AI tools guide
AI tools for small businesses
A practical starter kit for a small team: assistants, automation, meetings, and design that save real hours without a big budget or a dedicated AI person.
n8n
Open-source workflow automation that connects your apps and drops AI steps right into the flow. Self-hostable and developer-friendly. A personal favorite.
Zapier
The easiest on-ramp to automation, now with AI actions. Great when you want results without self-hosting.
Make
Visual, multi-step automation with more control than Zapier for complex branching logic.
ChatGPT
The general-purpose assistant most teams start with. A solid default for writing, analysis, and brainstorming.
Claude
Strong at long documents, careful writing, and code. A great second opinion to ChatGPT.
Perplexity
An AI answer engine for research, with cited sources you can actually check.
Canva
Design with AI image, copy, and layout help. Hard to beat for non-designers.
Gamma
Generate polished decks, docs, and one-pagers from a prompt.
Gorgias
Support helpdesk with AI, especially strong for ecommerce stores.
HubSpot
CRM with AI woven across marketing, sales, and service. A common all-in-one for SMBs.
Fathom
Free AI meeting notetaker with summaries and action items.
Otter.ai
Real-time meeting transcription and searchable notes.
Notion AI
AI inside your docs and wiki for writing, summarizing, and finding things.
Picking tools is the easy part
The hard part is choosing the few that actually fit your business and wiring them together so they save real time. That is the job of good generative AI consulting services. Tell me what you are trying to do and I will tell you what is worth using.