AI Tools That Are
Actually Worth It.

Every AI tool I've tested over the last 6 months. No fluff, just what I actually use in my own businesses every day. Pick two. Start there.

Who's running this

I run a lighting business in Utah where I replaced a $3,000/month employee with AI. Now I build Brightly AI, a CRM that texts every lead in 90 seconds. I work with this stuff 10 to 16 hours a day.

01 - Start here

Ten tools to
try this week.

All free or freemium. Pick two. Don't try ten at once. That's how nothing changes. Start with Claude or ChatGPT, then layer in one more once it's a habit.

Brightly AI★ Built this

AI that texts your leads back instantly and follows up until they book. I built this for service businesses.

Claude Code★ My #1

AI coding agent in your terminal. Builds features, fixes bugs, ships code. I run my entire dev workflow through it.

Smartest AI for writing, research, brainstorming, problem solving. The brain behind everything I build.

AI agent that lives on your desktop. Reads your files, does real tasks while you watch.

OpenAI's coding agent. Give it a task, it writes and runs the code. Second brain for building.

AI agent platform. Connects to all your tools and runs tasks across them automatically.

The one everyone knows. Image gen, voice mode, plugins for everything.

AI search with real sources. Answers in seconds instead of 10 Google tabs.

Get paid online in 5 minutes. Payment links, invoices, subscriptions. No code needed.

AI Companion takes notes, summarizes meetings, and writes follow-up emails automatically.

Free. No signup wall.

Get the prompts + workflows I use with each tool. Sent to your phone.

Not just a list. The exact prompts I paste into each tool, the workflows that save me hours, and the mistakes to skip. I'll text you the link.

Check your phone

Guide link incoming in the next 60 seconds.

02 - Everything else

Organized by what you're trying to do.

53 tools · 9 categories

AI Models & Assistants

Google's AI. Plugs into Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet.

Claude Sonnet 4.6Best value

98% of the top model quality at a fraction of the cost.

DeepSeekFree tier

Surprisingly good at reasoning. Cheapest option by far.

Microsoft CopilotFreemium

Built into Word, Excel, Outlook. Best if you're already in Microsoft.

xAI's model. Real-time access to everything on X/Twitter.

Free. Built into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook. No extra app needed.

Automation

Visual automation builder. More powerful than Zapier for complex workflows.

Open source. More technical but way more powerful long-term.

Brightly AI$60/mo

Automates lead follow-up end-to-end. Text, qualify, book. No human needed.

Content, Video & Images

Opus ClipFreemium

Turns long videos into short clips for social automatically.

DescriptFreemium

Edit video by editing text. Delete a sentence, it cuts the video.

ElevenLabsFreemium

AI voice generation that sounds real. Clone your own voice.

Midjourney$10+/mo

Highest quality AI images. The go-to for marketing visuals.

Remove.bgFree tier

One click removes any photo background. Product shots, headshots.

Text-to-video and image-to-video. Hollywood-quality AI generation.

AI avatar videos. Record once, translate to 40+ languages automatically.

AI spokesperson videos without a camera. Great for training content.

Leonardo.aiFreemium

AI image generation with fine control. Great for consistent brand visuals.

Adobe FireflyFreemium

Adobe's AI image gen. Commercially safe, trained on licensed content.

IdeogramFree tier

Best AI tool for text in images. Logos, posters, social graphics.

AI Writing

AI copywriting built for marketing teams. Templates for every format.

Copy.aiFreemium

AI marketing copy. Blog posts, ads, emails, product descriptions.

WritesonicFreemium

AI writing and chatbot builder. Blog posts to customer support.

AI writing editor. Like Google Docs but the AI helps you draft and edit.

Google's AI for writing. Connects to your Docs and Gmail for context-aware drafts.

PerplexityFreemium

AI research assistant. Write with real sources. No hallucinated facts.

Email & Social

MailchimpFreemium

Default email marketing. AI subject lines. Free up to 500 contacts.

Simplest social scheduler. Write posts, pick times, done.

BeehiivFreemium

Build a newsletter with monetization baked in.

LinkedIn growth tool with AI writing. Schedule posts, track analytics.

AI cold email at scale. Warm-up, sequences, deliverability built in.

Predis.aiFreemium

AI social media content generator. Creates posts, carousels, videos.

Brightly AI$60/mo

Automated email and SMS follow-up sequences. Keeps leads warm without lifting a finger.

Productivity & Scheduling

Docs, projects, wikis with AI. All-in-one workspace.

WhisperFlowPaid

Voice-to-text anywhere on your computer. Talk instead of type.

AI presentations. Describe your topic, get a full deck.

AI auto-builds your daily schedule around tasks and meetings.

Records Zoom and Meet calls. AI summaries, searchable transcripts.

Fireflies.aiFreemium

AI meeting notes. Auto-joins calls, transcribes, extracts action items.

Reclaim.aiFreemium

AI calendar that auto-schedules tasks, habits, and focus time.

AI-powered notes that organize themselves. Ask questions about your notes.

AI Website Builders

AI website builder. Describe what you want, get a real site you can publish.

Bolt.newFreemium

AI full-stack app builder in the browser. Describe it, deploy it.

AI UI generator by Vercel. Describe a component, get production code.

AI logo and brand kit generator. Name your biz, get a full identity.

CRM & Sales

Brightly AI$60/mo

AI CRM that texts every lead in 90 seconds and books appointments automatically. I built this.

AirtableFreemium

Spreadsheet-meets-database. Build custom CRM views, project trackers, anything.

Docs, wikis, and lightweight CRM in one. Good starting point if you don't need automation.

AI Customer Support

Brightly AI$60/mo

AI-powered SMS and email follow-up. Responds to leads in 90 seconds, books appointments.

AI customer support that resolves issues instantly. Learns from your docs.

AI chatbot for small business. Live chat plus automated responses.

ChatbaseFreemium

Custom AI chatbot trained on your data. Embed on any website.

Something I built

Brightly
AI.

AI-powered CRM that texts every new lead within 90 seconds, carries natural SMS and email conversations, qualifies prospects, and books appointments automatically. I built this for my own business and use it every single day. It replaces a $3-5k/month human appointment setter.

Visit brightlyai.app →

●AI SMS in 90 seconds

●Natural conversation engine

●Auto lead qualification

●Appointment booking

●Email follow-up sequences

●Lead scoring & priority

●TCPA / compliance built in

●Multi-org architecture

●Pipeline management

●AI personality per business

●Human escalation guardrails

●Real-time analytics

03 - How I build

The stack behind
the custom work.

You don't need any of this. It's what I use when a client wants something custom: automations, internal dashboards, the kind of work I did on Brightly AI.

AI coding agent. My #1. This is how I build so fast.

Second AI coding agent. Two agents checking each other = fewer bugs.

Database + auth + storage in one. Open source, generous free tier.

Backend hosting. Simple deployment, scales when needed.

Frontend hosting. Push code, auto-deploys. Free for most projects.

Need help picking?

Not sure where
to start?

Book a free call. I'll look at your business, tell you which two tools to start with, and show you how to set them up. No pitch, just help.

Book a free call → See services

The playbook

Get the actual prompts. Not just the tool names.

Copy-paste prompts, step-by-step workflows, and the shortcuts I learned the hard way. Texted to your phone in 60 seconds.

Check your phone

Guide link incoming in the next 60 seconds.

5 minutes. Every morning.

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