Every week there is a new "10 AI tools you need" list. This is the opposite: the few that stayed in my workflow after the novelty wore off.
Writing and research
A chat assistant is my first draft partner. I never publish what it writes, but it is excellent at turning messy notes into an outline and at asking the questions I forgot to ask.
Images
For blog covers I still prefer my own photos. Where AI helps is cleanup: removing a stray tourist, extending a background, upscaling an old phone photo.
Automation
- Summaries of long YouTube videos before I decide to watch them
- Turning voice memos into structured notes
- Drafting alt text for photos (then I edit it)
The tool is only as useful as the question you bring to it.
If you want to see how I used these tools to build this very website, read How I Built My Website.