“Productivity.” That word is everywhere, right? Like that one song you didn’t ask to hear and that’s now stuck in your head on repeat.
Every gadget, project management app and random internet article is promising to boost your productivity, skyrocket it or make you the most productive version of yourself ever. All based on solid data analysis, of course.
But let’s be real: Not all “productivity gains” are created equal. And not every instance of artificial intelligence (AI) is, well, all that intelligent. You already know that bigger projects demand a to-do list, or even dedicated tools. That’s why we dove into the deep end of research on AI productivity tools (yet again) to find the real deal – virtual assistants that are not only cool but also make you wonder how you ever dreamed of achieving overall productivity without them.
(Truth be told: We could’ve called this “Cool New Things That We Wish We Could’ve Played With as Kids,” but hey, we’re being humble.) Let’s get into it!
1. Motion: AI-Powered Project Manager
Struggling to stay on top of multiple projects? Motion’s AI project management tool helps you schedule, plan and automate repetitive tasks, ensuring you never miss a deadline.
Why it’s great:
- Automates task management so you can focus on the actual work, not just juggling tasks.
- Syncs your tasks and projects directly with your calendar — because let’s be real, you’re already living there. No more jumping between platforms.
- Keeps everything in one place: attach documents, spreadsheets, pictures and even comments to each task.
- Lets you chat with your team directly about projects, with workspaces for each team or project. For task automation, you can even turn common projects into reusable templates with a single click!
- Offers custom notifications for email and Slack so you’re always in the loop, but never bombarded.
2. Krisp: AI Noise Cancelation
Whether you’re on Zoom calls with clients or recording podcasts with guests over Skype, Krisp uses AI algorithms to eliminate background noise, giving you crystal-clear communication.
Why it’s great:
- Blocks out background noise like barking dogs, honking cars or your neighbor’s questionable karaoke sessions.
- Enhances audio quality to make your calls and recordings sound more professional, even in chaotic environments.
- Works with any conferencing app or call center platform, from Zoom to Teams to Google Meet — basically, if it connects, Krisp can quiet it.
- Compatible with any pair of headphones or other device, so you don’t have to change your setup to get studio-level sound.
- Provides AI Accent Localization supporting over 17 dialects (and more on the way). Talk about unique AI skills!
- Comes with live interpreting AI technology for call centers and speech-to-text APIs, which is a game-changer for multilingual communication.
3. Zapier Central: Automate Your Workflow
Zapier Central lets you connect the best AI tools on the market to automate those pesky repetitive tasks, so you can focus on the bigger picture — or fun, whatever floats your boat.
Why it’s great:
- Saves you hours of manual work by creating automated workflows between over 7,000 apps, taking care of the busywork (like updating spreadsheets or sending out email reminders) while you focus on the important stuff (like finally perfecting your coffee pour or closing that big deal).
- Give your AI assistant access to your company’s source of truth — like Google Sheets, HubSpot or Notion — and get instant answers to your trickiest queries. That way, you can quickly get insights into customer sentiment, order volumes or untapped leads.
- Set up behaviors based on machine learning so your assistant can work for you around the clock while you’re deep into a client meeting or catching some well-deserved Zs.
4. Mem: AI-Driven Note-Taking
If your notes are anything like mine, they probably look like a wild tangle of half-baked ideas, random to-dos and the occasional grocery list — all on one sheet of paper. Enter Mem: an AI writing tool that organizes your thoughts when you don’t feel like it and links everything together, so you can actually find the gold nuggets when you need them.
Why it’s great:
- Turns chaos into clarity by organizing your notes without any effort from you. It’s like magic, but with fewer rabbits and more actual work getting done.
- Mem Chat is the personal “note whisperer” among virtual assistants, digging up needle-in-a-haystack answers, summarizing across meeting notes and even creating content — because your notes deserve to be more than just scribbles.
- Related Notes brings everything you need front and center, serving up all the info tied to your current work, without you even having to lift a finger.
- If you enjoy coming up with tagging systems for your paper clips, this isn’t for you. One of Mem’s key features is its “Collections” that will sort everything for you, keeping things organized without adding to your already overflowing mental load.
5. Reclaim AI: Your Personal Calendar Assistant
If your calendar looks more like a game of Tetris than a well-organized agenda, it’s time to meet Reclaim. This productivity app automates your daily schedule, blocking time for meetings and mundane tasks while helping you find the balance you’ve been craving.
Why it’s great:
- Optimizes your calendar to align your workday with your most important tasks. Think of it as your personal time manager, ensuring that “Go take a walk” or “Did you book your Italian lesson yet?” doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
- With calendar sync, smart meeting links and habit tracking, it empowers you to create a work-life balance that actually works for you. No need to worry about a new user experience. Once it’s set up, you just use your normal calendar to accept or decline entries.
- Say goodbye to back-to-back meeting days! Reclaim builds in buffer time to relax after meetings or tackle that task you’ve been dreading.
- Automatically schedule meetings at the best times for your team using advanced prioritization controls, cultivating a more efficient meeting culture for your company.
- Prevent burnout and turnover with smart calendar controls that protect employees from forced overtime and notification interruptions.
- Integrates seamlessly with tools like Slack, Google Tasks, Zoom, Asana, Jira and HubSpot — so your entire workflow is covered.
6. Magical: AI-Powered Text Expander
Remember the last time you typed the same email response five times in a row? Yeah, Magical is here to save you from that purgatory. This text expander lets you leverage generative AI and shortcuts for your most-used phrases, emails and forms so you can get back to the fun stuff (or at least the less repetitive stuff).
Why it’s great:
- Speeds up data entry by allowing you to create custom shortcuts for your go-to sentences, paragraphs or even entire emails. Your future self will thank you.
- Easily autofills forms, databases or messages so you never have to type “Dear Client, please see the attached file…” again.
- Whether you’re sending personalized outreach messages or moving data between sites, Magical gives you your time back — and let’s face it, we all need more time to procrastinate productively.
7. Descript: AI-Powered Content Creation
Ever wish you could wave a wand and your podcast or video would magically edit itself? Descript is basically that wand. This AI-powered content creation tool handles everything from transcription to video editing — without making you want to pull your hair out.
Why it’s great:
- Cuts down on editing time with features like automated transcription, video editing and voice synthesis.
- Allows you to record, transcribe and refine content to perfection with a simple drag-and-drop interface. It’s like having a whole production team in your pocket.
- Perfect for creating professional-grade podcasts, videos or even translating transcripts for your next viral social media post.
8. Tome: AI-Powered Storytelling
Presentations got you feeling a little meh? Tome is here to spice things up. This AI storytelling tool helps you whip up impressive slides in minutes — yes, minutes — all while ensuring your story hits just right. Think of it as ChatGPT for sales and marketing.
Why it’s great:
- Simplifies storytelling by helping you create engaging, data-driven presentations in a snap.
- Tome’s AI can pull insights from your company’s sales data, 10Ks or any other dense material and turn it into notes that actually make sense. Plus, it makes you look like you’ve spent days crafting the perfect pitch.
- Whether you’re working on sales pitches, RFP responses or a simple business review, Tome is like the secret sauce to making sales calls stick.
9. SaneBox: AI-Powered Email Management
Let’s be honest: Your inbox is a mess. But SaneBox can clean it up faster than you can say “unsubscribe.” This AI-powered tool declutters your inbox by filtering out the nonsense and keeping only the important stuff front and center.
Why it’s great:
- Automatically filters your emails, saving you hours every week on sorting through junk.
- Say goodbye to annoying senders with the BlackHole feature, which banishes them from your inbox for good.
- The Daily Digest gives you a neat little summary of all your unimportant emails in one go, so you never have to sift through them yourself.
- Set reminders for yourself or get pinged if someone hasn’t responded to your email on time. It’s like having a personal assistant who actually cares about your inbox.
10. RescueTime: AI Time Management
Ever finish the day wondering where your time went? RescueTime is like a time-traveling assistant that tracks how you spend every minute and gives you AI-driven insights to help you focus better.
Why it’s great:
- Tracks your online activity automatically, giving you a clear picture of where your time actually goes (spoiler alert: you might be scrolling more than you think).
- Generates detailed reports and insights to help you improve your focus and get rid of distractions.
- Integrates with apps like Asana and Slack, so you can keep everything on track without leaving your usual tools.
- Now with smart alerts that remind you of meetings and help you stay on top of your goals.
11. contentmarketing.ai: AI-empowered marketing campaigns
Marketers know better than most the irony of trying to integrate AI intelligently into their workflows, to little avail due to the blatantly un-intelligent nature of AI to begin with. That’s where contentmarketing.ai comes in — by breaking down all the pieces of marketing work that their bosses forget about (like bringing together organizational knowledge, planning stages, content creation and actual performance measurement), the wild quality of AI is tamed, and marketers can harness the intelligence and leave behind wasted time.
Why it’s great:
- Develops briefs that the AI can always reference, ensuring AI-generated content is always on-brand and perfectly targeted toward your audience.
- Builds step-by-step workflows so projects get completed on time and without unforeseen obstacles tripping contributors up.
- Produces the content types that’d usually take hours of work to complete, allowing you to jump into the review phase and publish at an expedited pace than you ever imagined.
- Keeps SEO and E-E-A-T in mind, so you know that your generated content is designed to impress search engines as much as it’ll impress your readers.
- Integrates with analytics tools like Semrush and Google Analytics so you can always see how things are going.
And there you have it: eleven tools to supercharge your productivity without losing your sanity. Because at the end of the day, productivity isn’t just about doing more — it’s about doing the right things, at the right time, with the least amount of stress.
Go forth and conquer! Or, if you feel like you need some AI-fueled research to be truly productive, check out our guide to market research tools.