9 AI Tools You Will ACTUALLY Use

I Tested 9 AI Tools You’ll Actually Use in 2024

Discover the practical AI applications that will change how you work and live this year.

As an AI enthusiast, I’m often asked which tools I genuinely use in my daily life. While flashy demos of ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 grab headlines, many wonder whether AI has practical value yet. I’m here to tell you it does.

After testing dozens of AI services, I’ve settled on 9 that provide tremendous value to my work and personal life. These tools exemplify how AI can augment human intelligence today. In this article, I’ll share the 9 AI apps I use most frequently and demonstrate their practical benefits. Let’s dive in!

We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.

1. Anthropic’s Claude for Summarizing Long Content

We’ve all encountered lengthy articles or research papers we want to digest quickly. That’s where Claude shines. Claude offers a significantly larger text context window than ChatGPT, allowing it to summarize very long content effectively.

Recently, I came across a 15-page research paper on iterative image editing with diffusion models. Too long to paste into ChatGPT! Instead, I simply uploaded the PDF to Claude. After asking Claude to summarize it in simple terms, I received a clear explanation of the key innovations and applications of the paper.

For aggregating knowledge from books, research publications, or other long-form writing, Claude is my go-to summarization tool. The summaries help me determine which content is worth reading fully. Anthropic provides Claude for free during its limited release.

2. Perplexity’s Browser Extension for Understanding Websites

Perplexity brings AI insights directly into your web browser via Chrome extension. When browsing unfamiliar sites, I can ask Perplexity to summarize the content or explain it as though speaking to a child. This quickly provides the gist of complex pages.

I also use Perplexity for searching websites. For instance, when browsing a site like FutureTools that curates AI services, I can ask Perplexity to recommend specific tools relevant to my work, like AI assistants for real estate agents. The browser-based AI saves time and prevents me from overlooking helpful resources. Best of all, Perplexity doesn’t collect user data or require signup.

3. Taplio’s LinkedIn Tools for Building Your Personal Brand

As someone focused on developing a personal brand, Taplio has become an invaluable asset. Taplio integrates various AI modules into LinkedIn to help users grow their brand and reach.

The Post and Carousel Generators are especially useful. Just give Taplio your topic or content, and it will generate professional, engaging posts in seconds. The Hook Generator also crafts catchy openings to captivate readers.

While made for LinkedIn, many of Taplio’s AI-generated posts work nicely on other networks too. The platform has helped me establish a consistent social media presence with compelling content tailored to my brand. Taplio offers a free 7-day trial for new users.

4. Adobe’s Enhance Speech to Improve Low-Quality Audio

Recording high-quality audio requires expensive microphones most of us don’t own. That’s when tools like Enhance Speech come to the rescue. This free service from Adobe leverages AI to reduce background noise, improve clarity, and polish low-quality audio.

I often record quick voice memos on my phone for work. The audio quality leaves much to be desired. After dragging the files into Enhance Speech, the results are vastly improved. Now my memos sound crisp and professional, suitable for sharing. For enhancing poor audio recordings, nothing beats Adobe’s AI wizardry.

5. ElevenLabs’ AI Voices for Text-to-Speech

Sometimes I want to convert text into realistic voice-overs without recording myself. ElevenLabs lets me generate audio in my own voice or a voice of my choosing. The AI masterfully clones voices after training on just a few minutes of sample audio.

I’ve used ElevenLabs to create audio snippets for videos, generate podcast intros in a consistent voice, and fix mistakes in dialogue recordings by re-speaking specific lines. Priced at only $4.99/month, ElevenLabs saves me tons of time in the editing room. It’s an indispensable audio production tool.

6. Adobe Firefly’s Generative Image Editing

Firefly brings multiple AI capabilities to Adobe apps, like intelligently removing objects from photos. But my favorite Firefly feature is generative image editing in Photoshop. This lets me tweak images by describing desired changes.

For instance, I recently edited a stock photo of a newscaster by instructing Firefly to “make him hold a microphone” and “put him in a pink tie.” After a few generations, I had my ideal customized image. For quick AI-powered edits, Firefly is a secret weapon. The tech previews the future of Photoshop.

7. Feedly Leo’s AI-Curated Newsfeed

As someone immersed in artificial intelligence, staying current with the latest developments is a must. Feedly Leo has become my indispensable AI-powered research assistant.

After indicating my interests like “AI” and “machine learning”, Leo populates my Feedly feed with tailored news articles, blog posts, and more. The streamlined, noise-free curation allows me to absorb the latest happenings and trends in just minutes a day. Feedly Leo gives me an effortless edge by aggregating niche knowledge.

8. MyMind for Organizing Research Interests

Over time, we amass mountains of content around niche topics we want to master. MyMind introduces intelligence into researching interests by organizing materials intuitively.

I use MyMind’s AI features to save webpages, Tweets, YouTube videos, and other bits of knowledge to revisit later. Smart tagging makes searching my content library a breeze. Before creating AI videos or articles, I easily reference my knowledge bank in MyMind — my AI-powered external brain.

9. Google Workspace’s AI Writing and Document Assistant

Lastly, Google injects potent AI directly into its Workspace apps via the Document Assistant. With just a few words, I can generate outlines, templates, and even first drafts tailored to my needs.

The Assistant excels at contextual recommendations. While penning an email, I can request a polite reply declining an invitation. Google’s seamless AI embeds where I need it most. With Google expanding this initiative, expect more clever AI writing and optimization features soon.

Let AI Augment Your Life

I hope sharing my 9 most-used AI applications provides ideas for streamlining your work and enhancing your capabilities. While AI still has limitations, focused tools like these showcase the immense practical value available today.

I encourage you to try tools aligned with your needs. Allow AI to filter information overload, upgrade creative skills, automate tedium, and expand what’s humanly possible for you. The future promised by science fiction is here — put it to use and enjoy the benefits!

What promising AI tools are you excited to use more in 2024? Share your thoughts below.

We strongly recommend that you check out our guide on how to take advantage of AI in today’s passive income economy.