, catering to algorithm preferences, thus maximizing visibility. Furthermore, they offer AI-driven tweet and post creation features, recommending content that resonates with your brand's themes.

Feedly serves as a comprehensive news aggregator, pooling news feeds from various online sources for a personalized and shareable compilation. It's been a game changer in streamlining and refining daily research routines, notably aiding in keeping abreast of the latest trends for newsletters. With Feedly, the hassle of juggling multiple sites is replaced by a centralized, AI-enhanced platform delivering all essential updates in one place.

Emanating from the minds behind the well-known Q&A platform Quora, Poe aspires to establish itself as the universal chatbot hub. Poe facilitates seamless question posing, instant answer receiving, and engaging in fluid conversations with an array of AI-powered bots. By congregating existing chatbots into a singular, user-friendly mobile interface, Poe offers a free testing ground for individuals to experiment with various chatbots before committing to a subscription.

Consensus emerges as a potent remedy to the issue of fabricated citations often found with ChatGPT. Functioning as a dedicated research assistant, Consensus is adept at providing well-cited answers rooted in research papers. When posed with a question, say, "do people trust AI coaches?", it diligently scours evidence-based sources to furnish answers or candidly admits if the evidence at hand is insufficient, thereby keeping misleading anecdotes and hallucinations at bay.

Perplexity AI embodies the essence of effortless knowledge acquisition and sharing, as outlined on its official webpage. Touted as a formidable AI chatbot search engine, Perplexity is engineered to offer precise answers to myriad inquiries. It stands as a reliable companion for those moments when swift, evidence-backed responses are sought, cutting through the noise and delivering nothing but factual clarity.

Google recently upgraded its suite by integrating AI features into Google Docs and Drive, which has been quite advantageous for many, notably when initiating data projects with template creation in Google Sheets. By using a "Help me organize" prompt, users can now effortlessly create tables with AI assistance, as well as draft trip planners or task trackers, making the data management and project planning process much more streamlined and efficient.

Scikit-Learn is a highly regarded Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that eases the intricacies of machine learning tasks. It flaunts an intuitive and accessible interface that accommodates learners of varied skill levels. The tool offers a broad range of functions covering essential aspects like data preprocessing, model selection, and evaluation. Its arsenal includes various algorithms, spanning classification, regression, clustering, and dimensionality reduction. With its abundant toolset and thorough documentation, Scikit-Learn empowers users to build and launch machine learning models with ease.

If you haven't yet embraced the AI wave, these tools are your gateway. Pinpoint your most pressing business hurdles and see if you can vanish them away. Embark with a free trial, play around with a particular task, and evaluate the time saved or the enhancement in output quality. Progressive entrepreneurs are identifying the tools that make the mark, and the ones suited for you might just be listed here.