9 Best AI Productivity Tools in 2026

What really is there to say? ChatGPT was the fastest-growing consumer app in history when it launched. It reached 1 million users in about 5 days after launch and 100 million users in about 2 months after launch.

OpenAI is general artificial intelligence. You can ask it questions, and it'll answer them, like a human. You can ask it to write code for you, and it'll build it, all while explaining the why and how.

Engineering friends of mine are worried that it'll replace their job, and yet they are using it to become a better engineer (using it to teach them different coding languages).

The craziest thing of it all, anyone can use it, and you don't even need to be technical to use it. Just visit ChatGPT here and start asking it questions. You'll be amazed by what it can do. If you're more technical, then be sure to check out the actual API and see where you can fit it into what you're building (I mean everyone else is).

Everyone is trying to build a OpenAI (ChatGPT) into their product right now. It's the closest thing we've seen to magic in an incredibly long time.

We started using Superhuman Mail before it even had AI features (7 years ago!), and it was already the best email client we'd ever used. But now, with AI fully baked in, it's more than just an email client, it's an entire email assistant.

I always joke with people and ask: would you really not pay $30/mo for an assistant to help you with emails? You're likely paying closer to $30/hour! It's different than other AI email assistants out there because the team behind it (which we've had the pleasure of meeting) deeply cares about quality. Instead of just releasing features where "AI can write emails for you" but it's wrong 90% of the time, they'd rather just put features in front of you that you will consistently use.

Superhuman Mail writes in your actual tone, and it even detects when an email needs a follow-up and will automatically write it for you. All you need to do is hit send.

Perplexity is an AI-first search engine that replaces Google with direct answers pulled from the web.

We like to use it when doing deep research that we need sources from the internet. It pulls from multiple sources in real time, making it one of the best tools for researching topics online.

One of the main benefits of Perplexity is that it gives you access to multiple LLMs in one place, so you can switch models depending on what you're trying to do.

That said, we find it's much better for internet research than deep reasoning. It's strong at finding and summarizing information with sources, but not as strong as other LLMs for complex problem-solving, math, or advanced reasoning tasks.

Perplexity also offers its own web browser, Comet (an alternative to Chrome), where you can use Perplexity as your default search engine and experiment with AI agent-style browsing features.

Supercut is a video messaging tool built for teams that want to communicate through screen recordings instead of constantly jumping into meetings. It's insanely easy to use; you just hit record, walk someone through your screen, and send it off.

The functionality and simplicity don't stop at recording either; For every video you record, you get transcripts, an AI assistant that can pull insights or generate summaries, and a clean viewing experience that makes people want to watch.

It's great for SMBs that move fast and rely on clear communication (especially remote or async teams). Product and engineering teams can show bugs instead of writing them, and sales or support teams can walk through things without over-scheduling calls.

We originally found Supercut after asking for Loom alternatives on X, but none of the suggestions did anything to make my workflow easier. Loom was getting more and more bloated, and just as I was making peace with the fact I wasn't gonna find anything, I scrolled past and an X post about Supercut's launch.

After my first use of Supercut, I absolutely loved it! It's now part of our daily workflow team communication or bug reports. It's replaced a lot of our internal calls, and I've noticed we miss way less because everything is searchable and really easy to reference.

Compared to tools like Loom or Tella, Supercut feels so much more modern and intentional since it's focused on eliminating friction through user-friendly UI. Plus, other tools don't have AI assistants or keyboard shortcuts that actually make your life easier.

Recording in Supercut for the first time left us somewhere between shock and excitement. Everything was just FAST. The recording panel is clean, nothing gets in your way. You hit record, do your thing, and it's ready to share almost immediately.

Coming from Loom, this was a big shift. Loom started to feel sluggish and unpredictable for us (after Atlassian took over), especially when we were recording back-to-back. It would crash and we'd be re-recording the same thing sometimes 3 times over. We've been using Supercut since 2025 and found it's way more reliable and smooth, and that's exactly what's been missing from the video recording market.

Every video comes with a transcript, and we use it this way more than we expected. You can jump to specific moments or even share exact sentence links. When you're working across teams, like us, that's really helpful. Product can go straight to their section, sales can skip to theirs, and no one has to sit through the whole video just to find one detail.

We've even used transcripts to train custom GPTs and pull content into other workflows. It turns even one-off recordings into something you can reuse and search, all while keeping everyone accountable.

A lot of tools are rushing to add AI right now, but most of it ends up feeling bolted on. This doesn't. Supercut's "ask anything" feature lets you interact with your video almost like it's a document. You can ask things like "what are the action items?" and it'll pull the answer instantly.

I use it a lot when working with contractors, and I'm thinking, "I feel like I mentioned this in my video," so I'll quickly pop over to Supercut and search, "did I mention XYZ in this video?" and the AI assistant will provide me a time stamp and screenshot of the moment I mentioned it. Even more than that, it can go as far as to generate clear summaries, organized bug reports, and even full write-ups, which keeps me from context switching, and saves me tons of time.

Comments live directly on the video timeline, which keeps everything in context. Instead of getting Slack messages like "hey, at 4:12, what did you mean," the feedback is tied exactly to the moment it's about.

It's a small thing, but it changes how people interact with videos. There's even a cute keyboard shortcut ("c") that makes leaving comments speedy.

For client-facing teams, CTAs are insanely simple and useful. You can add a clear next step at the end of any video. It removes that awkward gap where someone watches your video and then… does nothing. It's a simple feature that pushes your viewers to book a call or review something.

The editor is amazing! It feels more like editing text than editing video. You highlight what you don't want, cut it, and move on. You can trim silences, clean things up, adjust layouts, and make quick improvements without having to re-record (which takes so much time).

It's not built for heavy production work, so don't expect to rearrange full sections or build complex edits like you would in something like Tella. But for day-to-day communication, it's perfect.

• Free 14-day Trial: Best for individuals testing async workflows. No credit card required.
• Pro: $15 monthly ($18/mo if paid annually). Best for professionals and teams who want full access to collaboration, branding, and AI features.
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing. Best for companies needing cross-departmental communication, advanced controls, and more security.

Don't forget to grab your Supercut Discount before creating an account.

Zapier is the most popular integration and automation platform on the market. While they've had competitors arise over the years like Make, Tray, and Workato, they've managed to build one of the most user-friendly interfaces of them all, along with the largest number of deeply supported apps. Not a small feat whatsoever.

If you're using a modern software (take any app listed on our site for the most part), and there's sure to be a Zapier connector. This is pretty baffling when you really think about it.

When comparing Zapier vs Make for example, Make may look more user-friendly and accessible, but we're here to tell you that isn't the case. Make is more powerful with some inline formulas and other logic power features, but that definitely does not make it easier to use. If anything, it's easy to feel quite overwhelmed when first using Make.

Time and time again, in trying Make, we have found ourselves coming back to Zapier. It really can be bent and molded into what it needs to be.