AI Tools aren’t here to replace us, but to make our professional lives smoother, faster and, dare we say, more enjoyable. Richard Frank, Chief Technology Officer at Flow Communications and his team have road-tested the most exciting digital companions and, to them, they are game-changers. They share their top AI tools that can transform how you work:
1.NotebookLM: Your Brainy Note-Taking Companion
Forget endless scrolling and lost ideas. NotebookLM is like having a really smart and efficient personal assistant. Its smart tagging and summarisation features mean you’ll spend less time hunting for that brilliant thought you had last week, and more time actually doing brilliant work.
The real magic? It learns your style. The more you use it, the more intuitive it becomes – almost like it’s reading your mind. We use NotebookLM for brand competitor research, parsing dense annual reports for insights and idea generation.
Pricing: free
2.Claude: The Assistant You Wish You’d Always Had
Imagine an assistant who understands context, drafts emails that sound genuinely human and can summarise complex documents in an instant. That’s Claude, in summary.
Whether you’re dealing with an overflowing inbox or need a partner for brainstorming, Claude shows up as a much-needed colleague.
Claude is also great at generating code, and Claude Sonnet 3.7 has been a game changer for our development team, allowing us to deliver more features to our clients.
Pricing: from $20 a month
3. ElevenLabs: A New Take on Audio
Podcasters and content creators, this one’s for you. ElevenLabs is a useful tool for creating realistic voiceovers for various purposes. Its easy-to-use interface lets users customise voice models to suit their needs.
The tool is highly praised for its realistic speech and ability to express emotions, making it useful for content creators and businesses wanting to connect better with their audiences.
We use ElevenLabs to quickly generate voiceovers for storyboards and video drafts. We still use real humans for the final voiceover, but it gives us a quick way of bringing an idea to life.
Pricing: from $5 to $99 a month
4.Veed: Video Editing for Mere Mortals
Video content is king, but editing can sometimes be a royal pain. Veed has managed to make video production much easier.
This tool is perfect for businesses wanting professional-looking content without sending their team into a tech tailspin. Veed is great for generating quick social media clips from longer videos, allowing us to quickly repurpose content for our clients.
Pricing: from $9 to $24 a month
5.Midjourney: Unleashing Your Inner Creative Genius
Calling all creatives – this should be your new best friend. Midjourney turns text prompts into beautiful visuals. We can guarantee that designers, marketers and content creators will be impressed with this tool – it requires no graphic design degree, just your imagination and a few well-chosen words.
We have used Midjourney and similar tools to generate unique 3D characters for educational material. We also recently built a Whatsapp bot using Midjourney to turn your selfie into an Elf version of yourself, just in time for Christmas. We received over 500 selfie requests in a few days.
Pricing: from $10 to $120 a month
These top AI tools aren’t just changing how we work; they’re redefining what’s possible. Whether you’re running a business, freelancing or just trying to stay ahead of the curve, AI can be your secret weapon.
