Struggling to get more done? The problem may not be your productivity, it's your AI toolkit. Discover 5 tools that can transform how you plan, create, research and work.
Claude
What it is:
Claude, made by Anthropic, is an AI assistant built for complex, structured work. It’s positioned less as a working partner for writing, analysis, coding and research—the kind of tasks that need structure and work through complex tasks. It is good and better with long documents. It has a free tier but has limited usage.
Key Features
- Holds a large amount of context at once, so it doesn’t lose track of earlier details in a long conversation, document, or report.
- Built with professional and technical workflows in mind, including working with documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
- Strong at turning messy, unstructured information into organised outlines, sections or plans.
- Can read, explain and improve code across multiple files rather than isolated snippets.
What it does
Claude is particularly useful when you need to write and improve professional documents, analyse long reports, develop detailed plans, summarize complex information, brainstorm ideas, or review code.
Example: Instead of asking “Write a report,” you could input your raw research findings and ask it to identify the major themes, organise them into sections and flag areas that need more clarity.
Gemini
What it is
Gemini is a general-purpose AI assistant. What sets it apart is that it is deeply built into Google apps people already use, including Docs and Gmail. It’s designed to move fluidly between writing, research and content creation. It is available at gemini.google.com and built into Google Workspace apps for many account types.
Key Features
- Native integration across Google Workspace apps, so the AI assistant is available where the work already happens.
- Growing “agentic” capabilities aimed at helping you complete multi-step tasks, not just answer isolated questions.
- Flexible across formats, texts and other content types for people who move between different kinds of work.
What it Does
Gemini is well suited to brainstorming, writing and editing, research and refining a rough idea into something usable. It is best for students, researchers, content creators, professionals and anyone already working extensively inside Google’s ecosystem.
Example: Say you are preparing a presentation on climate-smart agriculture; you could use Gemini to brainstorm the structure, draft explanations for each concept and refine the wording.
Perplexity
What it is
Perplexity is an AI-powered research assistant built around a simple shift: instead of giving you a list of links like a traditional search engine, it searches the web and returns a conversational answer backed by citations pointing to its sources. It’s designed for the moment when you need to understand a topic quickly.
Key Features
- Cited, source-linked answers rather than an unverified wall of text.
- A dedicated Research mode that runs multiple searches, reads numerous sources and synthesises them into a full report.
- Built specifically to compress the time between “I don’t know this topic” and “I understand the landscape.”
What it Does
Perplexity is useful for researching a topic, finding current information, comparing products or services, exploring unfamiliar subjects and summarizing web pages and gathering sources for further reading.
Example: Instead of opening different tabs, you could ask Perplexity to research the topic, identify the major developments, and sources to verify.
Good fit if you are:
- A journalist who needs a sourced starting point on a breaking topic before making calls.
- An entrepreneur comparing vendors, competitors, or market data quickly.
- A student gathering citable sources for a paper instead of clicking one link at a time.
NotebookLM
What it is
NotebookLM, also from Google, works with information you provide, not general knowledge. You upload your own materials (PDFs, Google Docs, slides, websites, audio, even YouTube videos) and NotebookLM builds its answers strictly from that source material, rather than pulling from the open web.
Key Features
- Answers grounded specifically in the documents you upload, with citations pointing back to those exact sources.
- Audio overviews, which turn your source material into a podcast-style discussion you can listen to.
- Support for study guides, mind maps and organised summaries generated directly from your own files.
What it Does
NotebookLM is useful for summarising reports, studying academic material, asking direct questions about a specific document, comparing information across multiple sources and extracting key points from large files.
Example: If you have a 100-page research report, instead of reading it cover to cover, you could upload it and ask “What are the five most important findings?” Then follow up with specific sections or a study guide from the material.
Good fit if you are:
- A student studying from a stack of textbook chapters.
- A researcher who needs to cross-reference findings across a dozen source documents.
- A professional preparing for a meeting by digesting a long report on a commute via Audio overview.
Microsoft Copilot
What it is
Microsoft Copilot is an AI assistant built directly into 365 apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams). Rather than being a separate destination you visit, Copilot’s design premise is meeting you inside the software where your work is already happening.
Key Features
- Drafting and rewriting support built directly into Word.
- Data analysis and formula assistance inside Excel.
- Presentation creation and design support inside PowerPoint.
- Email drafting and thread summarization inside Outlook, plus meeting summaries and actions in Teams.
What It Does
Copilot is useful for drafting and rewriting documents, analysing spreadsheet data, building presentations, summarising long email threads and pulling action items out of meetings, all without copying information into a separate chatbot.
Example: If you receive a long back-and-forth email thread about a project, Copilot can summarise the discussion and pull out key action items directly inside Outlook. In Excel, it can help build formulas and spot trends in your data.
Good fit if you are:
- An office manager who needs faster turnaround on reports and meeting notes.
- An analyst building formulas or spotting trends in large spreadsheets.
- A team lead who wants Teams meeting summaries without manually taking notes.
How These Tools Work Together
A realistic workflow often chains two or three of these tools together, each doing the part it’s best at:
- Research first: Use Perplexity to get a sourced overview of an unfamiliar topic.
- Draft and structure: Bring your notes and findings into Claude to organise them into a report, plan or outline.
- Polish inside your workspace: Finish formatting in Copilot (Word/Excel) or Gemini (Google Docs), depending on where you actually work.
- Reference your own materials: Keep NotebookLM open alongside any of the above to pull quotes, data or context from your own source documents as you go.