My AI tech stack (& how much I pay)

If you’re a busy, bootstrapped business owner like me, you understand the value of every minute and every dollar.

My current AI tech stack costs $41.80/month and saves me at least 10-20 hours per week. That’s about 60 extra hours for less than 50 bucks. (A great deal, if you ask me.)

This is the AI-powered tech stack that’s working for my business, and it might help yours, too. I’ve listed them below in order of frequency, with my most-used tools at the top. (You can read my previous AI tool reviews here.)

At the end, I provide a few key steps to build your company’s AI tech stack.

Daily Tools

ChatGPT Plus (OpenAI)

What I pay: $20/month

How I use it: General purpose (Research, Analysis, Decision-Making, Innovation, Creation)

Why I like it: ChatGPT remains my most used AI platform. Its models have stayed out ahead of the competition, and its improvements in multimodality (voice, image, etc.) make it a highly versatile productivity tool.  

You may have seen examples of how I use AI (in my ongoing LinkedIn series); I am typically firing up ChatGPT when I need:

• Background information on a topic
• Specific ideas or suggestions
• Strategic analysis or evaluation of an idea / plan
• Data organization or clean-up  

The mobile app is useful for on-the-go knowledge and recommendations.

‍Claude 3.5 Sonnet (Anthropic)

What I pay: $0

How I use it: Creation (writing, rewriting, summarization)

Why I like it: Claude is still my top writing partner. It is very good at replicating tone of voice and improving format, structure, tone, transitions, etc. It addresses edits and rewrites pretty well with minimal instruction and extremely well with specific instruction.

Don't miss out on Claude Artifacts. This side-by-side panel view is helpful for revising written content and creating content for specific formats (for example, web page and landing page copy).

Last but definitely not least, Anthropic released updates to its models on October 23, so I expect this will continue to be a frontier LLM (aka leader in this space). I’ve seriously considered upgrading to the paid version — I just get so much value out of the free version, and very rarely run into usage limits.

Gemini for Google Workspace

What I pay: $16.80/month (after 30% discount, normally $24/month)

How I use it: General purpose, particularly research and analysis

Why I like it: First, the chatbot: I find Gemini to be roughly on par with ChatGPT. My two primary use cases for Gemini are:

• When I'm seeking answers that incorporate real-time web browsing / I'm looking for relevant sources on a topic.
• When I'm working on larger strategic projects, and I want input from multiple models to build a holistic and well-rounded plan. (See also: BoodleBox, below.)

I've also started using Gemini for quick ideas and answers ever since Google released Chrome bar searching:

As for Gemini for Google Workspace, I’ve been satisfied — not overwhelmed. My most common use case is finding files. (I’m looking for the file where I first mentioned XYZ…)

But I believe that at its best, Gemini for Google Workspace will be transformative — that handy office assistant that knows exactly where files are stored, and an in-platform copilot to work more efficiently within and across Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.

If you’re already a Google Workspace company, it's worth keeping an eye on.

Grammarly

What I pay: $0

How I use it: Creation (editing, proofreading)

Why I like it: Grammarly provides spellcheck-style suggestions to improve my writing's grammar and clarity. Its Google Chrome extension provides assistance wherever I happen to be writing, making it one of my top (though rarely thought about) tools.  

Weekly Tools

ElevenLabs

What I pay: $5/month (Starter plan)

How I use it: Creation (text-to-voice generation)

Why I like it: ElevenLabs* makes it incredibly simple to generate natural-sounding narration from text. I recently published a step-by-step explanation of how we generate an audio version of our newsletter in under five minutes.

Limited generation (10 minutes of audio monthly) and its reader app are completely free; I’ve upgraded to the $5/month Starter plan for the commercial license.

Zoom Meeting Summary

What I pay: $0 (included in Zoom Workplace Pro account)

How I use it: Analysis (meeting summaries)

Why I like it: Zoom's meeting summary is a great companion to — not replacement of — note-taking during meetings. It does a very good job of capturing action items, and I'm impressed by its attempt to group a conversation's takeaways thematically rather than chronologically.

It works well in combination with Fireflies.ai (below), which offers true transcription. And Zoom recently released AI Compansion 2.0, which will make it even easier to summarize and take action on meetings.

Fireflies.ai

What I pay: $0

How I use it: Analysis (meeting transcription and summaries)

Why I like it: Fireflies.ai does what Zoom currently doesn’t — provide reliable and searchable meeting transcripts. Its after-meeting summaries are also pretty great:

Monthly Tools

HyperWrite

What I pay: $0

How I use it: Creation (writing)

Why I like it: These days, I primarily toggle-on HyperWrite's TypeAhead Google Chrome extension when facing writer’s block. (I find it somewhat distracting otherwise, with the in-line suggestions disrupting my train of thought.)

Hyperwrite has a collection of AI writing and research tools, but I don't use it for too much else. It is the generative AI I've been using the longest, though — for more than three years.

Thinkific

What I pay: $0 (included in Basic plan)

How I use it: Creation (landing page generation)

Why I like it: Thinkific hosts our AI education and training. Just last month I used its AI-assisted landing page builder for our new course, AI-Powered Productivity: When & Where to Use AI to Get More Done.

The landing page assistant asked a few questions about the target audience, challenges they’re facing, and how this course solves them. Based on my responses, it generated a solid first draft of the landing page — headings, body copy, and calls to action. (I edited it, but hypothetically could have published the page as-is.)

It’d like to see more in-platform AI assistants take this approach, rather than general “help me write” buttons that spit out pretty boilerplate copy.

Perplexity

What I pay: $0

How I use it: Research

Why I like it: Perplexity is a good starting point for background knowledge and research, for learning a topic quickly, and for finding valuable statistics. But since Gemini and ChatGPT browse the web and can often cite sources, I don’t use Perplexity much.

Descript

What I pay: $0

How I use it: Creation (video editing, audio editing)

Why I like it: At best, I’m a beginner-level video and audio editor. But Descript’s AI-powered editing and intuitive UI make editing fast and easy. My business use cases are limited, but I’ve really enjoyed using it. Check it out if you need to edit:

• Podcasts
• YouTube videos
• Webinars
• On-demand courses

It can also generate short video clips, captions, transcripts, and AI voice clones.

‍BoodleBox (boodleAI)

What I pay: $0

How I use it: Innovation, Analysis

Why I like it: My favorite BoodleBox features include:

• Multi-model approach: Ability to select which model you'd prefer for a task — and to invite a second or third model in to provide feedback or improve the output. Plus, access to several models all rolled into one license.
• Saved knowledge: Upload important files to a knowledge base, so they're available to attach to prompts in a couple clicks. Or, have them added to all chats in that workspace by default. (Think: Brand style guides, product documents, buyer persona profiles, or other context blocks.)  
• Prompt thread sharing and collaboration: Share a chat thread with a colleague asynchronously — or invite them to collaborate with you and AI in real time.

That last point is probably my favorite — To me, it feels a bit like Slack but with generative AI models as additional "colleagues" that (upon request) complete tasks, provide input, and collaborate with you and each other.

I’m currently using the free plan, but would absolutely consider the paid plan for team collaboration. (If you'd like to try BoodleBox, you can use my link to save 20%.*)

HubSpot

What I pay: $0 (included in HubSpot Starter Customer Platform)

How I use it: Analysis (marketing/sales platform management)

Why I like it: I’ve been a little underwhelmed by HubSpot’s writing assistants (I prefer more detailed prompts and control) and ChatSpot, but I’m not going to underestimate HubSpot — The company has been investing in AI for years.  

Right now, I’m appreciating HubSpot's AI-powered features like the List Assistant, which are designed to save time and reduce friction. Long term, I could see the platform's AI (now called "Breeze") being incredibly valuable — helping automate more tasks, unify data, and simplify platform use.

What should your AI tech stack look like?

So, what AI tools do YOU need? To answer that, you need to figure out your most immediate goal.

What's your “AI Why”? In other words — What problem are you trying to solve?

• Save time ⏱️ Do the same tasks, faster, freeing your team up for additional projects and tasks.
• Drive revenue 💰 Do the same tasks, at greater scale, to increase customers (⬆️ marketing/sales) or capacity (⬆️ operations).
• Expand capabilities 🦸 Do new tasks your team can't do on their own, to improve operational ability or increase service offerings.

The answer will dictate which tools and use cases are worth your time — and which are just shiny objects.

Start with your top use cases, and master one tool at a time.

Now if you selected D - All of the Above! and you don’t know where to begin, I recommend this three-step process:

1. Increase time. Set aside *just 1 hour* to look for small, repeatable ways to improve efficiency on your most common tasks. Apply the AI tools that will best support these use cases. (Tip: Here’s an easy, step-by-step framework to follow.)
   
   
2. Increase productivity. With the extra time you now have, consider your most effective (revenue-driving) activities and research tools that can scale these and/or increase their performance. Add these tools or use cases to your AI plan.
   
   
3. Increase ability. Explore new possibilities for your business. Are there additional products or services you could offer? Capabilities you could bring in-house? Entirely new ways to reimagine your business from the ground up? With the additional revenue you’re driving, invest in transforming key aspects of your company.

This allows you to incrementally free up bandwidth and budget to invest back into your company’s AI evolution. Think of it like a flywheel, creating an increasingly efficient and effective business.

While this framework simplifies a complex challenge, remember: You don't have to transform everything at once. Start with just one hour and one task.

Small, intentional steps compound, creating momentum that can transform both your business and your daily life. The key is to begin.

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I can’t tell you if the tools I shared are right for your business. But I hope my story illustrates that even small or bootstrapped businesses can get incredible value from AI tools on the market today.

It's an exciting time. For so long, we’ve been saddled with getting all the work done. Once the doing is handled, we can start dreaming up even bigger and better ways to run our companies. In other words:

When you can create anything, what will you create?

When you build anything, what will you build?

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(*Disclaimer: Affiliate links. Clicking on these links help support the free content in this newsletter. I only share products and services that I personally use and would recommend to a friend.)

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