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Artificial Intelligence tools have moved beyond being just a trend; they are now essential in today's competitive environment. These tools are crucial for businesses looking to streamline processes like social media content creation or personalize customer services. And according to statistics, a good number of entrepreneurs have already leveraged AI tools to boost their revenue and lead generation by up to 15%. This article will explore the best AI tools for work in 2024, including their key features, pricing, and free trial options.
Here are the 10 best AI tools that you can use to support content creation, marketing, and video creation:
For writing, AI tools automate content generation, enhance text quality, and streamline editing processes, improving overall writing efficiency. The best AI writing tools so far are Scalenut and Grammarly.
Scalenut is an SEO-writing AI tool that simplifies content creation for digital marketers. This writing platform is mainly for blog and website owners who need to create long-form content and SEO writers who need AI assistance in their writing.
Scalenut’s key features include SERP analysis, NLP key terms, AI images, and keyword cluster builders, and it supports 1-click WordPress publishing. Scalenut has no free tier, and its pricing starts from $39 per month.
Scalenut is loved by users for its SEO optimization capabilities and automatic SEO article generation. However, according to user reviews on G2, Scalenut’s price is on the high side and canceling subscriptions can be stressful. However, you can get 10% off your 1st month subscription when you use the code FIRST10!
Use Cases: Scalenut is great for creating in-depth blog outlines that adhere to SEO best practices, helping your posts climb search rankings. It can also whip up SEO-friendly product descriptions to enhance visibility on e-commerce platforms
Grammarly is currently one of the best AI tools for writing. It is particularly beneficial for students and professionals who require grammatical corrections and stylistic improvements in their writing. Grammarly offers a robust free tier, making it one of the top free AI tools available.
Its premium features include advanced grammar checks, vocabulary enhancement suggestions, and plagiarism detection. Grammarly's pricing starts at $12 per month and is highly regarded for its accuracy and user-friendly interface. However, some users find the premium subscription costly.
Use Cases: Grammarly is perfect for polishing academic papers, business emails, and professional documents by fixing grammar mistakes and enhancing vocabulary. It's also handy for social media managers who want to ensure their posts are clear and engaging.
AI customer service tools enhance communication processes by automating responses. And among the top picks are ManyChat and Zendesk! These two are known for their effectiveness in streamlining customer interactions.
ManyChat is a leading AI tool for creating automated chatbots on social media platforms and websites. It targets businesses of all sizes to enhance customer engagement and automate responses. Key features include easy integration with social media platforms, a drag-and-drop chatbot builder, and extensive analytics, and this chatbot is now available for Instagram.
ManyChat offers a free tier with basic features, and its paid plans start from $15 per month. Business owners love ManyChat's ease of use and effective automation capabilities, although some report limitations in customization options.
Use Cases: Use ManyChat to set up interactive chatbots on Facebook that handle customer service or walk customers through a product catalog. It’s also great for running large interactive campaigns on Instagram, engaging users and collecting valuable customer insights.
Zendesk is a customer service platform using AI to help businesses improve customer support. Its key features include AI-powered chatbots, a ticketing system, and a comprehensive analytics dashboard. Zendesk is favored for its ability to streamline customer interactions and improve response times. Pricing begins at $19/agent per month, with no free tier available. While Zendesk is recognized for its robust support capabilities, some users find its pricing structure complex and expensive.
Use Cases: Zendesk effectively handles customer questions across email, phone, and live chat, ensuring comprehensive customer support. Its analytics help monitor support effectiveness and pinpoint areas needing improvement in real-time.
Want to enhance your marketing efforts? AI tools like HubSpot and Marketo can use AI to optimize marketing campaigns and personalize customer interactions.
HubSpot is one of the best AI productivity tools out there, offering a comprehensive software suite for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. Its key features include CRM tools, email marketing automation, and lead generation capabilities. HubSpot is particularly popular among small–to–medium-sized businesses.
It offers a free CRM with limited features, and more comprehensive plans start at $15 per month for a seat (individual plan) and $890 per month for 3 seats if you’re going for the professional hub. Most marketers use this software for its all-in-one functionality and user-friendly interface, though some feel the higher-tier plans can be pricey.
Use Cases: HubSpot is perfect for managing customer relationships and tracking interactions in one place, which is essential for personalized marketing and sales strategies. Companies can use email marketing automation to nurture leads by sending targeted, timely messages.
Marketo is a powerful marketing automation platform that leverages AI to help businesses target and engage customers effectively. Its capabilities include email marketing, lead management, and revenue attribution.
Marketo is considered one of the best AI tools for writing marketing content. It does not offer a free tier, and pricing is custom-based on the services used. Marketo is highly praised for its scalability and comprehensive features but criticized for its steep learning curve and high cost.
Use Cases: Marketo excels in streamlining the lead management process, from acquisition to conversion. Businesses can use their targeted email marketing campaigns to maintain engagement with leads throughout the buying cycle.
Managing projects and project teams has been proven to be a lot easier with AI project management tools such as Monday.com and Asana. These two tools incorporate AI in their software to streamline project planning and collaboration.
Monday.com is an AI-driven project management tool that enhances team productivity through customizable workflows and automated tasks. It is ideal for teams looking to streamline project tracking and collaboration.
Monday.com includes features like time tracking, automated notifications, and an intuitive interface. It offers a limited free tier, which allows two users, with paid monthly plans starting at $12 per user. Business owners prefer monday.com because of its visual project planning tools and integrations, although some report that it can become expensive as teams grow.
Use Cases: Monday.com is ideal for managing multiple projects across a team or department. Teams can customize workflows to match their specific processes, track the progress of tasks with visual timelines, and automate routine updates and notifications.
For instance, a marketing team can use Monday.com to oversee campaigns from planning to execution, ensuring all members stay updated with automated notifications and clear, visual progress indicators.
Asana is another best AI productivity tools designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. Key features include task assignments, timelines, and progress reports. Asana helps teams stay in sync and efficiently manage projects.
It offers a basic free tier, with monthly premium plans starting at $13.49. Asana is used mainly for its ease of use and effective task management capabilities, though some users desire more advanced reporting features.
Use Cases: Asana is particularly effective for task delegation and progress tracking within projects. It allows managers to assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and receive updates on task completion.
For example, a software development team can use Asana to manage sprints, with tasks assigned to developers, deadlines set, and progress tracked all within Asana. Additionally, Asana's timelines and progress reports help managers anticipate bottlenecks and make adjustments to schedules or resources in real-time, ensuring projects stay on track.
AI content generation and management tools help entrepreneurs produce diverse and engaging content at scale, which is crucial for marketing, social media management, and customer engagement. Here are some of the best AI tools for business content generation and management:
Lumen5 is an AI-powered video creation platform that allows users to transform text content into engaging video content effortlessly. It is particularly useful for marketers and content creators. Lumen5 supports features like automatic storyboard creation, brand customization, and a vast media library. It offers a free community tier, and its paid plans start at $29 per month. Users love Lumen5 for its simplicity and ability to quickly produce quality videos, though some find the video rendering slow.
Use Cases: Lumen5 can be used by marketing teams to quickly convert blog posts into video summaries that are ideal for sharing on social media platforms and increasing audience engagement. Additionally, businesses can use it to create educational or promotional videos, utilizing the platform's automatic storyboard creation and vast media library to produce visually appealing content that resonates with their target audience.
Canva is a graphic design tool that uses AI to enable easy creation of professional-looking designs. It is ideal for students, marketers, and small businesses. Canva's key features include a drag-and-drop editor, a vast library of templates, and collaboration tools.
It offers a generous free tier, with Pro plans starting at $12.99 per month. Canva is known for its user-friendly interface and extensive template options, but some professional designers wish for more advanced design features.
Use Cases: Canva is perfect for creating a wide range of visual content, such as social media graphics, presentations, posters, and business cards. A small business owner can use Canva to design promotional flyers and social media posts that maintain brand consistency with little to no graphic design skills.
When choosing the right AI tools for their businesses, entrepreneurs need to consider factors like features, usability, and pricing. For those focused on writing and content creation, popular choices often include tools like Grammarly and Canva.
Grammarly boosts the quality of written content with advanced grammar checks, style suggestions, and plagiarism detection. It has a comprehensive free tier, with premium upgrades starting at $12 per month, making it accessible and easy to use, even for those who aren't very tech-savvy.
On the other hand, Canva meets graphic design needs with a wealth of templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, perfect for crafting visual content. Its free version is quite powerful, and the Pro plan starts at $12.99 per month, making it a favorite among both beginners and seasoned designers.
For productivity and project management, Monday.com and Asana stand out. Monday.com offers a customizable platform packed with features like time tracking and automated notifications, starting at $12 per user per month after a free basic tier. Its visually appealing interface enhances the user experience, especially for teams that appreciate the ability to customize and visually track projects.
Asana, meanwhile, simplifies task assignments, timelines, and progress tracking, offering a clear-cut approach to project management. It has a free basic tier, with premium plans starting from $13.49 per user per month.
Asana's simplicity and effectiveness make it ideal for teams that need efficient project management without a lot of bells and whistles.
Both tools underscore the importance of matching an AI tool’s capabilities with the specific needs and workflows of the business to boost efficiency and productivity effectively.
Here are some things to keep in mind if you want to integrate AI into your operations:
Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into business workflows can bring up several challenges that need careful handling. One major challenge is data privacy. Since AI systems use a lot of data to learn and make decisions, it's critical to keep this data secure and private.
This is especially important because of strict laws in many places, like the GDPR in the European Union, which require careful handling of personal data.
Another issue is becoming too dependent on AI tools. Relying heavily on AI can make a business vulnerable to problems if the technology fails or runs into errors it can't fix by itself.
Also, while AI can greatly improve efficiency and decision-making, it's essential to keep humans in the loop. Human judgment is important for interpreting and putting AI suggestions into context, especially in complex situations that need ethical consideration or empathy.
AI tools like Grammarly, Scalenut, ManyChat, and Zendesk are changing how businesses work. They boost efficiency and productivity, helping entrepreneurs increase sales and engage better with customers. Whether you're a blogger or run a large company, using these AI tools can take your business to new heights and keep you ahead of your competitors.
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AI writing tools are not replacing human writers but instead are augmenting their capabilities. They handle routine writing tasks, which frees up human writers to focus on more complex and creative aspects of writing. This collaboration enhances productivity and creativity rather than replacing human input.
AI writing tools are versatile and can generate a wide range of content, including blog posts, social media updates, product descriptions, emails, reports, and even basic research papers. They are particularly useful for generating structured content quickly, such as standard marketing copy or data-driven articles.
Selecting the right AI writing tool depends on your content needs. Evaluate tools based on their specialty in handling specific content types, the sophistication of their language capabilities, ease of integration with other platforms, and cost-effectiveness. Consider trying a few tools to find the one that fits you best.
While AI tools can generate original content, there's always a risk of producing text that too closely resembles existing sources. It’s important to use plagiarism checkers to ensure the content is unique. Additionally, continually updating AI models and using reliable AI writing tools can minimize plagiarism risks.
Most AI writing tools are designed to be accessible to users without technical expertise. They often feature intuitive interfaces and straightforward instructions, making them easy to use for anyone with basic computer skills. Some advanced features might require a learning curve, but generally, these tools are user-friendly.
AI writing tools sometimes struggle with understanding context and nuance, which can lead to inaccuracies or overly generic content. They may not capture the subtleties of human emotion or cultural nuances well. Additionally, they require quality input data to produce quality output, limiting their use in scenarios with poor data.
There are several free AI writing tools available, which offer basic functionalities suitable for casual or non-commercial use. For example ChatGPT and Gramamrly are some of the best free ai writing tools out there These tools are great for individuals or businesses starting with AI-driven writing.
AI writing tools are quite effective for SEO. They assist in identifying optimal keywords, suggest content structures that improve readability and engagement, and ensure consistency across written content. This can help pages rank better in search engine results, drawing more organic traffic to websites.
The future of AI writing tools is promising, with ongoing advancements in natural language processing and machine learning models. These tools are expected to become more sophisticated in understanding and generating human-like text, providing more personalized and contextually relevant content.
Some of the best free AI tools include Google Analytics for web insights, Canva for graphic design, Grammarly for writing improvement, ChatGPT by OpenAI for generating text, Otter.ai for speech-to-text transcription, and DeepL Translator for accurate language translation, enhancing productivity and creativity across various fields.
*AFFILIATES DISCLAIMER: This site may contain links to affiliate websites and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. Our affiliates include the following: Scalenut, Asana, and Hubspot.
Alex Quin is a full-stack marketing expert and global keynote speaker. Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of UADV Marketing - a member of the Forbes Agency Council.
