If you’ve recently had a chatbot help you solve a customer service concern or a writing assistant correct a grammatical mistake, you’ve experienced the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) tools firsthand.
AI streamlines everyday activities to improve productivity, and this technology’s reach and capabilities are constantly increasing. Many professionals rely on AI to automate routine tasks to manage their workflows and save time.
If you aren’t tapping into AI tools yet, you may be spending more time than you need to to complete your work. You might also be missing opportunities to boost your creativity and reduce human error. Even if your work is hands-on or relies heavily on human thinking, these resources can offer time-saving and error-reducing support.
Take full advantage of AI tools by discovering those available for your line of work and learning what makes them so powerful.
20 best AI tools to support any type of work
As of September 2023, there were almost 16,000 AI startups just in the U.S. — and there will only be more AI tools in the future. This makes choosing the right products challenging.
You may also feel overwhelmed by the technology itself, and that’s valid. AI is a complex branch of computer science in which developers use algorithms to train computers’ “brains” to seek patterns in data and learn from them.
Many AI tools are consumer-focused and user-friendly, so you can likely benefit from AI products with little to no onboarding. Start with some best AI software on the market from the following list:
Creativity tools
You may not expect to find creativity at the top of an AI tools list. Aren’t virtual brains too robotic to generate artistic or innovative ideas?
Surprisingly, AI is actually an excellent support tool for imaginative professionals, automating processes that take time away from your creative ones. Here are some examples:
1. Descript
Descript is a comprehensive podcast and video editing tool that automatically transcribes recordings. You can then edit transcribed texts like any other document and apply changes to the video or audio content.
The app can also remove filler words from recordings to polish your speech and up low-grade recordings to studio-quality ones. Plus, you can access a library of visuals and editing features that’ll help you perfect your quality control.
2. LALAL.AI
This tool for the musically inclined allows you to extract tracks from recorded audio and video content. LALAL.AI aims to help musicians, producers, bloggers, streamers, and translators perform their work more efficiently by quickly and accurately splitting up to eight tracks, like separating voice from various instrumentals.
3. Fontjoy
If you’ve ever struggled to find the perfect font match for the title and body texts in a brand kit, this simple tool will come in handy. Fontjoy helps designers navigate the challenging process of mixing typography styles by offering aesthetically pleasing, data-driven combinations. This AI-powered design tool reassures creatives that, yes, those two fonts do look good together.
4. Soundraw
Soundraw is an AI-powered music creation tool where artists can create a beat and layer in vocals and instrumentals. You determine the mood, genre, and length of the track, and the app does the rest, producing a high-quality beat. Another perk? Since Soundraw owns all of its music, you can reproduce and monetize a song however you please without worrying about paying royalties.
5. Autodraw
Whether you enjoy doodling or drawing isn’t your strong suit, you can get some help from AI when creating sketches. Autodraw guesses what shape you’re trying to make and fills in the blanks. This free AI software from the Google Creative Lab also offers basic design functionally, like the ability to add text and fill color. Just about anyone can create a slide, poster, or note in minutes.
6. Deep Image
This AI image enhancer allows you to scale up visuals, reduce noise, correct color, and remove backgrounds.
Deep Image is an excellent tool for real estate agents or anyone with an e-commerce site, as you can generate well-lit, high-quality photos of spaces and products regardless of the initial picture quality. The tool’s professional suite will also allow you to batch-edit photos to meet the uploading requirements of popular ecommerce platforms.
7. Dall-E 2
This AI-powered tool takes the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” very seriously. With the Dall-E 2 image generator, you can turn a text description into a realistic or stylized piece of AI art.
Plug in a phrase like “a dinner party in the Renaissance style,” and the software will create an image that depicts your sentence. Dall-E 2 can help you generate the right visual for marketing materials or a presentation or even provide inspiration for your next creative project.
Productivity tools
One of the core assets of AI technology is its ability to simplify routine tasks. This software can synthesize company data and use it to offer growth advice or learn your schedule and suggest ways to improve it. AI can even take meeting notes — who knew?
The productivity-focused characteristics of these tools save you time and keep you from performing monotonous or even boring tasks so you can focus on your passions. Check out these examples:
8. Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai automates note-taking by transcribing and summarizing conversations. The tool integrates with video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams and can take and optimize notes in minutes.
It also highlights action items and tasks, allows you to filter conversations by topic, and provides high-level summaries of long meetings so you can catch up quickly.
9. Reclaim
Coordinating multiple schedules to find a meeting time that works for everyone on your team is tedious. Fortunately, Reclaim can simplify the task. This tool suggests optimal gathering times and productivity hacks, like when you should take a break based on your calendar.
You can also integrate your to-do list, and the app will help you prioritize and schedule tasks so you never miss another deadline.
10. Zapier
Zapier is a task automation tool that allows you to build workflows and establish ready-made triggers for actions. For example, you can create a trigger so that when a customer places their third order on your ecommerce store, Zapier cues your email software to send a coupon.
This AI tool boasts “endless possibilities” for your workflows, and with over 5,000 app integrations, the app pretty much lives up to that claim.
11. Oracle AI
Oracle AI offers private data analysis and modeling resources so your organization can make informed decisions and grow. This comprehensive suite of tools can even provide business insights, pulling from Oracle’s knowledge base and your company’s unique circumstances. It’s like having one more bright mind on a data analysis or consulting team — only this one is virtual.
Text creation and editing tools
Even if you’re not a copywriter or content creator, you likely draft numerous texts daily: emails, to-do lists, and presentation outlines.
While you may enjoy writing some, others are likely repetitive and time-consuming — the type of work you’d be happy to outsource. And when writer’s block hits, it’s helpful to have a system that develops ideas and drafts for you.
The following AI content creation tools can help you make quicker, cleaner drafts and teach you some writing tips in the process:
12. Grammarly
Before you send an email or project a presentation, run the text through Grammarly’s AI-powered style and spelling checker. You can catch typos, remove repetition, and select more precise language.
The tool also explains its suggestions, so you’ll learn the “why” behind common grammatical errors and know how to avoid them in the future.
13. ChatGPT
This natural language processing tool (NLP) from OpenAI may have quickly become a household name and a hot topic in the media, but what does it do? At baseline, ChatGPT follows an instruction (also known as a prompt) and provides a response.
The text prompt could be a question like “Could you please explain the subjunctive in Spanish?” or an imperative like “Write an email to a client thanking them for meeting with me yesterday.” ChatGPT’s text generation capabilities can save you the time of drafting routine emails and get your creative juices flowing when inspiration is low.
14. Copy.ai
Bloggers, social media marketers, and other content creators can streamline their work with help from Copy.ai. This generative AI tool can draft a long-form article, create a social media or product description, and write snappy advertising blurbs in your voice.
You train the writing tool to sound like your brand and ensure consistency across all your outputs. The application also offers productivity support in the form of workflow guidance and automation. You can create an email follow-up cadence, quickly batch-write compelling product descriptions, and mass-translate text.
15. Originality.ai
Your mind is constantly taking in information. And when you’re doing research or gathering ideas, you want to make sure you don’t accidentally plagiarize. Originality.ai helps content creators ensure that texts contain new, valuable information and check that the phrasing doesn’t appear elsewhere on the web.
Marketing tools
Contemporary advertising combines social media campaigns, email outreach, and content marketing. And when marketers use advertising performance data to improve the quality and style of their campaigns, they achieve better resonance and reach with audiences.
The following tools can provide information on marketing traction and offer insights for creating more attractive content. An AI assistant can even generate that content for you.
16. Lumen5
This tool creates marketing videos in minutes. The Lumen5 AI video generator offers aesthetically pleasing templates your organization can leverage in blog and social media posts and informational clips. The app also helps you stay on brand, integrating proprietary visual elements, like your logo, font kit, and color scheme.
17. Looka
Suppose you’re an entrepreneur with dozens of start-up costs associated with launching your company. You may not have the budget to hire a graphic designer to create your branding.
Or perhaps you want the challenge of generating it yourself. That’s where Looka comes in — this AI-backed tool helps you design a logo and brand kit from scratch. You describe your vision, and the app outputs an eye-catching set of graphics.
18. Flick
Flick is a social media marketing platform focused on saving you time. You can schedule posts, get performance-based hashtag recommendations, and level up your content with attractive templates and tutorials.
The app leverages an AI writing assistant to help brainstorm and generate content, and Flick provides analytics reports to show how campaigns perform so you can adjust as needed.
19. Manychat
Creating resonant content is a great way to catch your audience’s attention and generate leads. But you foster that connection with top-notch communication.
The Manychat conversational AI tool automates WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook messenger chats with potential clients, resolving questions like “How can I place an order?” or “When does your current sale end?” Save your customer service personnel the time of answering routine questions and provide 24-hour support. You’ll hang on to leads and drive sales.
20. Jasper
Jasper is an all-in-one language modeling, collaboration, and campaign creation tool, making it an asset for advertising teams. This tool learns your brand voice, helps you generate marketing copy, and offers a library of graphics for polished posts.
It also allows you to create an entire campaign from a simple brief. Using the app's Instant Magic feature, you can quickly design assets for a landing page, email blast, and social media content.
You’re the brains behind your operation
AI tools provide support — but aren’t a replacement for your business instincts, natural sense of aesthetics, and winning ideas. Your unique vision and hard work drive the success of your operation.
But as a busy professional, you must establish a healthy work-life balance that includes time for self-care, rest, and moments with loved ones. And you can free up working hours by leveraging AI tools to boost your productivity.
The next time you have to draft a routine email, make an informational video, or create a marketing campaign, tap into the power of machine learning. You’re still at the helm of your projects, but you’ll be working smarter, not harder.
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