📈 The best places to use AI tools

Hi everyone.

I’ll cut straight to the point.

Every time you log in to work, there's some task you hate.

You know the one. It's boring, it's tedious, but it's a "requirement" or some corporate buzzword.

The good news? There's hope.

There’s an AI tool out there for you. Right now. It can (I guarantee) solve that stupid, annoying work headache.

Today…

• Deep dive: We'll see if AI tools can help you.

• Why you cannot escape Meta’s new AI features

• Why ChatGPT’s latest update matters for you

• War comes to Fraggle Rock

Oh, for those of you wondering, my flooded living room is now upgraded to “dry living room with no walls or floors.” We celebrate progress in this community.

Deep dive

The best ways to use AI tools

Shocker: the easiest way to try out AI is to use AI tools.

You can read about AI. You can listen to your coworker blab about AI. That’s all fine and good.

But if you want to understand why everyone (including me) won’t shut up about it, you have to try it for yourself.

So, AI tools. Great.

Where do I start?

Depending on where you do most of your work, there’s a few places you can try AI out.

1/ AI browser extensions

Everyone should have at least one AI tool in their browser. Surfing the web with AI as your copilot is mega-underrated.

You probably do most of your work in the browser. Anything from emails to editing to endlessly scrolling. Everything I just mentioned can get better with an AI tool.

Enter…AI in your browser.

When should I use a browser extension? When you're feeling lazy. No need to open up another tab - an AI browser extension sees everything you’re already seeing.

Examples

Jasper AI - Link

Tools like Jasper give you built-in access to create and edit pretty much any text copy you want. This AI copilot literally stays with you for every part of your internet experience. Let's say you need to reword an email to make it more friendly. Or generate a Twitter thread on the best way to bake bread. Anything words-related, there's an AI copywriter for it.

Otter AI - Link

A lot of us take meetings in the browser. AI assistants like Otter are hard at work while you’re talking. Generating meeting notes, follow-ups, and executive summaries.

Bearly - Link

Tools like Bearly work magic on any text you see online. That’s the advantage of an AI in your browser - it has access to all the information you’re seeing. It can summarize articles, Amazon product reviews, and YouTube videos. All right from the sidebar. And, in this case, help with all your writing problems too.

2/ AI apps

Some AI tools work better as their own apps.

When should I use a separate app? Sort of like office hours. You bring a problem, AI creates the solution.

And I’m not going to talk about ChatGPT. That’s the Swiss army knife of AI. We have a whole separate issue on it!

Examples

Dall-e - Link

Imagine any image, and Dall-e will make it real. I cannot recommend trying this out enough. It’s pure magic.

Character AI - Link

Chat with any famous figure, alive or dead. Want to talk to Mario, or Elon Musk? These chatbots will chat in their style. Want a strict teacher to grill your startup idea? There’s a character for that.

DoNotPay - Link

I'm not kidding...AI can take the pain out of some painful tasks. Tasks like cancelling that Netflix subscription. Or protesting a parking ticket. Or just talking to customer service. That same magic tech that lets you talk to ChatGPT can do busywork work for you.

3/ AI features within your favorite apps

This is where you’ll see most of the AI features in the next year.

Spoiler: it’s way easier to add AI to your favorite app than to make a new app. Apps like Photoshop and Gmail have some AI features you can use right away.

When should I use an in-app AI? When you use that app ALL THE TIME. That app has the best context on you, what you do, and how it can help.

Examples

Photoshop AI - Link

Photoshop is one of the easiest ways to learn how to change photos. Now, AI sits right in the app to help you make them even cooler. You can literally highlight an area of a photo, tell Photoshop what to fill it with, and AI handles the rest.

Github Copilot - Link

The most famous example. Almost half of all code written on Github uses Copilot. That means AI is in the passenger seat for some of the smartest programmers out there. Why can’t that be you? Not only does it generate new code, it explains any code to you. It's your copilot for coding.

Tome AI storytelling - Link

Let's face it - a blank Powerpoint slate sucks. Apps like Tome hope to bust that presenter's block with AI. It'll guide you along any presentation you want to create, generating words and visuals using AI. Watch out, though - we expect Powerpoint to come in hot with the same features.

Great. We know where to look. What do they do?

There are three main categories that AI tools fall into.

AI tools can generate new things for you. When you ask an AI to make a draft email for you, it’s creating that text using AI. When you send a “prompt” to Dall-e asking for a picture of a cat riding a unicorn, it’s generating that new thing for you.

AI tools can work magic on existing things for you. If you ask an AI to edit a section of your resume to be more clear, it’s taking that information and transforming it. Same goes for Photoshop’s AI - it’s using the information, plus AI, to fill out the rest.

AI tools can get rid of your work headaches. Summaries for meetings auto-generate. First-drafts write themselves. Replies to emails pop up without lifting a finger. The busywork is gone.

By now, I hope you've got a good grasp on what AI tools can do for you. You say you do? Excellent.

Let me know what AI tools I missed.

AI news you should pay attention to

1/ You’re going to start seeing AI in apps like Facebook and Instagram

Mark Zuckerburg - the AI underdog, the open source hero, the David to Microsoft's Goliath - finally notched a win.

Well, sort of. 

He announced all the cool new AI sh*t that’s going to go into all their apps.

He’s itching to “build (AI) into every single one of our products.”

His words. Not mine.

Some may say that Meta “hasn’t done anything with AI” or “is asleep at the wheel” or “has an alien for a CEO".

All fair.

But just wait until you hear their AI plan for Facebook and Instagram.

Want to use AI to glam up your photos before you post them on Insta? Soon you can. Want to talk to a Meta-developed AI right in Messenger? No? Too bad, they’re making that anyway.

That’s not to mention their (actually smart) plans to use generative AI for their ads business. You know, their core business model?

Why should you care?

I’ve been shouting every week that AI is coming for every product you use. And, well, here’s the world’s biggest social networking company saying the same thing.

So, when Aunt Carol shows off her cool AI-generated WhatsApp sticker, you’ll be ahead of the curve.

2/ We’re one step closer to a useful Siri, thanks to AI

Siri.

We all know it. It’s the iPhone’s achilles’ heel.

Android users love to lord that over iPhone users. No matter how cool the iPhone 18 Pro Max Ultra is, it still has Siri, and Siri sucks.

Well, that might change.

ChatGPT’s latest update brings some…actually useful features to its iPhone app.

For one, the iPad app now uses the whole screen, and isn’t tiny. Score.

For another, you can drag and drop text in and out of the app. So feel free to drag your homework questions recipe questions right into ChatGPT.

The biggest update, however, allows you to link shortcuts to Siri.

Great, you’re thinking. Now, second question. What does that mean?

It means that you can say “hey siri, open ChatGPT and run my prompt for meal prep ideas” and it’ll (you guessed it) open ChatGPT and run the prompt asking for meal prep ideas.

Better than Google Assistant?

Hell no.

Better than using Siri?

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t connect to the internet to answer your question.”

Oh, and at least the iPhone HAS a ChatGPT app.

AI tools, tips, links

1. Fill out a cropped photo, using AI. For free. Link

2. Fantastic (AI) summary of Zuckerberg’s interview with Lex. Link

3. AI-powered tool for editing YouTube/TikTok shorts. Link

4. Let an AI present your slides for you. Link

5. Why AI should IMPROVE your learning, not replace it. Link

ChatGPT is so patient.

AI image of the week - War comes to Fraggle Rock.

From Reddit

What’d you think?

Got feedback? I’d love to hear it. Hit me up on LinkedIn or Twitter.