Which AI tools have become so essential that you can’t imagine your work without them?
I think AI has been around long enough for us to identify which tools have changed the way we work.
There are more and more of them every day, and sometimes it feels like it’s getting harder to keep track of them all.
But I think most of us have already developed a small set of AI tools we simply can’t imagine our day without.
If I had to pick a few AI tools that have become part of my daily workflow, these would be:
ChatGPT + Claude – summarising and improving text (and Codex in VS Code for coding)
Grammarly AI – correcting and improving my English
Figma with its AI prompting – helps me a lot with improving my graphic design ideas
Google Gemini – for note-taking from Google Meet, plus AI features in Google Sheets and Docs
These are the ones I use the most, but I’m sure there are plenty of great tools I haven’t discovered yet.
What are your favourite AI tools, and what do you use them for?
Replies
@busmark_w_nika For everyday simple needs, I think GPT is enough =) (If i pick just one)
@adana Me too, but after their Pentagon incident I started using Claude too. :)
Claude for coding or tokens/anything technical, plus ChatGPT for writing and research
@samran_elahi The best combo! :D
Claude for anything long, and the one I did not expect: transcription for meeting notes. What actually changed my work is not any single tool, it is that I stopped keeping a mental list of which writing was worth doing myself. Grammarly I use less and less though, it keeps sanding my sentences into the same shape as everyone else's.
@jernej_jan_kocica Is Claude different from Grammarly in this? Does Claude re-construct the sentences to something more unique?
@busmark_w_nika It can, but honestly the tool is not really the difference. Anything you ask to improve a sentence will move it toward the average sentence, because that is what improve means when you do not say more. Grammarly just gives you no way to say otherwise.
What changed it for me was asking for a specific edit instead. Cut this in half, or make this less formal, or keep my phrasing and only fix the grammar. The moment the instruction is vague the output converges on the same voice everyone else is getting, whichever tool you use.
I write a weekday daily newsletter about the news. I use AI for all aspects: ChatGPT to help me rewrite/summarize top stories, Magica (via Nano Banana) to create images, Gemini Notebook to create my podcast, and Gemini to create images, as well.
ChatGPT is my go-to. If I feel like I need something more detailed after using ChatGPT that's better, I use it.
@billspaced Is Nano Banana really that good? I think that ChatGPT made images are also solid.
@busmark_w_nika It's pretty good. I find that my best images come from ChatGPT though, to be honest. I just use a variety of image creators so I get different "flavors" or themes of images from each.
Claude and Cursor are daily for me, no question. Gemini for Meet notes is underrated and writing and brainstorming RawReply.com
@rnagulapalle Have heard about RawReply for the very first time. Do you use it?
Mine would be ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor and Gemini.
ChatGPT for planning/research, Claude for deeper reasoning and coding, Cursor for day-to-day development, and Gemini when I need strong multimodal, image and video generations or Google-side workflows.
@abhishekpatel Many people praise Perplexity, and I am surprised nobody mentioned it in this thread. Any idea why, :D
@busmark_w_nika Haha fair point 😄 Perplexity is great too, I just don’t use it daily. I usually reach for it when I need quick or deeper research where sources and citations matter. For my everyday workflow, I still reach for ChatGPT or Claude more often
The tools that stick for me are the ones that remove a category of attention, not just summarize it afterward.
Claude Code is one. Good meeting capture is another, but only when it turns a call into decisions and next steps instead of a long transcript. While building OsmO, the most useful test became: can the AI handle the routine part of a phone workflow and return only an outcome or escalation? If it gives me another inbox or dashboard to babysit, it usually does not last.
That 'attention removed' filter has been more useful for me than any feature checklist.
For everyday i would say Chatgpt ;'