The 7 AI Tools I Actually Use Every Day (And the 12 I Unsubscribed From)

I used to have 14 AI tool subscriptions.

Fourteen. At one point I was spending over $400/month on AI tools that promised to revolutionize my productivity. Know what actually happened? I spent more time learning new tools than doing actual work.

So I ran an experiment: I cancelled everything and added tools back only when I genuinely missed them.

Three months later, I have 7 tools. My productivity is up. My spending is down. Here’s what made the cut — and why.

The 7 That Survived

1. Notion AI — The One I Use Most

Cost: $10/month (on top of Notion)

Time saved: 3-4 hours/week

I resisted Notion AI for months. I already had ChatGPT — why pay for another AI?

Then I tried it for meeting notes. I dump my messy, rambling notes into a Notion page and hit “Summarize.” It pulls out action items, key decisions, and follow-ups. What used to take 20 minutes of cleanup now takes 30 seconds.

What I use it for:

• Summarizing meeting notes
• Drafting documentation from bullet points
• Generating project briefs
• Cleaning up messy braindumps

Why it works: The AI is inside your existing workflow. No copy-pasting between apps. No context switching. It just helps where you already work.

Skip if: You don’t use Notion. The AI isn’t good enough to switch for.

2. Otter.ai — I Forgot How to Take Notes

Cost: $16.99/month

Time saved: 30-45 min per meeting

I used to be the person frantically typing during client calls, missing half of what was said. Now I turn on Otter at the start of the meeting and actually listen.

It records, transcribes, and summarizes automatically. The transcripts are searchable — last month I found a specific thing a client said 4 months ago in under a minute.

What I use it for:

• Client discovery calls
• Team meetings
• Interviews and research calls
• Creating content from conversations

Why it works: The transcription quality is genuinely good. The speaker identification works. The summaries are actually useful.

Skip if: You rarely do video calls or don’t need searchable records.

3. Grammarly Premium — Yes, Still

Cost: $12/month

Time saved: 1-2 hours/week

I know, I know. Grammarly feels like a dinosaur next to flashy AI writers. But here’s the thing: it does one job extremely well.

Every email, every client deliverable, every piece of content runs through Grammarly before it goes out. It catches the stuff I’m blind to — wordiness, passive voice, tone inconsistencies.

What I use it for:

• Final polish on everything client-facing
• Catching typos my brain auto-corrects
• Tone adjustment for different audiences

Why it works: It’s everywhere. Browser extension, desktop app, mobile. Zero friction.

Skip if: You’re genuinely confident in your editing skills (but probably don’t skip).

4. Canva Magic Studio — Design Without Designers

Cost: $12.99/month (Canva Pro)

Time saved: 3-5 hours/week on visual content

I am not a designer. I used to spend hours fighting with graphics, or paying designers for simple social posts.

Canva’s AI features changed that. Magic Write generates copy. Magic Design creates layouts from text descriptions. Background removal works in one click. The AI image generator handles basic custom graphics.

What I use it for:

• Social media graphics
• Presentation decks
• Client proposals (the visual parts)
• Quick mockups and wireframes

Why it works: It makes “good enough” design trivially easy. For most business content, good enough is perfect.

Skip if: You have real design skills or high-end aesthetic requirements.

5. Descript — Editing Video by Editing Text

Cost: $12/month

Time saved: 4-5 hours per video project

Descript’s killer feature sounds like magic: you edit audio and video by editing the transcript. Delete a sentence from the text, and it’s removed from the video. Rearrange paragraphs, and the video follows.

It also removes filler words automatically (“um,” “uh,” “like”) and generates clips for social.

What I use it for:

• Podcast editing
• Video course content
• Cutting long recordings into clips
• Cleaning up interview footage

Why it works: Video editing traditionally requires specialized skills. This makes it feel like editing a document.

Skip if: You don’t produce audio/video content.

6. Superhuman — The $30 Inbox Fix

Cost: $30/month

Time saved: 20-30 min/day

This is my most controversial pick. Thirty dollars a month for email sounds insane.

But I was drowning in email. Superhuman’s AI features (write, summarize, instant reply suggestions) combined with its keyboard-first design got me to inbox zero for the first time in years.

What I use it for:

• Processing email faster
• AI-written first drafts of replies
• Summarizing long email threads
• Scheduling and follow-up reminders

Why it works: It’s opinionated software that forces good habits. The AI is a bonus on top of excellent design.

Skip if: You don’t have an email problem, or you can’t stomach the price.

7. ChatGPT Plus — The Catch-All

Cost: $20/month

Time saved: Variable (2-6 hours/week)

ChatGPT handles everything that doesn’t have a dedicated tool. Brainstorming. Research. Quick writing tasks. Data analysis. Code debugging. Anything one-off or unusual.

I don’t use it for my core workflows (those have specialized tools), but it’s the safety net for everything else.

What I use it for:

• Brainstorming and ideation
• Quick research questions
• One-off writing tasks
• Analyzing data or documents
• Learning new topics quickly

Why it works: It’s the most versatile AI tool by a wide margin.

The 12 I Cancelled

Here’s what didn’t survive:

• Jasper ($49/mo) — Did the same thing as ChatGPT for 2.5x the price
• Copy.ai ($49/mo) — Good for social posts, but I don’t post enough
• Writesonic ($19/mo) — Quality wasn’t there
• Fireflies.ai ($19/mo) — Otter does the same thing better
• Mem ($15/mo) — Cool concept, terrible execution
• Motion ($19/mo) — Over-engineered for my needs
• Wordtune ($10/mo) — Grammarly covers this
• Rytr ($9/mo) — Quality too low to be useful
• Lumen5 ($29/mo) — AI video that looked like AI video
• Pictory ($19/mo) — Same problem
• Beautiful.ai ($12/mo) — Canva does this
• Lex ($8/mo) — Nice idea, not enough value

Total saved: ~$270/month

The Productivity Stack That Works

Here’s my current stack, what it costs, and what it replaced:

$114/month for ~15-20 hours saved per week.

At freelance rates, that’s a 10x+ ROI.

The Rule I Use Now

Before subscribing to any new AI tool:

1. What specific task does this solve? (Vague answers = skip)
2. Can an existing tool handle this? (Usually yes)
3. Will I use it daily or weekly? (Monthly = skip)
4. What does this replace? (If nothing, skip)

Most AI tools fail rule #4. They add to your stack without removing anything. That’s complexity, not productivity.

What tools actually stuck in your workflow? I’m always testing new stuff — drop me recommendations.