ChatGPT is getting more impressive every year, but that's just one app in a sea of possibilities. Right now, there's a bit of everything for nearly every productivity problem: from new intelligent features on apps you already love, to entirely new platforms with jaw-dropping functionality.
I've been playing around with AI tools for a while now, and I've continued to update this list with lots of research and testing from me and the team at Zapier. With that, here are more than 60 AI productivity tools that will change the way you work.
The best AI productivity tools by category
Chatbots (ChatGPT, Claude, Meta AI, Zapier Central)
Search engines (Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Arc Search)
Grammar checkers and rewording tools (Grammarly, Wordtune, ProWritingAid)
Video creation and editing (Runway, Descript, Wondershare Filmora)
Image generation (DALL·E 3, Midjourney, Ideogram)
Social media management (FeedHive, Vista Social, Buffer)
Voice and music generation (ElevenLabs, Suno, AIVA)
Knowledge management and AI grounding (Mem, Notion AI Q&A, Personal AI)
Transcription and meeting assistants (Fireflies, Avoma, tl;dv)
Email (Shortwave, Microsoft Copilot Pro for Outlook, Gemini for Gmail)
Slide decks and presentations (Tome, Beautiful.ai, Slidesgo)
Resume builders (Teal, Enhancv, Kickresume)
Automation (Zapier)
Zapier Chatbots lets you create custom AI chatbots and take action with built-in automation—no coding required. Try the to-do list bot template, so you can start breaking down goals into actionable tasks.
How I selected the best AI productivity app in each category
My AI app database is at 270 entries right now. I'm absolutely sure there are way more out there, with many new apps being launched every week.
Full transparency: I've had a chance to take a look at most of them, but I haven't tested them all (yet). The list you're about to see contains a collection of great AI productivity tools tested by Zapier's app review team, myself included. If there's a particular category you like, check out the best apps lists we've put together for them—or if we're still in the process of writing that list, run a quick Google search to find more options.
While all these apps are getting better every day, they're far from perfect: be sure to always check AI's work with your human brain. With that being said, please keep all hands and legs inside the vehicle—it's time to explore.
1. AI chatbots
The best place to start is the category that brought AI to the mainstream. AI chatbots allow you to chat with an AI large language model, letting you ask questions and get answers in a conversational style. The best chatbots use advanced reasoning and logic, write code, and make mathematical calculations.
Take a look at the full list of chatbots in our article on the best AI chatbots.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is the current industry leader, and the first chatbot that set the scene on fire. Now powered by GPT-4o, 4o-mini and the o1 reasoning model, it's surprisingly flexible and very easy to use. Learn how to use ChatGPT, understand how it works, and discover how to use it to write marketing copy, do market research, or write sales emails.
When you connect ChatGPT to Zapier, you can automate ChatGPT, so you can access the power of the AI chatbot from within any of your favorite apps.
Create email copy with ChatGPT from new Gmail emails and save as drafts in Gmail
Start a conversation with ChatGPT when a prompt is posted in a particular Slack channel
Claude
Anthropic's safe and creative chatbot, Claude builds Artifacts: it can code simple interactive interfaces, write documents in a separate tab, or even design games for you. Make changes with prompts on the left side of the screen and see them come into shape on the right.
You can connect Claude to thousands of other apps using Zapier too. Learn more about how to automate Claude, or get started with one of these pre-made workflows.
Write AI-generated email responses with Claude and store in Gmail
Create AI-generated posts in WordPress with Claude
Meta AI
Meta AI, available only in the U.S. for now, is the first step toward a bigger integration of AI features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. In addition to answering your questions, you can generate images and short animations with a prompt.
Later, you may be able to use Meta AI as you browse Meta's social media platforms, generating content and crushing the massive amount of feed data into more digestible insights about your friends and followers.
Zapier Central
Zapier Central is an experimental AI workspace where you can teach AI assistants to work across thousands of apps. But the interface is a chatbot, which means that creating your own AI assistant is as simple as using ChatGPT.
Start by giving your assistant access to your company's source of truth in apps like HubSpot, Notion, and Airtable. You can ask it about your data as well as all the data in your apps—and data sources will sync automatically.
And you can train your assistants to work while you're not there: tell your assistant what to do when it's triggered, how to process or summarize data, and which actions it should take, all without writing a line of code. These assistants are like mini-teammates who help you with specific tasks, like analyzing your spreadsheets, searching the web, or drafting responses to customers.
It's AI chat, automation, and data analysis all in one place. Learn more about Zapier Central, and then get started for free.
2. AI search engines
Hallucinations are one of the biggest issues with AI. To counter this risk, some tools include web searches into their apps, using the results as sources to support the AI-generated answer. And that's an AI search engine in a nutshell.
Get the full tour in our article on the best AI search engines.
Perplexity
Leading the pack, Perplexity is attracting a lot of attention due to its high-quality answers, great quoting of sources, and staying on topic even as you ask follow-up questions. It uses a combination of Google's, Bing's, and proprietary ranking signals to decide which results are best to base the AI response on. It's really good to use alongside a classic Google search if you're digging into tricky topics—I'm still amazed by the niche things I found while researching with Perplexity. Curious? Read Zapier's Perplexity full guide here.
Google AI Overviews
You might've already noticed this when using Google Search lately: in addition to the list of search results, you're now getting an AI-generated overview of the top ones. Google's selection of sources to include is hit or miss at the moment, so please check everything before using any information. Still, the generated answer offers a good overview before starting a deep-dive.
Arc Search
Part of the Arc Browser project, Arc Search brings AI features into your search experience: enter your question and tap Browse for me to begin. Arc will grab the top results, break it down in sections, and start summarizing the source content into a structured answer. Toggle between the AI-generated results and the classic Google search page using the control at the bottom right of the screen. iOS and iPadOS only for now.
3. AI apps for content creation
Entire movies have been made about writer's block. These apps are here to break it. By entering your prompts, starting from templates, or using recipes, you can use AI models as a co-writer, helping you put together first drafts faster.
Browse all the possibilities in our list of the best AI writing generators.
Jasper
Jasper is a powerful AI content creation platform, favoring users who need a high volume of content. It packs dozens of templates to help you get started, connects to the internet to find research and sources, and also lets you generate images with AI. All your content creation needs are covered here.
You can also connect Jasper to thousands of other apps using Zapier. Learn more about how to automate Jasper or try one of the pre-built workflows below. You can also read more about how Jasper compares to ChatGPT.
Upload new Dropbox files to YouTube as videos with Jasper generated content
Create Jasper blog posts from new changes to specific column values in monday.com and save the text in Google Docs documents
Anyword
Anyword helps marketers create content by breaking the generation process down step by step. First, you add your prompt to generate a few titles. Then, you can pick your favorite and see a generated outline. Once you tweak that outline to what you want to cover, you can move forward to generating the final piece.
Writer
Big businesses can't afford missteps. A misplaced fact or an inaccurate claim can hurt brands, tank reputations, and take things to court. Where other LLMs tread gray areas, Writer offers their proprietary LLMs and plenty of tools to make sure your content stays true. On top of it, Writer will help keep brand voice consistent for teams who collaborate on publishing. That's the productivity boost of AI with fewer risks.
You can connect Writer to Zapier—learn more about how to automate Writer, or get started with one of these templates.
Repurpose a Facebook post with Writer and add it to your Buffer queue
Create new outlines or drafts in Writer based on briefs from Asana
4. AI apps for text enhancement
Spell-checking has been around for a long time, but AI is changing the game. Before, it only detected spelling and basic structure errors. Now, it can spot tone and complex language and offer suggestions to make your writing clearer.
Discover all the available apps in our list of the best grammar checkers.
Grammarly
Grammarly is the mainstream spell- and structure-checking app. It's a complete solution that keeps your English on point, lets you adjust your tone, and suggests shortcuts to simplify wordy or complex phrases. It has plenty of extensions and integrations, so you can use it almost anywhere there's a text box. It has basic generative text features, too.
Wordtune
Wordtune helps you find plenty of wording alternatives to improve your text. When you input the text you want to check, you can easily browse synonyms, ask to rewrite entire sentences, and adapt the suggestions into a final draft.
ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid is a direct competitor of Grammarly, offering plenty of statistics to help you track grammar, style, and spelling scores. One of the main advantages here is its lifetime plan, helping you leverage all these features without adding a new recurring bill. Find out which is the best for you in our ProWritingAid vs. Grammarly comparison.
5. AI apps for video generation and editing
While full-blown video generation is still coming together, there's already a set of video tools that leverage AI to enhance video, remove backgrounds accurately, and even paint a few new images into each frame.
For the full list, see our picks for the best AI video generators.
Runway
Runway is a video magic wand. The new Gen-3 Alpha model is a big step up in AI video generation, making it one of the best commercially available solutions. It has a set of interesting features that helps you generate video with AI, train your own models, and paint parts of frames using text prompts. The learning curve is very rewarding, and the app is growing at a great pace. Be sure to check it out.
Descript
Descript transcribes your videos into a script. Then, instead of using a timeline to trim the audio and video tracks, you edit the text script. As you do so, the video gets trimmed automatically. The rest of the editing works in a similar way, cutting the time to edit your talking head videos. Find out how it simplifies your audiovisual workflows in our walkthrough.
When you connect Descript to Zapier, you can automate the work better suited for computers, so you can focus on the creative side of things. Here are a couple of pre-built workflows to get you started, or you can learn more about how to automate Descript.
Create Descript transcripts from Google Drive files
Wondershare Filmora
Wondershare Filmora has been around for a long time. Now, it also brings to the table a set of AI features that let you remove backgrounds, denoise low-quality clips, and improve sound quality. All this with the classic video editing user experience, so you'll never feel lost.
6. AI apps for image generation
An image is worth a thousand words, but you don't need so many to generate a beautiful one with AI. These image generators take a text prompt and deliver the results—and this can be anywhere between mind-blowing to nightmare-inducing. They're both hugely entertaining and highly useful.
Read more about our picks for the best AI image generators.
DALL·E 3
DALL·E 3 is an image generator by OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. It's very simple to use—it runs in ChatGPT—and it produces interesting results, no matter if you've just started writing image prompts or are already a master. A great choice to begin exploring the realm of AI image generation.
You can connect DALL·E to Zapier to do things like automatically create images from transcripts, chat messages, or any other apps you use. Learn more about how to automate AI image generation, or start with one of these examples.
Create images with DALL.E based on Slack messages and send as a channel message
Create transcripts of audio files with OpenAI's Whisper
Midjourney
Midjourney is impressive. Anything you throw at it generates incredible results—even if sometimes they're slightly off the mark. And while using it within Discord started making sense for me, it's now possible to generate images on your browser as well.
Hit the ground running with our guide for how to use Midjourney, or take a look at how it compares to DALL·E 3.
Ideogram
Image models are famous for their trouble when drawing letters. But Ideogram got the hang of it: it can generate accurate text whenever you ask for it in a prompt. Apart from that, it generates good-looking images, only slightly behind Midjourney in quality. And if you want additional aesthetic control, try out the image editor. Start playing with the 10 daily free credits—but keep in mind that everything you generate in this free plan is public.
7. AI apps for social media management
Keeping your social media channels active is like trying to juggle a dozen balls: new balls come in, old ones drop out, and you have to keep them all in the air at the same time. That's images, videos, text, engaging with your audience, wrapping everything up into reports—and going again consistently.
AI can help: take a look at our list of the best AI social media management tools.
FeedHive
Content repurposing is a smart strategy for two reasons. First, it helps your newer audience connect with the lightbulb moments you dropped before they were following you. Second, it eases the pressure of having to create new content from scratch every week. FeedHive includes AI-powered content recycling features, among a vast collection of other tools to make sure you switch the admin hat for creative one.
Vista Social
When you're managing four or more channels at once, it's easy to lose track of what's happening. Vista Social acts as a hub for everything social media, gathering it all in a single place. The AI tools help repurpose content from platform to platform, so you can start writing for LinkedIn but have it ready for Facebook and Instagram, for example.
Connect Vista Social to Zapier to do even more with your AI tools. Here are some examples to get you started.
Schedule posts in Vista Social when tasks change in ClickUp
Send Slack channel messages for newly scheduled Vista Social posts
Buffer
Buffer's AI features focus on sharpening your message to match the engagement style of each social media platform. As you create a new post, the side tab updates with copy matching the channel's requirements, offering ways to further customize the tone and length. It also offers a place where you can note down all your post ideas, so you can quickly expand them with AI and schedule them for publishing.
And when you connect Buffer to Zapier, you can automate your social media management even more. Here are some examples, or you can learn more about how to automate Buffer.
8. Voice and music generators
YouTubers and other social media creators sometimes struggle to get original assets for their content. Good thing AI is here to (re)mix everything with AI voice generators and AI music generators.
ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs is the flashiest AI voice generator platform on the market. With high-quality output, a sound effect generator, and over 300 voices—including some of real-world personalities such as Christy Carlson Romano, Disney's Kim Possible—it's easy to see how it got a $1B valuation. Whenever you need clear, engaging voices and don't have the time or budget for working with voice actors, be sure to try it out. Listen to a sample here.
Suno
Want to compose a quick hit but don't have time to hang out at the recording studio? Skip everything: enter a prompt, and Suno will create a song, complete with lyrics, varied musical composition, and an actual voice track. I generated a song about a flying banana that would've perfectly blended in a night out in a Spanish island club. Even if you won't use it in the long run, give it a quick try: it's super fun.
AIVA
AIVA also deals with music, but takes a different approach. Instead of a text prompt, there are three ways you can start generating:
By picking a style, from epic orchestral to cinematic cyberpunk
By chord progression
By uploading an audio reference as inspiration
Once ready, you can edit the result in a timeline editor, adding or removing instrument tracks as you feel your way into the final version.
9. AI apps for knowledge management and grounding
AI is also a powerful assistant search tools. When you connect it to your personal data, workspace, or second brain, it can find anything you need and put it into a natural language answer. Much better than sifting through your notes for hours, right? This is the gist of grounding: keeping an AI model close to your facts—not up there flying with the hallucinations.
Mem
Mem uses AI to tag and connect the notes you take, so you don't have to spend time organizing them. You can just gather bits and pieces of information, store them, and trust that Mem's AI features will keep everything connected and organized. When the time comes to search for those notes, you can browse the automatic tags and use the search bar to find all you wrote about each topic that matters to you.
Keep feeding your intelligent second brain by connecting Mem to Zapier, improving data transmission and opening up more automation opportunities. Here are a few examples to get you started.
Create mems in Mem from new pushed messages in Slack
Notion AI
Notion is a strong workspace for organizing your knowledge, but even if you're disciplined, important pages will still fall through the cracks. Not anymore with Notion AI Q&A: grounded on your data, it generates answers and points you to the sources, revealing that lost insight you recorded in a meeting years ago.
You can connect Notion to Zapier to streamline things even more. Learn more about how to automate Notion, or try one of these workflows.
Add new Google Calendar events to databases in Notion
Personal AI
While Mem and Notion focus on notes and documents, Personal AI focuses on messaging. The data you upload into the app is turned into memory blocks. Then, whenever someone messages you, your personal AI generates a reply based on your data: you can edit the details or tap to send it right away. When you feel your AI model knows enough about you, you can turn on AI Autopilot, which will make others feel like they're talking to a ChatGPT-like version of you.Â
You can help Personal AI learn about you by connecting it to Zapier and sending it memories from the apps where you spend the most time. Learn more about how to automate Personal AI, or get started with one of these workflows.
Create Personal.ai memories from new Microsoft Outlook emails
10. AI task and project management
When you have a good plan, collaboration and execution are easier. AI project management and task management can help getting more clarity on what to do, optimize processes, and help you cross every single task off your list. And there are plenty of AI project management tools to help you get there.
Asana
A project management heavyweight, Asana adds a wide range of useful AI-powered features. Smart goals use historical data to come up with better goals for the quarter. It identifies project risks and workflow blockers, so you can tackle trouble before it happens. And it provides answers to anything related to your projects, helping you gain more visibility into what is (or isn't) happening.
You can automate Asana even more by connecting it to Zapier, so it can talk to thousands of other apps. Learn more about how to automate Asana, or take a look at these pre-made workflows.
Create new Asana tasks from new Google Calendar events
Any.do
It's natural not to know the entire task lineup of a project. If you have trouble figuring out all the steps to get from zero to complete, Any.do generates tasks for you. Whenever you're writing them down, you can take a look at AI suggestions and click to enlarge your list.
Connect Any.do to Zapier to automate all your task management processes. Read more about how to automate Any.do, or check out these pre-made workflows.