By now everyone's probably seen generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney that can create text, drawings and even computer code that look like they've been made by humans.
They're highly impressive, but are you just using them for fun, or have you worked out how to get them to do something that's truly useful?
Well, one of the areas where they have the most potential is automating day-to-day workplace tasks. In the last two years, many new apps, tools and services have appeared that can help us become quicker and more productive at work.
So here's my roundup of what I believe are some of the most impressive, useful or innovative generative AI productivity tools available today. They can help anyone to do their job quicker or more efficiently, saving valuable time that can be spent on more rewarding and creative tasks. These are in no particular order, but let's start with five that I think are particularly interesting or noteworthy:
Zapier
Zapier is an integration tool, which means it helps other tools and applications talk to each other and work collaboratively. For example, it can be used to automatically log information from sources like call logs, emails, or chat transcripts and used to create to-do cards in project management tools like Trello, calendar events, or update records in CRM software like SalesForce or Hubspot. This can save users huge amounts of time that would be spent copying and updating records across different platforms. It also reduces the chances of human error.
Zapier has now integrated generative AI chatbots that make this process as simple as telling them what you want it to do. It will automatically find the right connectors and triggers, and pull out insights from real-time business data, This makes it simple for anyone to build AI workflows involving multiple applications and data sources.
Otter.ai
In recent years, Otter has emerged as one of the leading AI-powered meeting assistants. It can automatically create transcripts of conversations that can be organized and searched, as well as extract insights and action items. It integrates with popular messaging and meeting apps like Zoom and Teams and can generate email summaries and send them out to relevant people while keeping track of any follow-ups that are needed. One of the things that set it apart is its high level of user-friendliness, meaning that even colleagues who are nervous about trying out new tools should be able to start making use of its AI features very quickly.
Trello
Millions of people use project management tools to keep track of ongoing work or measure progress toward goals, and Trello is one of the most popular. Like many industry standard tools, it's recently been powered up with the inclusion of generative AI features, in this case provided by the Atlassian Intelligence engine. This streamlines the process of creating new cards by generating content and automated summaries, as well as even suggesting improvements for grammar or clarity when communicating your ideas. Atlassian Intelligence is only available to premium and enterprise Trello users at the moment but may be integrated into the free version in the future.
Zoom With AI Companion
Zoom established itself as an everyday tool during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping many companies carry on with business (almost) as usual. Many more of us discovered it was also a great way to keep in touch with family and friendship groups. More recently, it, too, has received a generative AI makeover thanks to the addition of Workplace Companion.
With this, users with a paid-for subscription can create automated summaries of calls and virtual meetings, along with follow-ups, assignments and action points. This eliminates the need to take notes and other manual administrative actions during meetings and lets attendees focus on the discussion at hand.
BeeDone
BeeDone takes a different approach to many of the productivity apps here by gamifying the process of task management. It does this by breaking complex tasks down into simple steps and then awarding points for completing them. It's a fun idea that adds a new spin on the numerous "smart" to-do lists, task managers and time trackers that are available. BeeDone learns users' habits and fine-tunes its ability to optimize processes and even includes "productivity tournaments" where users can compete against each other to see who can become the most efficient!
There are many more tools that let anyone put generative AI to work to streamline routine workday tasks; here are some more of the best that I've come across:
Asana
Automate project management and workflow tasks and manage calendars.
Avoma
This AI meeting assistant transcribes meetings but also provides coaching insights to help users improve their communication and engagement skills.
Beautiful
Transform ideas into fully realized slides and presentations with automated design features.
Clara
Clara is an AI assistant that aims to act as a virtual employee, scheduling meetings, communicating between attendees and adding details to your calendar once they've been established.
ClickUp
Generative AI-driven workplace productivity suite with project management, time tracking, whiteboarding, agendas and other features.
Clockwise
Time-management tool that can automate scheduling to help teams make more efficient use of their time.
Decktopus
Generate slide decks and presentations from natural language prompts.
Duet
Another Google service, this one, is built into Workspace to provide a collaborative assistant for productivity tasks.
EmailTree
Email management and customer service platform with features like automatic reply suggestions, multilingual support, team management, CRM, sentiment analysis, and automation.
Fireflies
Transcribe, summarize and search voice conversations.
Gamma
Automates the creation of presentations and various types of documents with the help of generative AI.
Mailbutler
Integrates with common email applications to provide tools that automate composing, summarizing and responding to emails.
AI-powered workspace that manages tasks as well as offers functions like document summarization and content creation.
Reclaim
AI-powered calendar management and time tracking.
Sanebox
AI-powered email management that analyzes incoming mail, sorts it into relevant folders and generates reminders and auto-responses.
Tome
Leverage AI storytelling to create compelling decks and presentations using GPT-4o technology.
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