The AI tools we actually recommend

The Swiss Army knives. Drafting, summarizing, research, coding, brainstorming. Often the highest ROI per dollar your team can spend.

• ChatGPT (OpenAI) — Team-wide writing, research, custom GPTs for repeatable workflows.
• Claude (Anthropic) — Long documents, nuanced analysis, safer defaults for client-facing work.
• Gemini (Google) — Deep integration with Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Drive.
• Microsoft Copilot — If you already live in Microsoft 365 — Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams.

Where AI stops being a chat window and starts doing work. Connect your tools, trigger on events, let agents handle the boring middle.

• Zapier + Zapier AI — Fastest way to wire AI into 6,000+ apps. Great first automation platform.
• Make (Integromat) — Visual scenarios with more logic and lower per-task cost than Zapier.
• n8n — Self-hosted, code-friendly automation. Our pick when data sensitivity matters.
• Relay.app — Human-in-the-loop AI workflows for approvals and review steps.

Capture more leads, qualify them faster, and never let a good prospect go cold. The fastest path to ROI for most service businesses.

• Gong / Chorus — Call recording, deal intelligence, coaching for sales teams.
• Apollo.io — AI-powered prospecting, enrichment, and outbound sequences.
• Clay — Build hyper-targeted lead lists with AI enrichment from dozens of sources.
• Lindy / Air.ai — AI voice agents for inbound qualification and appointment setting.

Deflect tickets, speed up agents, and stay on-brand. Done right, support AI improves CSAT — not just margin.

• Intercom Fin — Best-in-class AI agent for SaaS and e-commerce support.
• Zendesk AI — If you're already on Zendesk — copilot for agents and automated triage.
• Decagon / Ada — Enterprise-grade AI agents with deep workflow integration.
• Tidio / Chatbase — Lightweight chat AI trained on your site for SMB websites.

Invoices, contracts, intake forms, data entry. The unglamorous work that quietly eats 10–20 hours a week per team.

• Rossum / Docparser — Pull structured data out of invoices, POs, and PDFs automatically.
• Ironclad / Spellbook — AI contract review, redlining, and clause libraries for legal ops.
• Ramp / Brex AI — AI-driven expense categorization, vendor management, and spend insights.
• Notion AI / Coda AI — Knowledge base summarization and structured Q&A for internal teams.

Generate, personalize, and measure. The bar for “good enough” content has moved — your competitors are already there.

• Jasper / Copy.ai — Brand-voiced content production at scale for marketing teams.
• HubSpot AI / Mailchimp AI — AI subject lines, send-time optimization, and segmentation.
• Descript / Opus Clip — Turn long-form video and podcasts into short-form clips automatically.
• Midjourney / Ideogram — On-brand imagery and ad creative without a stock photo budget.

Stop asking “where’s that doc?” Give your team a search bar that actually understands what they mean.

• Glean — Enterprise search across Google, Slack, Notion, Salesforce, and more.
• Dust — Build internal AI assistants on top of your company knowledge.
• Perplexity Enterprise — AI research with citations — replaces a lot of one-off Googling.
• Custom GPTs / Claude Projects — Lightweight knowledge bots for specific teams or playbooks.

From “what happened?” to “what should we do?” — without hiring a data team.

• Hex / Mode AI — Natural-language data exploration for analysts and ops leaders.
• Pecan / Obviously AI — No-code predictive models for churn, LTV, and demand forecasting.
• Fathom / Otter — Meeting transcription, summaries, and action-item extraction.
• Custom dashboards — We often recommend a thin AI layer on top of tools you already pay for.