Every few days, a friend asks me which AI tools they should actually use. I always freeze. There are hundreds of options, new ones launch every week, and a lot of them hide the useful stuff behind a paywall.
So I was really happy to find a post from an AI educator on LinkedIn who gets that exact question more than 100 times a day. His answer is simple. He keeps one go-to list and copy-pastes the same tools every time someone asks.
What I love about it is how practical it is. Almost every pick comes with a free plan, free credits, or a generous starter tier. Here’s the quick version first, and then my notes on why each one earns its spot.
📋 The quick list
- Claude: Opus 5.5 for hard tasks
- ElevenLabs: for text-to-speech
- Granola: for meeting notes (no bot)
- Shortcut: for Excel (20 credits/week)
- Gamma: for slides (400 free credits)
- Cursor: for coding (free hobby plan)
- Seedance: for videos (free daily credits)
- Wisprflow: for dictation (2K words/week)
- Grammarly: for typos (unlimited basics)
- NotebookLM: to learn from your docs
- Happenstance: to find people (like ChatGPT but for LinkedIn)
- Canva: for designs (huge free plan, but AI features are limited)
A list of names is nice, but knowing when to use each one is what saves you time. So let’s go through them one by one.
1. Claude: the heavy lifter
The author recommends Claude with Opus 5.5 for the hard stuff. Think long strategy docs, tricky reasoning, or a messy problem you can’t untangle on your own. My take: don’t waste your strongest model on quick questions. Save it for the tasks where depth actually matters.
2. ElevenLabs: your voice studio
ElevenLabs turns text into natural-sounding speech. It’s great for voiceovers, audio versions of blog posts, or narration for training videos. If you’ve ever recorded the same intro ten times, you’ll get why this one made the list.
3. Granola: meeting notes without the awkward bot
This is the detail I liked most. Granola takes meeting notes without sending a bot into your call. No strange extra attendee, no explaining to clients why a robot joined. You stay present in the conversation and still walk away with clean notes.
4. Shortcut: Excel on autopilot
Spreadsheets eat hours. Shortcut handles Excel work with AI, and you get 20 credits per week for free. Use those credits on the boring jobs, like cleaning up data or building formulas you’d otherwise Google for 20 minutes.
5. Gamma: slides in minutes
Gamma builds presentations for you, and it starts you off with 400 free credits. Drop in an outline or a rough draft and get a polished deck back. It’s perfect for internal updates where you need something clean, fast.
6. Cursor: coding with a co-pilot
For coding, the expert picks Cursor, which has a free hobby plan. Even if you’re not a developer, it’s a friendly way to build small scripts or fix a website bug with AI guidance. Developers already know it’s a huge speed boost.
7. Seedance: video without a film crew
Seedance handles AI video, and it gives you free daily credits. Daily credits are a sneaky advantage. You can experiment a little every day without ever hitting a big bill.
8. Wisprflow: talk instead of type
Most of us speak much faster than we type. Wisprflow turns your voice into text, with 2K words per week on the free tier. Try it for first drafts of emails or brainstorming sessions. You’ll be surprised how much faster ideas come out loud.
9. Grammarly: the typo safety net
Simple but essential. Grammarly catches typos and grammar slips, and the basics are unlimited. It’s the tool you set up once and then forget about, until it saves you from an embarrassing email.
10. NotebookLM: learn from your own docs
NotebookLM lets you upload your documents and learn from them. Instead of generic answers from the internet, you get answers based on your own material. Try uploading a long report and asking something like “What are the three most important takeaways for my team?”
11. Happenstance: search your network like a chatbot
The creator describes Happenstance as “like ChatGPT but for LinkedIn.” You use it to find people. That’s handy when you need an intro to a specific role, a potential hire, or a partner in a new market.
12. Canva: the design all-rounder
Canva rounds out the list for designs. The author is honest here: the free plan is huge, but the AI features are limited. Still, for social graphics, thumbnails, and quick visuals, it’s hard to beat.
💡 How to get the most out of this stack
Having 12 tools is only useful if you actually use them. Here are a few ways I’d put this list to work:
- Start with your biggest time sink: if meetings drain you, begin with Granola. If spreadsheets do, start with Shortcut.
- Watch the reset cycles: some tools refresh weekly (Shortcut, Wisprflow) and others daily (Seedance), so plan your heavier work around them.
- Chain tools together: take notes in Granola, refine them in Claude, then turn them into a deck with Gamma.
- Don’t adopt all 12 at once: pick two or three, build the habit, then add more.
What makes this list valuable isn’t just the tools. It’s that every pick covers one clear job and comes with a real free option. You can build a solid AI workflow without paying for a dozen subscriptions upfront.
I’m saving this one for the next time someone asks me what they should use. Check out the full LinkedIn post to see the original list and the discussion around it.