Every week someone sends me a "50 best AI tools" list. Most of them are affiliate bait. Here's the short version of what I actually run in my own business and set up for clients — and, just as importantly, what I skip.
Start with the model, not the wrapper
Ninety percent of "AI apps" are a thin layer over the same few models. Before you pay for a wrapper, ask whether the base model plus a good prompt does the job. Often it does. Pay for wrappers only when they own something the model doesn't: your data, a workflow, or a distribution channel.
The four categories that matter
Everything I use falls into one of four buckets:
- Thinking — a frontier chat model for drafting, analysis, and code.
- Doing — automation that connects tools and runs workflows without me.
- Making — image, video, and voice generation for content.
- Knowing — retrieval over my own notes, docs, and past work.
If a tool doesn't clearly sit in one of those, it's usually a distraction.
When to skip a tool entirely
The best AI decision is often no new tool. If a task happens less than weekly, a one-off prompt beats a subscription. If it happens constantly, it deserves real automation, not a browser tab you forget to open.
I go deep on each of these in the free AI Playbook — grab it below if you want the full map. And if you'd rather I set the stack up with you, book a consultation.