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Toolkit · Checked Oct 2026

My AI toolkit.

One pick for each job, why, and my second and third choices. Every name checked on its maker's own site.

A warm office corner in the morning: a window with daylight, a coat on its hook, a clock and a picture, an oak desk with a plant, a mug and a laptop open on this page. Behind it a bookcase on a yellow wall, its five shelves holding books, a headset, a phone, a letter tray, an easel, a clipboard, a camera, a clapperboard, a microphone, a tablet and a little conveyor belt. The pixel on the desk looks up at the shelves.

At work, your company's rules come first. Use the tool it approves for its data.

Checked Oct 2026, next check Jan 2027

Shelf 1 of 6

Think and write

An oak shelf on a yellow wall in the sun: a laptop with a chat open, an out tray with a tick, three model chips, a pencil cup and a notebook, a pile of books with a magnifier, two binders and a folder, an open book with a bulb.Everyday AIHand over a taskWhich modelWritingResearchYour own filesLearning
Everyday AI

Ask, draft and think things through

My pick

Claude

One conversation for quick questions and whole tasks. It asks before it acts.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2ChatGPT
  2. 3Gemini
claude.ai
Hand over a task

Hand over a job, get back a finished file

My pick

Claude

Hand over a task in any chat: it plans the steps, works with your files and asks before important actions.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2ChatGPT Work
  2. 3Perplexity Computer
claude.ai
Writing

Draft it, tighten it, fix the tone

My pick

ChatGPT

Quick drafts in a chat, and ChatGPT for Word to work right inside your document.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Claude
  2. 3Gemini
chatgpt.com
Research

A cited report on a hard question

My pick

ChatGPT deep research

Choose the sites it reads and review its plan. Then open its sources before you share.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Gemini Deep Research
  2. 3Perplexity, in Research mode
  3. 4Claude Research
chatgpt.com
Your own files

Ask questions of your own documents

My pick

Gemini Notebook

Built for answers drawn only from the files you add. It was called NotebookLM until July.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Claude Projects
  2. 3ChatGPT projects
gemini.google.com
Learning

Be taught step by step, not just told

My pick

Gemini Notebook

Turns your own notes into Audio Overviews, flashcards, quizzes and study guides.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Claude, asked to tutor you
  2. 3ChatGPT study mode
gemini.google.com
Which model, in Claude: my rule
  1. My first pickOpus 5.5 at High
  2. Also goodSonnet 5.5 at High or Extra high
  3. Only if cost is no objectFable 5.1
  4. I skipHaiku 5.5

Why: Fable 5.1 costs too much to run, and Opus 5.5 at Extra high does an amazing job.

To set it: click the model name next to Send, pick the model, then Effort. Opus 5.5 not on your plan? Use Sonnet 5.5.

Shelf 2 of 6

Meetings, mail and dictation

An oak shelf on a blue wall: a headset on its stand, a phone taking dictation, a letter tray of mail, a framed picture standing at the back of the shelf and a plant.Meeting notesDictationEmail
Meeting notes

Notes and actions from every call

My pick

Fireflies

Joins your Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or Webex call, names who said what, and writes the notes and actions. Tell everyone it is there.

Worth knowing: Granola sends no bot into the call: it listens through your computer, and it can name speakers only in some calls. Choose it if names matter less to you. These features change over time.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Fathom
  2. 3Granola
fireflies.ai
Dictation

Talk instead of type, in any app

My pick

Willow

Hold a key, speak, and clean text appears in the app you are using. On Mac, Windows and iPhone.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Wispr Flow
  2. 3MacWhisper
willowvoice.com
Email

Sort, summarise and draft email

My pick

Claude, with Gmail or Outlook

The Gmail connector asks before it sends, replies or forwards. At an Outlook company, Claude for Outlook drafts replies for you to send.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Gemini in Gmail
  2. 3ChatGPT, with Gmail or Outlook
  3. 4Superhuman Mail
claude.ai
Shelf 3 of 6

Slides and sheets

An oak shelf on a pink wall: an easel with a bar chart slide, a clipboard with a spreadsheet, a pencil cup, a mug and a plant.SlidesSpreadsheets
Slides

A deck from a brief or a document

My pick

Claude

Ask for a deck in any chat and download it as PowerPoint or PDF. Claude for PowerPoint follows your company template.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2ChatGPT, with Slides or PowerPoint
  2. 3Gemini in Google Slides
claude.ai
Spreadsheets

Formulas, clean-up and charts

My pick

Claude for Excel

Answers point to the cells they came from, formulas stay intact, and it warns before it overwrites anything.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Gemini in Google Sheets
  2. 3ChatGPT for Excel and Sheets
claude.ai
Shelf 4 of 6

Pictures, video and sound

An oak shelf on a yellow wall: a camera, a clapperboard and a studio microphone, a framed photo standing at the back of the shelf and a plant.ImagesVideoVoiceover
Images

Pictures from a description or a sketch

My pick

ChatGPT Images 2.5

Open Images in ChatGPT, start from a template or a rough sketch, then ask for changes.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Gemini, with Nano Banana 2
  2. 3Midjourney
chatgpt.com
Video

Short clips from words and pictures

My pick

Seedance 2.5

ByteDance's video model makes clips with sound, inside Dreamina or CapCut. It is still reaching some countries, so check it shows up for you.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Gemini Omni
  2. 3Kling 4.0
  3. 4Runway
dreamina.capcut.com
Voiceover

A voice for a video or a course

My pick

ElevenLabs

Natural voiceover from your script, and a clone of your own voice.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Fish Audio
  2. 3HeyGen
elevenlabs.io
Shelf 5 of 6

Build and automate

An oak shelf on a blue wall: a little belt carrying an email to a tick under a gear, a tablet showing a small website, a monitor with a browser and a pointer, a monitor with code, and a plant.AutomationsApps and websitesBrowser agentsCoding
Automations

Repeat work that runs by itself

My pick

Claude scheduled tasks

Describe work that repeats in any chat, like a report every Monday, then click Schedule. Find every one under Scheduled.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2ChatGPT scheduled tasks
  2. 3Zapier
claude.ai
Apps and websites

A small app or website, by chatting

My pick

Claude

Small apps and pages built right in the chat, and Claude Code when it grows into real software.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2ChatGPT Sites
  2. 3Replit
claude.ai
Browser agents

Let AI click through a website for you

My pick

ChatGPT Work's browser

Work has its own browser in the cloud. It handles sites you sign in to and pauses for your sign-in.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Claude in Chrome
  2. 3Gemini in Chrome
chatgpt.com
Coding

Build and fix software

My pick

Claude Code

Anthropic's coding agent, in the Claude desktop app, on the web or in your terminal.

Also good, in my order
  1. 2Codex
  2. 3Antigravity
claude.ai/code
Something else

Need a pick for another job?

Ask me
Shelf 6 of 6

How I run my business

The tools behind Neosaipien, one for each job. Where the maker offers an official MCP connector, I connect the tool to my AI with it: MCP is the plug that lets an assistant like Claude or ChatGPT use another tool for you. How connectors work.

Two oak shelves on a pink wall. On the top shelf: a board of task cards, a phone with a post and a clock, a monitor with a video timeline, a studio microphone, a hub with four model cubes, a tablet with a rising chart. On the lower shelf: a monitor with code beside the video it makes, a globe with a data card, two server towers, a stack of three data slabs, a calculator and a receipt.Project managementSocial postingVideo editingVoiceMany AI models in one placeYouTube growthVideo made from codeWeb data for AIWebsites and hostingApp databaseAccounting
Project management

Notion

Notes, docs, projects and tasks in one workspace.

MCPConnected to my AI: Notion MCP

Social posting

Zernio

Schedules and publishes posts to many social networks from one place.

MCPConnected to my AI: Zernio MCP

Video editing

Descript

Edit video and audio by editing the words of the transcript.

MCPConnected to my AI: Descript MCP

Voice

ElevenLabs

Natural voiceover from a script, including a clone of your own voice.

MCPConnected to my AI: ElevenLabs MCP

Many AI models in one place

Kie

One account for many image, video, music and text models.

APIConnected to my AI: Kie, by API

YouTube growth

vidIQ

Video ideas, keywords and title advice to grow a YouTube channel.

MCPConnected to my AI: vidIQ MCP

Video made from code

HyperFrames

HeyGen's open source tool that turns web page code, often written by an AI agent, into finished video.

MCPConnected to my AI: HyperFrames MCP, in beta

Web data for AI

Firecrawl and Apify

Firecrawl turns websites into clean text an AI can read. Apify runs ready-made web scrapers in the cloud.

MCPConnected to my AI: Firecrawl MCP and Apify MCP

Websites and hosting

Netlify and Vercel

Both publish and host websites and web apps. This site runs on Netlify.

MCPConnected to my AI: Netlify MCP and Vercel MCP

App database

Supabase

A ready database, user sign-in and file storage for an app.

MCPConnected to my AI: Supabase MCP

Accounting

QuickBooks

Intuit's books for a small business: invoices, expenses and reports.

MCPConnected to my AI: Intuit's QuickBooks connector, in the US

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Checked Oct 2026, next check Jan 2027. Features reach people in waves, by plan and by country: if you can't see one yet, it may not have reached you. No affiliate links.