Helping Hand - AI is here to stay. Here’s a handy guide to the top AI Tools for business.
By Michelle Scheuermann
Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn’t just a buzzword anymore—it’s a powerful force reshaping how businesses operate and innovate. From streamlining repetitive tasks to unlocking creative potential, AI tools have become indispensable for marketers and business leaders alike. Imagine cutting project turnaround times in half or crafting polished marketing campaigns in minutes. Sounds promising, right? But with so many options flooding the market, choosing the right tool can feel overwhelming. This guide will cut through the noise and explore the top AI tools to elevate your business, focusing on their real-world impact and practicality.
Core Language Models and Chatbots
First, to truly understand AI is to understand the backend of the program. Terms used are “language models,” “tools,” and “chatbots.” A language model (LM) is a chatbot that takes inputs and gives outputs—meaning it responds to questions or directions. It is operating software. An example is how humans wrote Microsoft Word for humans to use. An AI Model is software written by AI for AI to use. ChatGPT, the first and most-known AI tool, is the consumer-facing interface used to talk to the model running on the backend. The end user doesn’t talk to the model; ChatGPT talks to the model. The LM is the engine where the chatbots are the various types of vehicles to use the engine. Other familiar chatbot names beyond ChatGPT include Microsoft Bing and Google Gemini. The LMs they interface with include Claude, GPT-4 (the advanced version of ChatGPT), and others.
To understand these models further, imagine traveling around the world and shooting every type of gun possible. Ultimately, the knowledge base gained of handguns, shotguns, and rifles would be staggering. With that knowledge base, it could be feasible to create an “AK-57 Uzi radar-laser triple-barrel double-scoped heat-seeking shotgun.” While that gun doesn't exist (except for in “Da Turdy Point Buck” song by Bananas at Large), as a model with all this information, it’s possible. What would the Bananas think of that?
Language models can essentially do five things.
- Generate: This includes writing blogs, social media posts, and creating graphics.
- Extraction: Extracting high points from a podcast for a social media post; give direction to the AI tool to extract the tone of voice from these articles.
- Summarization: Ask the AI tool to summarize the recording of a meeting and give action items; or ask it to summarize the key points from a YouTube video.
- Rewriting: Rewrite a blog post to first person; rewrite a social media post to sound witty using the brand voice; rewrite an article in terms a child would understand.
- Questions and Answers: What topic is missing from our YouTube channel? How much have 9mm ammo prices changed in the last 20 years? What are the top three things to improve on our website?
Back to the burning question of “Which AI tool is the best?” The answer is complicated as there isn’t a “one size fits all” tool. Yes, many are using the same LM in the background, but their “vehicle” is vastly different—akin to comparing a Kia Sorento to a Ford Raptor. Some are better at certain tasks than others. As in, don’t take the Kia to Baja. It is a bit of an experiment seeing which one, or two or more, works best for any given scenario.
Below are the most common and well-known tools broken into categories of general tasks, presentations, content generating, audio and video help, and writing assistance. Depending on business goals and strategies, using one from each category is not uncommon.
Well-Rounded/General Software Models
ChatGPT: I recommend getting the paid version as inputted prompts will be used to train AI in the non-paid version. Keep business input privacy secure and pay the monthly fee. Download the app and have voice conversations with AI, which is useful when on the go. Most chatbot tools are based on ChatGPT (because it is an LM) or GPT-4 (the faster, stronger, better-paid version), so if there’s only one AI tool allowed, this is it.
Google Gemini: Google’s version of a personal AI assistant. For those companies who use Gmail and Google for, well, everything, this might be a favored tool.
Microsoft Bing Copilot: Google has Gemini, Microsoft has Copilot. Take a pick, as they both do about the same thing.
Claude.AI: Known for precision and the ability to handle larger files, Claude excels at analyzing comprehensive documents. Claude is a LM that interfaces as a chatbot, much like ChatGPT. Their motto is, “Privacy first AI that helps you create in confidence.”
Perplexity AI: This platform stands out for fact-checking and truthfulness. Answers that are accurate and always cited. Again, I recommend the paid version.
Presentation and Content Tools
MidJourney: Create dreamscape photos and more from text prompts. Want three ETs at a gun range wearing tuxes? Sure. However, it is not the most user-friendly tool, and it no longer offers a free version.
Beautiful.ai and Gamma.app: These tools revolutionize presentation creation. Upload previous presentations to train it for style. Upload an article and turn it into a presentation in minutes.
Notion AI: Use it to store and organize all the content created with other AI tools. For example, upload highlighted text in your notes and ask AI to develop it into different formats, such as newsletters, blogs, or podcast topics.
Meta AI: The people who own Facebook, Instagram, etc., have their own AI tool and use it for image creation, content generation, ads, and more.
Shopify Magic: This free, built-in tool for those with a Shopify website generates compelling product descriptions and more.
AI Persona Generator: Free. Created by FounderPal.ai. Create a persona to use in content creation and to help find new ways to reach the ideal customer.
Meta’s NotebookLlama: This is an open-source toolkit designed to convert PDF documents into podcasts without needing prior experience with large language models.
MarketMuse: This tool helps web content to rank for authority in specific topics. Be a step ahead of competitors.
ElevenLabs: Have a blog post that can be a podcast? Or how about creating an entire podcast from AI? Use Claude.AI, ChatGPT-4, or Gemini to make the text script. Then, bring that over to ElevenLabs for it to apply the VoiceOver.
Dalle-3: create stunning images and graphics. It is very prompt-adherent; whatever is typed in, it will pretty much make.
CourseBox.AI: To create e-courses with existing written content. Upload slide decks, blogs, articles, and PDF files; it investigates the content and turns it into a course in under an hour.
SuperMeme: Upload any piece of content, and it will turn it into a meme.
Audio Help
Adobe Podcast: Great for post-podcast production. For example, if a plane flew over or a dog barked during recording, use this to remove echoes and noises, enhance speech, and much more.
Lala: Remove music from audio or anything else. Great if you are recording live and want to repurpose the video, but there was background music playing, which is likely licensed. This tool will remove the background music while keeping the speech.
Wondercraft: Want to pre-roll about a new product on the company’s podcast but want to avoid reading the ad? Use this tool.
Castmagic: Particularly useful for audio content repurposing, Castmagic helps transform spoken content into various formats. Create tweets, LinkedIn posts, and Instagram captions from audio.
Suno: Generate music with AI. This tool will create background music and lyrics. When released in early 2024, it only allowed for 30 seconds of music; now, it will create song lengths up to two minutes. That's how fast AI is developing.
Adorilabs: Convert a podcast, article, or blog into a video. It will figure out images to overlay and create a video based on the audio. It will also create a voiceover. Want music added to the final version? Use Suno.
Video
Sony Alpha ZV-E1 Camera: This camera has built-in AI that tracks what is in front of it and zooms in automatically. It uses AI-based auto-reframing without ever moving the camera.
tubebuddy: For those with YouTube channels. It offers a thumbnail analyzer to show what version will get the most clicks on that video. Plus, it will generate concepts for YouTube videos when inputting keywords.
invideo.AI: Create videos from text prompts. It will write the script and voiceover and add subtitles and music.
Maestro: Get a transcript for any YouTube video. Add subtitles to any video. Transcribe any video to another language.
Descript: Edit video, create clips from your podcast for social, add captions, and generate transcripts. It is not as user-friendly as others and is limited unless opted-in for the paid version.
OpusClip: This tool specializes in repurposing long-form video content. It provides a “hook score” to different parts of the video, helping to identify the segments most likely to capture audience attention. It will provide up to 20 clips from a 20-minute TV show, but not all clips are useful and may still need slight editing.
HeyGen: Take a video and translate it into other languages. The tool tries to match the speaker’s lip movement to the new language.
Help with Meetings
Whisper: Transcribe audio and video to text.
Zoom AI Companion: Use AI Companion to summarize emails, chats, and meetings. It is included at no cost in paid Zoom Workplace plans. Zoom claims it doesn't use customer content to train its AI model.
Fathom: AI notetaker that records, highlights, and transcribes in real time—an alternative to Zoom or GoogleMeet.
Krisp: Noise cancellation, transcriptions, meeting notes, and recordings all in one powerful tool.
Writing
Grammarly: Upload documents such as press releases or blog posts for grammar checks. It doesn't apply AP Style (for press releases) and some general writing “rules.” However, it will pick up on passive versus active voice and catch “form” versus “from” that Word won't catch. Recommend the paid version and install the app on the desktop to enable Grammarly in real time when writing social posts, etc.
Jasper: An excellent tool for assisting with writing, and it will learn a brand voice. Ask it to create documents from blog posts, help with press releases or podcasts, or help write a marketing or business plan. Security is important to them: they say, “Enterprise-grade encryption and data privacy. Your company data and outputs are never used to train Jasper or 3rd party LLMs.”
Adobe AI Assistant: Help with tweaks on a resume, blog post, or other content. Ask questions and get answers. It is also secure.
Google NotebookLM: Research and writing assistant that will convert complex documents to FAQs, briefing docs, and more.
Joplin: Helps with notes. It will take pictures from a phone or desktop and upload to transcribe to notes. You can then share with others and store it all in the cloud.
What’s Next for AI?
From Google’s Gemini 2.5 (launched in March 2025 and is allegedly faster than any current AI model) to LMs becoming multi-model (meaning they can operate more than one domain) AI has expanded quickly since the start of ChatGPT a few years ago. The examples in this article are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI’s potential in business. The tools and technologies available today give every company, big or small, the ability to operate smarter, faster, and more effectively. The key to thriving in this AI-powered era is to start somewhere, experiment fearlessly, and build from there. Remember, the bold adoption of AI isn’t just a trend; it’s a ticket to meaningful business transformations right now and beyond.