There are 10,000 AI tools. Maybe five of them are genuinely useful for a small business that just wants to save time and make more money. These are the ones we'd bet on.
1. Claude (Anthropic) — for thinking and writing
ChatGPT gets the headlines but Claude is better for most business use cases. It's more accurate on long documents, writes more naturally, and has a 200K token context window — meaning you can paste your entire client contract and ask questions about it. Use it for: email drafts, proposal writing, research summaries, and meeting prep. Cost: $20/month.
2. Perplexity — for research
Google for things that happened last week. Perplexity cites sources, stays current, and gives you synthesised answers instead of a list of links. We use it for competitor research, industry news, and fact-checking. The Pro version adds Claude and GPT-4 access. Cost: $20/month.
Stop Googling. Start Perplexity-ing. The time savings alone will pay for the subscription in week one.
3. Make (formerly Integromat) — for automation
Zapier is more popular but Make is more powerful and significantly cheaper. You can build complex multi-step automations with error handling, data transformation, and conditional logic — without code. We use it for: lead routing, CRM updates, invoice generation, and social media scheduling. Cost: $9-29/month.
4. Notion AI — for documentation
If you're already using Notion, enabling AI turns it into a knowledge base that talks back. Ask it to summarise your meeting notes, generate action items, or draft a process document. The integration is seamless because the AI has context about your existing docs. Cost: $8/month add-on.
5. ElevenLabs — for voice content
Text-to-speech that doesn't sound like a robot. Use it for: explainer video voiceovers, podcast intros, and accessibility features on your website. The voice cloning feature lets you create a consistent brand voice. Cost: Free tier available, $5-22/month for regular use.
What We Recommend Skipping
Midjourney (for business use — Canva's AI is sufficient and doesn't require Discord). Jasper (overpriced for what it does — Claude does it better for less). Any AI tool that promises to "10× your revenue" in the headline.
Start with Claude and Make. Together they'll cover 80% of the automation and AI use cases a small business actually has. Add the others as specific needs emerge.