The artificial intelligence revolution is here—and embracing it can make a major difference to the way you work. According to Accenture's projections, AI is set to increase labor productivity by almost 40%. That translates to over 6.2 billion hours globally in 2024. 

What would you do with that extra time and energy? What would it mean for your creativity, your bottom line, and the overall success of our business? 

Investing in AI, it’s safe to say, is a great idea. But where do you start? Not to worry, our list of the best AI software platforms (both free and paid) has you covered.

Ready to win your time back with AI? Here are our reviews for the eight best AI software platforms for different needs. 

The Case For Productivity Apps

Using productivity apps can bring several significant benefits, especially in our fast-paced, digitally-driven world. AI-powered apps can increase productivity by up to 40%. 

In addition, AI apps can automate repetitive tasks, saving employees an average of 6-8 hours per week.

You need to know what to look for when picking out productivity apps, since what works for one person won't necessarily work for another. 

With so many apps out there it is easy to experience shiny object syndrome. Start simple. What, exactly, are you looking to improve? Do you want to limit multi-tasking? Look towards a Pomodoro timer and commit to one task for a set period of time before taking a short break. Are you overwhelmed by a project? Break it down into steps, assign which ones will be considered milestones, and then celebrate when you reach one. This will release dopamine in your brain and will naturally increase your desire to keep going to experience it again. Stick to one app, test it, and then adjust if necessary. But don't quit too early - behavior change takes time.

-Kristy Nillsson, Graphic Design Entrepreneur 

Here's some key reasons why people often turn to these tools:

1. Time Management

Productivity apps help in efficiently managing time by allowing users to track how much time they spend on various tasks. This can lead to more effective planning and time allocation, ensuring that important tasks get the attention they deserve.

Productivity apps can be your secret weapon! With features like task management, time tracking, and focus timers, they help streamline your workflow. 

-Priyanka Singh, Personal Branding Associate 

2. Organization

These apps can significantly enhance personal and professional organization. They enable users to keep all their tasks, notes, schedules, and deadlines in one place, reducing clutter and the likelihood of forgetting important information or tasks.

3. Focus and Concentration

Apps like Forest or Pomodoro timers encourage users to focus on tasks for specific periods, reducing the temptation of distractions. This can lead to deeper concentration and more productive work sessions.

4. Task Management and Prioritization

Productivity apps often have features that allow users to prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance. This helps in ensuring that critical tasks are addressed first, aiding in better work flow and efficiency.

5. Collaboration and Communication

For teams, productivity apps like Slack, Trello, or Asana offer platforms for effective collaboration and communication, keeping everyone in the loop and on the same page regarding project progress and updates.

6. Goal Tracking

Many productivity apps include features for setting, tracking, and reviewing goals. This can be incredibly motivating and can help users stay on track with their personal and professional objectives.

7. Reducing Procrastination

By breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable parts, productivity apps can make daunting projects seem more achievable, which can reduce the tendency to procrastinate.

8. Data and Insights

Some productivity apps provide analytics and insights about how you spend your time or the progress on your tasks. This data can be invaluable for making informed decisions about how to optimize your routines and habits for better productivity. AI in project management is predicted to reduce project costs by up to 45% by 2024. That's a great place to start tracking to see how things improve in your organization with AI tools. 

9. Flexibility and Accessibility

With many productivity apps available on multiple devices, users can access their tasks, calendars, and notes anywhere, which is essential for today's mobile and often remote-working lifestyles.

10. Writing 

Whether it's writing emails, newsletters, or social media content, writing takes up a lot of time in the modern life of a knowledge worker. What if you could have a superhero at your side helping you draft these messages up to 5x faster? Good news: AI tools for writing not only exist, but work really well. 

The Best AI Apps for Productivity

Ready to win your time back with AI? Here are our reviews forthe best AI Productivity tools:

1. Magical 

The best AI app for writing messages and automating repetitive tasks.

Magical is one of the most versatile AI tools on our list—it helps you save time with data entry automation, personalized text expansion, and AI writing assistance. The app works where you do by integrating with your everyday work flows, for example:

• If you're a recruiter, you can use Magical to send personalized messages to applicants you're corresponding with. Then, you can use the app to automatically update candidates' information by teleporting data from your open tabs to your ATS.
• If you work in sales, you can use Magical to send customized outreach messages to prospects, and you can automatically update your CRM with their information by transferring data from your open tabs.

You get all this functionality without needing to do any setup—just add the app to Chrome in one-click and get started immediately. Magical is also an entirely no-code solution.

Pricing: Magical is free to try, with a Core plan that starts at $6.50 per user per month.

At its core, Magical revolves mostly around data entry and messaging... The types of feats Magical is capable of performing are fairly specific, but if you do a lot of work in web apps—services like Gmail, Google Sheets, Zendesk, or Zoho—it might just be the added layer of intelligence your online experience has been missing.

- JR Raphael, Fast Company

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2. Clockwise 

The best AI app for managing your calendar and time better.‍

Clockwise is a fantastic AI tool for managing your calendar, meetings, and focus time better. Context switching and constant interruptions are one of the biggest drainers of personal productivity, which is why Clockwise is such a useful tool. It automatically optimizes your calendar for the optimal day, so you know you're spending your time correctly. What's really cool is that Clockwise gets smarter the more people on your team use it, meaning not only will you get more productive but your coworkers will too.

Even better? It now has AI features that make it so much easier to find time for busy meetings. Simply ask Clockwise to "schedule a 1:1 with Claire for next week" and it'll automatically find you the best time in both of your calendars. It's like having your own personal assistant!

Pricing: Clockwise is free to try, with Teams plans starting at $6.75 per user per month.

Based on OpenAI’s GPT-4, the AI lets users give commands like “Clear my schedule for tomorrow” or “Find a time to meet on Monday.” The AI, which also includes a handy integration with Slack, can access multiple people’s calendars within a company and understand factors like the urgency and priority of different meetings and events.

- Steven Melendez, Fast Company

3. Fireflies 

The best AI tool to automate your meeting notes.

AI tools that transcribe meetings are a dime a dozen in 2024. But Fireflies is the best in class here because it not provides real-time transcriptions of any video call but also advanced insights and analytics that only AI can provide. You can track key topics that are happening across multiple different meetings, filter conversations by who is speaking, and even detect the sentiment of a speaker on a call. (Great for sales people who might want to analyze whether a prospect was nervous, excited, or just really needed to go to the bathroom.)

All of these new AI features make Fireflies great for team leads, who can do a better job monitoring how their team interacts during calls with prospects, clients, customers, or even their coworkers.

Pricing: Pricing starts at $10 per seat per month on the Pro plan.

This tool plugs into popular video conferencing tools like Zoom, Teams, or Webex and automates the process of taking notes and creating transcriptions. It also analyzes conversations to provide insights into the dynamics and decision-making that are going on in your conversations.

- Bernard Marr, Forbes

4. ChatGPT

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The best free AI writing tool.

This AI writing tool needs no introduction—it flat-out went viral. Prior to ChatGPT, you could still use OpenAI's platform to generate text using GPT-3, but it was more like a sandbox. It wasn't really user-friendly and you had to fine-tune your prompts. 

ChatGPT gained a lot of attention because it made AI writing accessible to the general public, and the platform is easy to use—it's just like talking to a chatbot. You can also pick out templates from ChatGPT's community library, which will help you get desired outputs, like blog posts outlines or captions for a social media post. Lots of other AI writing tools are now using ChatGPT's API to deliver similar capabilities. 

Pricing: ChatGPT has a generous free plan with some restrictions. You can upgrade to the paid tier for $20/month.

5. Otter.ai 

The app produces incredibly comprehensive responses with a friendly attitude. Whether it’s human languages or coding languages, ChatGPT excels at providing you with a foundation of content to build off and change as you see fit. However, it lacks source citations, data from later than 2021, and access to the web for new information, so it's less useful and trustworthy when it comes to research

- Emily Dreibelbis, PC Mag

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The best free AI transcription tool.

For complex transcription needs, you'll likely need to hire human transcribers, which you can do from a service like Rev. But if you have simpler, everyday transcription needs—like transcribing your business meetings or interview recordings—then an AI-powered tool like Otter.ai is a great option.

Otter.ai uses natural language processing to process words and identify speakers (including when they're talking). It also strips out filler words like "um" and "uh" to make your transcript more concise. The app has helpful customization features, like the option to tag your own voice so Otter.ai recognizes it automatically, and you can also teach it jargon and new words by creating your own custom library.

Pricing: Otter.ai offers both free and paid plans for individuals—the free plan includes 600 minutes of transcriptions per month, but each transcription is limited to 40 minutes, and there are limits on the number of files you can import. The Pro plan costs $12.99/month and takes you up to 6,000 minutes per month with a transcription limit of four hours per transcription.

Otter.ai is one of the best solutions for automatically transcribing audio. OtterPilot, as Otter calls its tool, can turn both in-person and virtual meetings into easy-to-follow text transcripts complete with speaker identification and timestamps. Your transcription will look more like a Slack thread than a simple text-based record of your meeting, and that’s a good thing.

- Jake Peterson, Lifehacker‍

6. GrammarlyGO

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‍The best free AI writing assistant.

Lately, generative AI tools have taken the spotlight, so it's easy to forget simpler options that are just as reliable. Grammarly is a case in point; it remains one of the most widely used free AI tools. The writing assistant's free plan checks for spelling and grammar errors, and also detects your tone and offers suggestions for improving conciseness. And now there's GrammarlyGO, which helps you unlock ideas as you compose, rewrite, ideate, and personalize your writing with AI. You'll need a Premium account to access these features, though. That tier of pricing also includes:

• A plagiarism detector that produces detailed reports
• Tone suggestions
• Sentence rewrites
• A custom library for your vocabulary 

If you just need a simple spelling and grammar checker, then Grammarly's free plan is a great choice. But if you're looking for a powerful writing assistant, you'll want to upgrade to the paid plan.

Pricing: Grammarly Premium costs $12/month if you pay annually, $20/month if you pay quarterly, and $30/month if you pay monthly. How much you pay for Grammarly Business depends on the number of seats you buy and your billing cycle. 

Grammarly is already a popular grammar app, and now it is expanding beyond grammar and spell-checking to actually writing the thing for you. GrammarlyGO exists within its apps and browser extensions as a new tool that can generate text, refine existing text for tone, and help you brainstorm ideas with simple prompts.

- Cecily Mauran, Mashable

7. Tableau

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The best AI copilot for interpreting data.

Tableau from Salesforce is an AI tool that can help you collect, interpret, and scale insights from your company's raw data. (Because if you're not a numbers person, AI is poised to be your new best friend.) How does it work? You can simply feed Tableau any large set of data and then ask it to surface up insights and even put together some beautiful visualizations like charts or graphs.

Pricing: Tableau ain't cheap, coming in at $75 per user per month.

Tableau is the world’s leading analytics platform that corporations trust from around the world. It’s an AI tool that makes studying and understanding data very easy. With particular infographics and visual analytics, data is presented in a way that makes it easier for people to use it to solve problems. The platform has almost 1,000,000 users, which include analysts, executives, IT persons, and business users. The CRM analytics of the platform can help you work smarter by spotting trends faster and predicting outcomes before anyone else. Their client base includes the biggest names in the tech world, like Verizon, Lenovo, HelloFresh, etc.

- Charu Mitra Dubey, Readwrite

8. Adobe Firefly 

The best AI software for generating images.

Adobe Firefly is one of the most well-known artificial intelligence tools for generating images, mainly because designers can use it right where they're already working in Photoshop. The platform's bot has been trained on large image datasets, giving it the capability to generate images on command. You can give Firefly prompts for the type of images you want and it'll try to produce an output that aligns with what you've asked. 

Since AI is still developing, it might not give you your desired result on the first go—you might need to keep tweaking your prompt until you get the image you had in mind. But, hey, the platform's improving as we speak, and it's already quite capable

Pricing: Premium starts at $4.99 per month, which gives you 100 monthly generative credits.

Adobe Firefly does a lot free of charge. You can generate images from a text description, apply styles or textures to text and edit images based on text descriptions. You can also change the background, remove objects or zoom out the image beyond what was captured. Adobe said Firefly is trained using Adobe Stock images and other data sets to respect artists’ ownership.

- Cordilia James, The Wall Street Journal‍

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9. Listnr

The best AI voice generator.

Whether you're looking to add a voiceover to your ads, create an audiobook, make an explainer video, or something else entirely, a text-to-speech AI voice generator can work wonders. And while there are plenty of artificial intelligence platforms you can choose from, Listnr is one of the best options in this category. The AI tool offers lots of customization options—you can specify genres, choose an accent, and even create your own personalized audio player to embed on your blog (to create an audio version of your writing).

Listnr currently supports over 75 languages, with different accents for each language. It also has lots of features to help you distribute your commercial content. You can distribute your audio (with commercial rights) to platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, for example.

Pricing: Listnr's plans start at $39/month, and if you pay yearly, you'll get 2 months free. 

ProductHunt reviewer Joshua G. says, 

One of the best text-to-speech applications that exist today! Listnr really makes it easy for me to create voiceovers for presentations, videos, and tutorials.

10. Wordtune

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Wordtune is another incredible AI-powered productivity tool designed to enhance your writing skills. This dynamic software takes pride in transforming your thoughts into powerful words, working directly within your browser for optimal convenience. 

Wordtune talks a good talk when it comes to innovative features. It comes equipped with a full-sentence rewriting ability, capable of taking your initial input and presenting you with a variety of phrasing choices. So, whether you're stuck on a sentence or feel something is not quite right syntax-wise, Wordtune is your handy sidekick helping you achieve linguistic perfection. 

Pricing: Wordtune has a free version that is very limited. Wordtune Premium is $24.99 a month, but if you buy the annual plan it's $9.99 a month. 

In her G2 review, Cassandra B. says, 

The fact that I don't have to worry about what to say and how to say it. Word tune cleans up my writing and makes it sound more professional! I know word tune will restructure my thoughts and make them sound better. There are so many options to choose from based on what you want to convey and how you want it conveyed! They help you add context to your writing when you can't think of more to write. They clean it up period. Being in college I often need my writing to sound more professional than what I'm capable of, with word tune it's original and authentic.

11. LastPass

LastPass is a password manager that saves and organizes your passwords securely, making it easier to access your online accounts. It also generates strong passwords and can automatically fill in your credentials on websites, saving time and enhancing security.

Pricing: LastPass offers a free option. Their paid plans start at $3.00 a month for one person to $7.00 a month for business.

G2 reviewer Pat B. says, 

I use Lastpass almost every day. As a security admin for multiple business systems, this tool allows me to keep track of the miriad of passwords that my job requires. I also am able to categorize them so that I can keep track of my personal accounts in the same tool, so I only need one tool to use for both business and personal use on any platform.

12. OneTab

OneTab is great for managing multiple browser tabs. When you find yourself with too many tabs, OneTab lets you convert them into a list. By doing this, you can free up memory, reduce tab clutter, and keep your focus on the tabs that matter most.

Pricing: OneTab is 100% free to use.

ProductHunt reviewer Michael Silber says, 

OneTab allows me to continue hoarding tabs, but also make sure they aren't causing my browser to come to a standstill or get over-cluttered. When I send a group of tabs to OneTab, I try to make sure they represent a project or task I'm trying to accomplish instead of just blasting everything away. This makes it really easy to pick up a project if it comes back to the forefront of my tasks. Otherwise, if it ages there too long, I just get rid of the whole group.

13. Todoist

Todoist is a task management tool that integrates with your browser. It allows you to easily create to-do lists, set reminders, and organize tasks. With Todoist, you can keep track of your daily tasks and long-term projects, all within your browser.

Pricing: Todoist offers a free option. Their paid plans start at $4.00 a month per user to $6.00 a month per user, if you buy the annual subscription.

G2 reviewer Susanne C. says 

The prioritization function is great since it lets me rank jobs according to significance and makes sure the team works on the most important things. Furthermore, the interface's ability to set deadlines and generate reminders enhances our capacity to fulfill deadlines efficiently. Also, the ability to use customizable keyboard shortcuts has significantly streamlined our workflow, allowing us to quickly navigate between projects and tasks.

14. Trello

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Trello is a project management tool that helps you organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible, and rewarding way. It uses boards, lists, and cards to help you organize and prioritize your personal and work life in a highly visual way.

Pricing: Trellos offers a free option, then their paid plans start at $5.00 a month per user to $17.50 a month per user, if paid annually.

ProductHunt reviewer Patryk P. says 

Trello is a high-performance, web-based Kanban-style list-making app that has changed the way I manage tasks. Since its inception by Fog Creek Software in 2011 and eventual spin-off into a separate entity in 2014, it has continually evolved, especially after its acquisition by Atlassian in 2017. The intuitive drag-and-drop interface makes organising tasks and tracking progress simple and effective. For anyone looking to improve productivity and streamline their workflow, Trello is an invaluable tool. I have implemented this tool in more than one project of mine and have been very pleased with its performance.

Best Phone Apps for Productivity

15. Evernote

Evernote is a versatile app for note-taking, organizing, task management, and archiving. Evernote allows you to create notes that can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments.

Pricing: Evernote offers a free plan. Then their paid plans are $10.83 a month for personal and $14+ a month for professional, yearly. 

G2 reviewer Khalil G. says

I truly believe that Evernote owns its logo: It does help to build an elephant's memory, not only in terms of capacity but also regarding the limitless connections you can create and enrich, following your preferred classification rules. You can add as many tags, notebooks, and sub-notebooks as you can, not to mention the internal links bridging notes to each other.

16. Google Keep

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A note-taking service developed by Google, Google Keep offers a variety of tools for taking notes, including text, lists, images, and audio. Users can set reminders, which are integrated with Google Calendar.

Pricing: Google Keep is 100% free to use.

ProductHunt reviewer Faiza A. says

I must say that all the products of Google are getting better with every passing moment. Always remaining at the top of everything easy to access and easy to use. Here I would appreciate Google Maps, Google Drive and Google Calendar.

17. RescueTime

RescueTime is an app that automatically tracks time you’ve spent on applications and websites and provides detailed reports and data based on your activity, helping you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive. You can even make your weekly schedule based on how you performed last week; RescueTime sends you a report of where you spent all your time each Sunday. 

Pricing: Their plans start at $6.50 a month.

G2 reviewer Jamruddin S. says

I am a computer and mobile lover and use this device for 2 or 3 three hours of continuous use but with the help of Rescue Time I can track my time in every app and that also category what type of software I am using and set a target for a week. Every weekend I get a proper mail regarding how I utilized my time in the previous week and give tips for the next week.

18. Forest

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Let's face it. We're all guilty of overworking and being stressed out. The solution: plant a tree! A virtual one, that is. Forest is unique among productivity apps. Forest helps you stay focused by planting a virtual tree which grows while you work and dies if you leave the app. It's great for those who need help maintaining focus and avoiding phone distractions.

Pricing: Forest is $3.99/month 

Google App store reviewer Zeke says 

I've been using Forest on and off for years and it's wonderful at its job. I often struggle with focusing on tasks and it's helped immensely with discipline. Something I wish was a feature is combining the allow list with the tags, or having an option to pick the allow list when starting a session. I have different allow lists for different tasks and often forget to switch and need to cancel my timer midway through. I do love this app and will continue using for years :)

19. Microsoft To Do

Microsoft To Do is a simple and straightforward task management app that allows you to make lists, set reminders, and keep track of personal and professional tasks. Integrated with Microsoft Office, it's particularly useful for those already in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Pricing: Microsoft is 100% free to use.

G2 reviewer Chetan Y. Says 

It helps me manage my tasks. I have created multiple lists within the app to manage both my personal and professional life. Use it across my Macbook and Android and my lists are synced easily. I have kept its widget on my phone's home screen to see active tasks.

Ready to embrace AI?

While the robots aren't quite ready to take our jobs (or eliminate the human race), AI has come a long way and software applications that leverage AI technology can help you massively improve your productivity.