Worth the Hype? 7 Ways AI Boosts Productivity at Work [Plus 19 AI Tools To Try]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is in the spotlight these days. You can’t open your news app or scroll through social media without reading about the next-in-AI innovation.

And while AI has been around for some time, the proliferation of new technologies, apps, software, and use cases has put it top of mind for many busy professionals looking for a productivity boost during the day.

But does it live up to all the hype?

When leveraged correctly, AI has the potential to transform your workday by increasing productivity and efficiency. Here’s how it does it, plus 19 must-try AI productivity tools to check out today.

Your New Colleague: 7 Ways AI Supports Your Work

We’ve all thought that just a few more hours in the day would let us get so much more done. And while, of course, that’s not possible, AI might be the next best thing.

Think of AI as your newest colleague—someone hired to take the routine or repetitive tasks off your plate. AI has the power to automate tasks that you normally would have to do manually. This frees up time in your schedule as well as the energy you could then devote to higher-impact and more interesting tasks.

Here are seven practical ways AI supports productivity at work:

1. Prioritize and manage tasks: AI can set reminders, manage workflows, and suggest priorities in your project management system. This helps automate those simple tasks so you can focus on the big picture.
2. Manage schedules and emails: AI can handle simple and routine communications such as auto-responding to emails with a predetermined script. You can also set up AI to schedule appointments and meetings with clients or colleagues.
3. Handle documents and data entry: AI’s ability to automate simple tasks comes in handy when you have a high volume of data to deal with. This could include anything from filling out documents or managing spreadsheets.
4. Automate customer service: AI “chatbots” are common for many customer-oriented businesses. They can easily handle routine and simple requests while triaging important issues to real-human support when needed.
5. Enhance creativity and content generation: AI tools can support regular content-generation activities from writing to graphic design to video editing. This can help speed up your processes or get you through a creative block.
6. Optimize decisions through data: AI’s advanced capabilities mean you can pull and analyze larger amounts of data to support important decision-making.
7. Support brainstorming sessions: AI isn’t a replacement for the unique creativity of a human being, but it can certainly get things started during a brainstorming session! Use AI as another colleague by asking questions, generating ideas, or putting together creative briefs.

19 AI Tools for Productivity to Streamline Your Work Day

If you haven’t used AI much before, it can feel overwhelming to know where to start. This is especially true because there are so many different apps and platforms to try.

So, we’ve broken down 19 of the best AI tools for productivity to try out, organized by potential use cases.

AI Tools for Content Generation

1. SlidesAI: This AI program integrates with Google Slides and automatically creates presentations from text input. You can add bullet points or copy and paste large paragraphs directly into the program, and SlidesAI will pop out a logical presentation with graphics.
2. Grammarly: This popular AI tool is a must for any professional who writes a large volume of emails, reports, documents, etc. Grammarly ensures that your writing is error-free and engaging.
3. Canva Magic Design: This AI-powered creative assistant supports graphic designers by suggesting ideas, automating tasks, or building cohesive brand kits.
4. Otter: This AI assistant is a huge help for any meeting or interview. It records audio, writes notes, and creates simple summaries in real time so you can focus directly on the conversation at hand.
5. OpenAI ChatGPT and GPT-4: This AI platform is perhaps the most popular one right now because of its ability to do a wide variety of text-based tasks and actions. One of the best uses of ChatGPT (free) or GPT-4 (paid) is written content creation, such as generating articles, outlines, translations, or summaries.
6. Fireflies: This AI assistant helps you transcribe, summarize, search, and analyze voice conversations. It’s great to draw out key information from meetings and interviews.
7. Soundraw: This AI music generator allows you to create royalty-free sounds and songs for your business. You input the type of music you want, instruments, length of track, etc. and the AI system will create unique tracks.

AI Tools for Task Management

1. Clara: This AI assistant will manage email communication related to booking meetings and appointments. It will also schedule it in your calendar, removing the need for you to monitor and keep track of everything manually.
2. Butler for Trello: This AI integration for Trello helps augment your ability to keep track of tasks, projects, and timelines through automated actions.
3. TodoBot: This AI-powered to-do list offers an inbuilt virtual coach to help identify priorities. This helps you stay organized and productive in your day-to-day work.
4. Notion AI: This AI support system optimizes your Notion workspace. It’s great for professionals seeking administrative and writing support within their existing workspace.
5. Pictory: This AI tool makes creating videos easy and cost-effective. It takes text input, like a script or article, as the base of your video content. It’s simple to use for anyone, even those without video editing experience.

AI Tools for Customer Service

1. ChatBot: This AI communication platform supports businesses that work directly with clients and customers. Chatbots provide information and resolve simple inquiries, freeing up your time to work on other tasks.
2. Zendesk AI: This AI-powered customer service program supports companies by triaging conversations and smoothing workflows by responding to or passing on client inquiries and issues.
3. Reply.io: This AI personal assistant (Jason AI) sets up outreach sequences, handles prospect responses, and books meetings for you. This all-in-one sales engagement platform helps build new business opportunities.

AI Tools for Data Analysis

1. ThoughtSpot: This AI-powered analytical tool empowers anyone to ask big questions, using advanced data analytics and insights to answer them and produce more results.
2. Rossum: This AI program helps you streamline your documentation processes by automating key features. It also helps improve data accuracy to better deploy team members in the workplace.
3. DataRobot: This AI integration works with your existing technology to get the most from your platforms. It uses data and analytics to solve challenges and support business decision-making.
4. ABBYY: This AI platform helps companies in a variety of industries (i.e., insurance, finance, or healthcare) extract valuable information and data insights to improve operations.

Because of all the hype and interest around AI, we suspect it’s here for the long run. Some professionals are ready to embrace it, but others are—understandably—hesitant to work with their new robotic “coworkers.”

With all that said, AI has massive potential to streamline your workday through increased productivity and efficiency. So, why not try something new today? Check out one of these 19 AI tools and see how it supports your work and goals.

If you’re in search of a positive professional workspace that helps you streamline your workday, contact us today and book a tour of your nearest Launch Workplaces.