AI Toolbox, Gen AI Tools for Business
One of the most common questions I get from readers is:
👉 “What AI tools do you use?”
So I created my AI Toolbox—an overview of the applications I test, trust, and use across my business.
This isn’t a trend-chasing list or another roundup of untested apps. This is my personal AI toolbox—battle-tested tools that support how I operate across research, writing, automation, and outreach.
I built this stack not just to experiment, but to scale. These tools help me analyze faster, produce higher-quality content, and reduce the manual overhead that slows most teams down.
Every Friday in The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, I share a few new or notable tools you might want to try. But this list? These are the applications I come back to every day. They’re reliable, efficient, and integrated into how I run my business.
Chatbots
AI chatbots are essential in modern productivity stacks. They automate information access, streamline communication, and assist with knowledge work.
ChatGPT: This is the most powerful and flexible AI chatbot available. It’s excellent for data analysis, research synthesis, and document generation. I use it daily to organize research, write reports, and troubleshoot complex topics using code or structured data.
Claude: Claude by Anthropic excels at writing with clarity, tone, and context. I find it best for long-form content and copywriting. Claude Projects allows you to collect and organize research, which is helpful for marketing plans, thought leadership pieces, or internal memos.
Gemini: Gemini stands out for its seamless integration with Google’s ecosystem, especially when it comes to exporting results into Docs, Sheets, and other Workspace tools. It excels in deep research tasks thanks to its access to up-to-date information and its ability to provide detailed, accurate responses. The latest Gemini models are very capable across both general knowledge and technical use cases. I find it particularly useful when I need to conduct research and move quickly into documentation or collaboration within Google Workspace. Also, I think their Agentic Search, Deep Research is an excellent way to generate research reports that are well-formatted and easily imported into Google Docs.
PromptForge: Not a chatbot but the ideal complement to your favorite chatbot. PromptForge organizes and saves my best prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others. With PromptForge, I can launch my go-to prompts with a click and keep everything consistent. It's faster than typing out frequent prompts or cutting and pasting them from Notion, where I write them out initially.Â
Video & Audio Creation
These tools make producing professional-grade media content accessible without needing a studio or editing team.
Runway: This AI studio is great for video generation and editing. It includes tools for video inpainting, text-to-video, and rapid editing. I use it to create visually stunning marketing content without relying on a production team.
Synthesia: An incredibly effective way to make videos with talking-head avatars. I use it to produce training videos and quick internal updates. You can edit text and regenerate without reshooting footage—perfect for versioning.
HeyGen: Offers more lifelike avatars and better lip-syncing than Synthesia at a lower price. It’s my go-to for personalized video messaging or realistic corporate videos.
Veed.io: An all-in-one online video editor that’s intuitive and supports subtitles, translations, stock media, and more. It’s perfect for polishing social clips or video ads.
Suno: AI-generated music for any occasion. I use Suno to create royalty-free soundtracks for content, from upbeat promotional jingles to chill focus music.
ElevenLabs: A powerful AI audio tool. Their Text-to-SFX tool can produce realistic sound effects from simple descriptions—great for enriching videos or podcasts.
Midjourney: A generative AI program that transforms text prompts into high-quality artistic images. It’s my go-to for visual storytelling, brand design assets, and unique graphics across social content and presentations.
Content & Writing
These tools help brainstorm, draft, and design written and visual communication pieces quickly.
Gamma: Instantly turn your ideas or outlines into beautiful presentations. I use Gamma when I need to present quickly—it handles the layout and design so I can focus on the message. The downside is that it’s a bit hard to get the precision in design to match my brand without a lot of work.Â
Grammarly: A well-known AI-powered writing assistant that helps with grammar correction, tone refinement, and style enhancement. While it’s not as generative as tools like ChatGPT, it excels in cleaning up professional writing. I use Grammarly when I need a second set of eyes on important emails, documents, or posts. It's especially helpful for tightening up language and ensuring clarity—ideal for business writing, resumes, and everyday communication.
Productivity Tools
AI boosts individual and team productivity by automating routine tasks and enhancing digital workspaces.
Fireflies.ai: A meeting productivity tool that transcribes and summarizes conversations. I use it to capture notes from customer interviews and internal calls, which saves time and improves follow-ups.
Notion AI: I run my business on Notion. The built-in AI helps me summarize meetings, brainstorm content, and automate documentation. It’s far more versatile than traditional note apps.
Shortwave: A reimagined Gmail experience that uses AI to draft, organize, and triage emails. I treat it like my executive assistant for inbox zero.
NotebookLM: NotebookLM by Google Labs is a research companion that allows you to upload documents and ask questions across sources. It summarizes information, answers queries, and helps synthesize content. It is a great fit for students, professionals, or anyone working through complex materials.
Agents & Automation
AI agents take automation to the next level, acting semi-autonomously across workflows.
Zapier Agents: Create AI agents that automate tasks across thousands of apps. I’ve used this to experiment with email follow-ups, calendar management, and CRM workflows.
Obot: A tool for building personalized AI agents that integrate with Google Workspace and automate things like scheduling, task management, or document drafting.
CrewAI: Enterprise-grade agent orchestration platform for coordinating multiple AI workers. Think of it as a team of bots that manage an entire process, like lead gen, analysis, and email follow-ups.
Clay Clagents: I use Clay to enrich lead data automatically. It scrapes, filters, and augments contact info across data sources—great for sales, hiring, and influencer outreach.
Replit: A cloud-based coding platform that now includes an AI-powered development assistant. Whether you're building from scratch or collaborating on a project, Replit speeds up software creation with instant code suggestions and deployment tools.
- Taskade is an all-in-one productivity platform that integrates AI-powered task management, real-time collaboration, and workflow automation to enhance team efficiency. Users can create and deploy customizable AI agents to handle specific tasks, provide insights, and adapt based on interactions, streamlining project planning and execution.
Outreach & Marketing
These apps help expand your presence and drive engagement through content and automation.
PodPitch: A tool for getting booked on podcasts. Upload a bio or blog post, and it generates tailored outreach emails and finds podcast matches.
Instantly: For cold outreach at scale. Instantly automates lead scraping, email sending, and response tracking—great for growth marketers.
Taplio: I use Taplio to build my LinkedIn presence. It suggests viral content ideas, helps me schedule posts, and provides analytics. Just don’t expect it to handle rich media posts well.
Hypefury: An automation suite for social media. Great for scheduling X/Twitter threads, adding auto-replies, and linking posts to offers.
These tools are constantly evolving, so this list may change to reflect the best-of-breed applications for business.
