In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, AI tools are reshaping how businesses operate. We’ve gathered insights from CEOs and founders on the AI technologies that have become essential to their companies. From the simplicity of image editing with Remove.bg to the business intelligence capabilities of Looker Studio, explore the twenty indispensable AI tools that these leaders swear by.
- Simplify Image Editing With Remove.bg
- Cursor: Superior Coding Assistance
- Jasper AI Boosts Content Marketing
- Fathom: Time-Saving AI Note-Taker
- Descript’s Underlord Enhances Podcast Production
- TL;DV: Efficient Meeting Summarization
- Lumen5: Engaging Video Content Creation
- MeetGeek: Automated Meeting Documentation
- Perplexity AI: Enhanced Customer Service
- MarketMuse: SEO Optimization Tool
- Otter.ai: Real-Time Collaborative Notes
- Longshot AI: Content Creation Accelerator
- Clara: AI-Powered Scheduling Assistant
- PhotoRoom: Professional Image Presentation
- StoryChief: Streamlined Content Marketing
- Claude AI: Business Intelligence Innovator
- Reclaim.ai: Optimize Task Scheduling
- Microsoft Copilot: Productivity Enhancement
- ChatGPT: Versatile Assistant for Branding
- Looker Studio: ChatGPT-Driven BI
Simplify Image Editing With Remove.bg
There’s one very simple tool. It basically does only one thing, but we still use it on a daily basis: remove.bg.
It simply removes backgrounds from images! However, it is an amazing time-saver and it works incredibly well.
Edgar Suppes
CEO, edquadrat GmbH
Cursor: Superior Coding Assistance
Cursor has emerged as a terrific coding assistant. It knows your whole codebase and lets you draw upon all of that knowledge as you code. It’s similar to GitHub Copilot, but right now, we think Cursor is better.
Scott Shrum
President & COO, Hennessey Digital
Jasper AI Boosts Content Marketing
Another AI tool that has become indispensable to my business is Jasper AI. We use it extensively for content marketing tasks such as blog posts, email campaigns, and social media copy.
Jasper’s ability to generate high-quality, creative text in a short amount of time has streamlined our content production processes. It allows us to maintain a consistent posting schedule, engage our audience with tailored messages, and enhance our SEO efforts, leading to increased traffic and better audience retention. This tool has become crucial for scaling our content without sacrificing quality.
Sebastian Petrosi
Head of Content Marketing, howtowatch.ca
Fathom: Time-Saving AI Note-Taker
I recently tried Fathom, the AI note-taker, and it’s truly changed the way I feel about meetings and calls.
Because it handles administrative tasks like uploading notes and summarizing conversations, it saves me about 20 minutes per meeting—and as a CEO and mom of three, that time is precious.
I no longer have to worry about losing time on mundane tasks or neglecting other parts of my business—or, more importantly, my family.
Carey Bentley
CEO, Lifehack Method
Descript’s Underlord Enhances Podcast Production
When you’re building your own business and running your own operational budget, you have to be super careful about what you include in your tech stack. As an entrepreneur building a podcast empire, Descript’s AI tool “Underlord” has saved me hours of time—and thus money—in episode production.
Media editing is generally a very time-consuming process regardless of what tools you use, and Underlord helps me with removing filler words, summarizing episodes, drafting YouTube descriptions, and even adjusting video shots all in one swoop.
Rachel Moore
CEO, But Wait, There’s Moore
tl;dv: Efficient Meeting Summarization
tl;dv has quickly become a game-changer for our business meetings. This AI tool records, transcribes, and summarizes our virtual meetings, which has saved us countless hours of manual note-taking. Instead of scribbling frantically during calls, our team can focus on the conversation, knowing tl;dv is capturing every detail. The automatic transcription, combined with timestamped summaries, makes it simple to review key points and action items.
Imagine you missed a meeting or need to reference a past one—the ability to search transcripts and jump to specific sections is incredibly efficient. This feature alone ensures that no critical information slips through the cracks and makes catching up seamless for anyone who couldn’t attend live.
The productivity boost has been noticeable. Our team no longer wastes time hashing out what was discussed or decided. Instead, we just pull up tl;dv’s summaries and get straight to work on action items. For example, after a strategy session, we can quickly align on next steps without having to rehash the entire discussion. This tool ensures everyone is on the same page and allows us to maintain momentum, making it indispensable in our day-to-day operations.
Mary Tung
Founder & CEO, Lido.app
Lumen5: Engaging Video Content Creation
Educating the public and businesses about recycling and waste management is important so that they may engage in this sector. Lumen5 makes it incredibly easy for us to create exciting, informative videos. We are thereby able to communicate these complex environmental concepts in an easy and visually rich manner. This enhances its outreach; therefore, we are able to speak with more people, bringing about more valuable change.
Lumen5’s AI-powered platform converts our written content into professional-looking videos in minutes. This tool saves us time and ensures our messaging remains consistent and compelling, which is critical to reaching diverse audiences on the subject of recycling. With the incorporation of Lumen5 into our communication strategy, we have managed to convert our convoluted environmental data into digestible content, hence being able to effectively educate and engage our community better than ever before.
Gil Dodson
Owner, Corridor Recycling
MeetGeek: Automated Meeting Documentation
MeetGeek has fundamentally transformed how we handle meeting documentation. Instead of having someone manually jot down notes, MeetGeek steps in to capture the essence of our discussions automatically. This tool generates comprehensive meeting minutes, capturing summaries, key points, and action items without missing a beat. It’s not just about saving time; it brings clarity to our workflow.
For instance, during our weekly strategy meetings, MeetGeek extracts the key takeaways and responsibilities, ensuring each team member knows exactly what’s next. This eliminates any ambiguity, keeps everyone aligned, and drastically boosts our productivity.
The value goes beyond mere time savings. MeetGeek enhances the quality of our internal communication. After each meeting, the immediate availability of detailed notes allows for quick dissemination of information. Team members can focus on participating fully in discussions without worrying about who’s keeping track of what.
We had a situation where a team member had to step out for an emergency; MeetGeek’s thorough minutes ensured they were up-to-date without any follow-up. This tool has become a silent but indispensable partner in our drive for efficiency and coherence.
Andy Gillin
Attorney & Managing Partner, GJEL Accident Attorneys
Perplexity AI: Enhanced Customer Service
I recommend Perplexity AI to improve their customer service and communication. It is an AI-powered search engine that delivers accurate, summarized answers to complex questions in seconds. Unlike traditional search engines, it uses advanced NLP and machine learning to understand context and intent, generating concise, human-like responses with cited sources.
Key features include contextual understanding, real-time information retrieval, integration with models like GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, and transparent citations. Perplexity AI offers a free version with limited usage and a Pro version for $20/month (with a $10 discount), which includes additional features like Claude, Gemini, API, Vision AI, and higher usage limits.
My personal experience with Perplexity AI has been exceptional. It saved me countless hours of researching and compiling information and helped me give detailed and accurate answers to my customers. Its integration with GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 has significantly improved the quality of responses, making them almost indistinguishable from human-written ones. Its ability to understand complex questions and provide concise answers makes it an indispensable tool for any business looking to enhance its customer communication.
Daniel Cook
HR / Marketing Executive, Mullen and Mullen
MarketMuse: SEO Optimization Tool
MarketMuse has become our secret weapon for SEO optimization. This AI tool goes beyond just surface-level keyword suggestions. It dives deep into our site, analyzing every piece of content and providing actionable recommendations to improve both keyword usage and content structure.
For instance, when we noticed certain blog posts weren’t performing well, MarketMuse helped identify gaps and suggest specific keywords that would make the content more competitive. The result? We’ve seen these updated posts climb up the search engine ranks, driving significant organic traffic to our site.
Another aspect where MarketMuse proves invaluable is in content planning. It offers insights into what topics are trending and what our target audience is searching for. This data allows us to create content that not only resonates with our readers but also meets search engine criteria.
An example is our “Blended Search” campaign. Using MarketMuse, we optimized our landing page by refining keywords and adjusting the structure based on AI-driven suggestions. This led to a remarkable increase in organic leads, making MarketMuse indispensable to our SEO strategy.
Cesar Cobo
Director of Operations, Webris
Otter.ai: Real-Time Collaborative Notes
Using Otter.ai for collaborative meeting notes has become a game-changer for our team. It transcribes our conversations in real time, capturing every detail and nuance. Team members can jump in, add comments, and highlight key points right in the transcript. This ensures that no one misses critical information, and everyone stays on the same page. Picture a brainstorming session where ideas are flying fast; Otter.ai makes sure that all those valuable insights are recorded and easily accessible for review and action.
The real-time collaboration aspect can’t be overstated. Whether it’s a quick sync-up or a detailed strategy meeting, having everyone contribute to the notes ensures comprehensive coverage of important decisions and action items. It’s like having a supercharged secretary that never misses a beat and allows us to focus on driving the business forward. This tool has significantly enhanced our team’s workflow and decision-making process, making it indispensable in our daily operations.
Jessica Bane
Director of Business Operations, GoPromotional
Longshot AI: Content Creation Accelerator
Longshot AI is one AI tool that I cannot do without in my business. As an entertainment platform, there is always the need to develop SEO-friendly and high-quality content that has an impact on my audience. In this way, Longshot AI has enabled me to write well-researched articles, blog posts, and social media updates with great speed.
A year ago, we used to have a bottleneck in our content production as the demand for fresh material grew. Our budget could not afford to outsource other than our small team, who struggled so much trying to keep up with this because it was not possible. At such moments, I thought of how Longshot AI would fit into the workflow of my employees. The device had been able to identify trends and also suggest keywords that one might put together in whole drafts based upon little prompts.
For instance, during a recent content push, Longshot AI facilitated an increase in our output by 100 percent, but without compromising on quality. The suggestions from the AI regarding tone and structure, as well as where keywords should be placed, helped us make sure that our content not only engaged readers but was optimized for search engines.
Besides enabling us to strategize more rather than grind away at content creation, it saved us countless hours because of its ability to delve into details when researching. This shows that applying automation through AI can greatly improve productivity.
If you are an entrepreneur dealing with increasing demands for content, look into tools like Longshot AI. This will ensure your content efforts grow without any loss of the quality levels that your consumers require.
Soubhik Chakrabarti
CEO, Canada Hustle
Clara: AI-Powered Scheduling Assistant
In the fast-paced world of nonprofit fundraising, efficiency is everything, and that’s where Clara, our AI-powered scheduling assistant, has become indispensable for us.
Before Clara, coordinating meetings with our clients, partners, and team members felt like handling a lot. The endless back-and-forth emails to find the perfect time would often lead to delays and, occasionally, missed opportunities. But with Clara, all of that changed.
Clara integrates seamlessly into our email threads, taking over the tedious task of scheduling meetings. All I have to do is loop Clara into the conversation, and it handles the rest—finding a suitable time, sending out invites, and even following up if someone hasn’t confirmed. If something comes up and a meeting needs to be rescheduled or canceled, Clara handles that too, instantly and effortlessly.
What sets Clara apart is how it learns from our preferences. I’ve instructed Clara to prioritize certain contacts, meaning key donors and partners always get the first slot available, reducing the chance of scheduling conflicts. Plus, with the ability to add users to a list of approved contacts, Clara ensures that our most important meetings are always prioritized.
Raviraj Hegde
Svp of Growth & Sales, Donorbox
PhotoRoom: Professional Image Presentation
PhotoRoom has completely changed my business by making my products stand out with beautiful and professional images. It is extremely user-friendly and minimizes the time required to spend on the back-end of my website. The options for backgrounds are endless and have made my social media content stand out. It has been a game-changer.
Andrea Berkowitz
Owner, Andrea Berkowitz Coaching
StoryChief: Streamlined Content Marketing
I prefer StoryChief, which is an AI-powered content marketing platform designed to streamline content creation and distribution. It offers tools like an AI Content Strategy Builder for personalized recommendations, collaborative workflows, direct publishing to various platforms, and detailed analytics. Pricing ranges from a free plan to paid options, with monthly fees from $40 for the Starter plan to $500 for the Enterprise plan.
I love its seamless integration with other tools like WordPress, LinkedIn, and Slack, making it a one-stop solution for my content marketing needs. The AI Content Strategy Builder has been particularly helpful in generating topic ideas based on keyword research and competitor analysis.
But the main reason why I consider StoryChief indispensable to my business is its ability to save time and increase efficiency. I can create and publish high-quality content in a fraction of the time with AI-powered features like automatic text formatting, image suggestions, and social media post previews.
Neil Emmett
Chief Executive Officer, Bend Advisory Group
Claude AI: Business Intelligence Innovator
I’ve experimented with numerous AI tools, but Claude has become our indispensable weapon. While ChatGPT initially dominated headlines, Claude has quietly revolutionized our operations, offering superior accuracy and consistency that leaves its predecessor in the dust.
Claude’s advanced natural language processing capabilities have transformed our content creation and data analysis processes. Unlike ChatGPT, which has shown increasing inconsistency and a tendency to hallucinate information, Claude maintains a high level of reliability across diverse tasks.
This consistency is crucial for a digital agency where precision can make or break client relationships.
What truly sets Claude apart is its nuanced understanding of context and its ability to generate more thoughtful, tailored responses.
I can’t overstate the value of integrating Claude over GPT into your workflow.
Brogan Renshaw
Managing Director, Firewire Digital
Reclaim.ai: Optimize Task Scheduling
We use several AI tools that have streamlined our business, but the one AI tool I would struggle to function without is Reclaim.ai, an AI calendar app that optimizes your task scheduling, meetings, and even habits.
As a white-label marketing agency, my team and I each manage multiple email addresses, project management systems, and calendars. Constantly trying to keep them all in sync and maintain a semblance of sanity was nearly impossible. We tried several other AI calendar tools that never seemed quite right before stumbling onto Reclaim. Their scheduling-links functionality is the best on the market, and they are consistently adding new tools and functionality.
AI tools are incredibly important to our business, and I could list a ton of them that are critical—Grammarly, Hemingway, and Copy.ai, to name a few—but Reclaim makes my life as an entrepreneur livable.
Cari Kaufman
Brand Strategist/Chief Wordsmith, Storyteller Wordsmith
Microsoft Copilot: Productivity Enhancement
Microsoft Copilot has truly become an indispensable part of our entrepreneurial toolkit. It’s like having a tireless assistant, always ready to help with tasks across various areas of the business.
From brainstorming marketing copy to summarizing lengthy reports, Copilot seamlessly integrates into our workflow, saving us precious time and boosting our productivity. It’s not about replacing human ingenuity but about enhancing our capabilities and freeing us up to focus on the bigger picture.
We particularly appreciate its ability to generate ideas and provide creative suggestions, sparking new approaches and solutions we might not have considered on our own. It’s a constant source of inspiration, pushing us to think outside the box and innovate.
Copilot also excels at automating repetitive tasks, such as drafting emails or summarizing customer feedback. This frees up valuable time that we can now dedicate to more strategic initiatives, like building customer relationships and refining our product offerings.
Brandon Batchelor
Head of North American Sales and Strategic Partnerships, ReadyCloud
ChatGPT: Versatile Assistant for Branding
The AI tool I can’t live without is ChatGPT. It’s like having a versatile assistant that helps with everything from content planning to research. What really stands out for me is how it remembers key details, so I don’t have to repeat myself every time I need something done.
Whether I’m working on brand strategy, brainstorming ideas, or just trying to organize my thoughts, it makes the process smoother and more efficient. For a branding business, it’s a game-changer that lets me focus on the bigger picture while still getting the little things right.
Lilian Santini
Creative Director and AI Consultant, The Copper Portico
Looker Studio: ChatGPT-Driven BI
ChatGPT has truly revolutionized the way we handle our business intelligence through Looker Studio. One indispensable use case is leveraging ChatGPT’s code interpreter to streamline our dashboard structuring. Traditionally, creating advanced SQL queries to join multiple tables from Looker could be complex and time-consuming, especially when tracking full customer lead journeys.
Using ChatGPT to generate these SQL queries has not only saved us time but also improved the accuracy and efficiency of our data reports. Here’s a practical tip: when working on complex data sets, let AI tools assist in breaking down and interconnecting various data points. This approach helps in ensuring that important KPIs are captured precisely and comprehensively.
Andrew Franks
Co-Founder, Reclaim247
