Alejandro Rioja.
Productivity

Exploring Beyond ChatGPT: 14 Mind-Blowing AI Tools You Must Try Right Now

Alejandro Rioja
Alejandro Rioja
10 min read
TL;DR

As of early 2026, the AI tools landscape is crowded with high-quality options across every category — writing, image generation, video, audio, code, and agents. This guide covers the real tools worth your time, grouped by use case.

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Writing & text

ChatGPT (OpenAI)

Still the most recognized AI assistant. By early 2026, ChatGPT runs on a hybrid routing system that blends fast and capable models depending on the task. The paid plan unlocks deeper reasoning, longer context, and access to tools like web search, image generation, and code execution — all inside one interface. Useful for drafts, research summaries, email rewrites, and general Q&A. Verify current pricing and plan tiers.

Claude (Anthropic)

Claude is my daily driver for long-context work — analyzing full documents, maintaining tone consistency across a long draft, or reasoning through a complex problem without losing the thread. The extended context window makes it unusually good when you’re feeding in a lot of background material. Claude Code is the CLI agent I use for programming tasks. Verify current model versions and pricing.

Grammarly

Still the most reliable writing assistant for error-checking and style feedback in real time. Works across browsers, Google Docs, and most writing apps. By 2026, it has expanded beyond grammar into full-sentence rewrites and tone adjustment. Useful even if you’re also using a larger LLM — Grammarly catches the small stuff the big models gloss over. Has a free tier; paid plan adds more advanced suggestions.

Jasper

Jasper is a dedicated AI content platform aimed at marketing teams — it structures workflows around campaigns, brand voice, and content briefs rather than one-off chat prompts. It still uses large language models under the hood (previously leaned heavily on GPT-family models). Worth evaluating if you’re running a content team and want structured templates rather than an open-ended chat interface. Verify current pricing and model integrations.

Image generation

DALL·E (OpenAI)

DALL·E 3 is built directly into ChatGPT — you don’t need a separate interface. Text-to-image quality is strong, and the integration with GPT means you can iterate by continuing the conversation. The earlier DALL·E 2 is largely superseded; just use the version inside ChatGPT. Verify current capabilities.

Stable Diffusion / SDXL / FLUX

Open-source image generation has matured significantly. Stable Diffusion and its successors (SDXL, and the FLUX model family from Black Forest Labs) can be run locally or through hosted services. The quality ceiling is high; the trade-off is setup complexity if you’re self-hosting. Platforms like Civitai aggregate community fine-tunes. Verify current recommended checkpoints.

Midjourney

Midjourney remains a strong choice for aesthetically polished images — particularly for creative, stylized, or editorial work. It runs through Discord and a web interface. Has a paid subscription model; verify current pricing and plan options.

Canva (AI features)

Canva added significant AI features — background removal, Magic Edit, AI image generation, and text-to-design tools — layered on top of its existing template library. For non-designers who need professional-looking output quickly, Canva’s AI features remove most of the friction. Free tier available; paid plan adds more AI usage.

Looka

Looka uses AI to generate logos and brand identity kits from a short brief. If you need a startup logo and don’t want to hire a designer for version one, it’s a cost-effective starting point. Review the output carefully before committing — AI-generated logos often need small tweaks for distinctiveness. Verify current pricing.

Video generation & editing

Sora (OpenAI)

Sora is OpenAI’s video generation model, now publicly available as of 2025 (verify current access and pricing). It generates short video clips from text or image prompts. Still limited to short durations and has visible artifacts on complex motion, but for social content and creative prototyping it’s genuinely useful.

Runway

Runway (formerly associated with the Gen-1 and Gen-2 models) is a professional video AI platform. It offers text-to-video, video-to-video style transfer, inpainting, and motion controls. The earlier “Gen-1” entry in the original version of this post described Runway’s Gen-1 model — that’s been superseded by later generations. Verify the current model lineup and pricing.

Lumen5

Lumen5 converts articles or scripts into video slideshows with matching visuals and music. It’s not a generative video tool in the Sora sense — it assembles clips and images to match your text. Useful for repurposing blog content into short-form video. Verify current pricing.

Audio

ElevenLabs

ElevenLabs is the leading text-to-speech and voice cloning platform as of early 2026. Quality is high enough that synthetic voices are difficult to distinguish from real recordings in many use cases. Used for voiceovers, audiobooks, dubbing, and podcast production. Has a free tier; paid plans add more usage and voice cloning features. Verify current pricing.

Murf

Murf is a text-to-speech engine with a large voice library and multi-language support. Useful for narration inside tools like slide decks and video editors, and for automated content pipelines. Verify current voice count and pricing.

Podcastle

Podcastle handles audio recording and editing with AI-assisted cleanup — noise reduction, leveling, transcript generation. Aimed at podcasters and content creators who want cleaner audio without a manual editing workflow. Verify current feature set.

Suno

Suno generates full songs — vocals, instrumentation, lyrics — from a text prompt. Quality has improved substantially from its early versions. Not useful for professional music production, but genuinely impressive for content backgrounds, demos, and creative experiments. Has a free tier; verify current pricing for commercial use.

Lalal.ai

Lalal.ai separates vocals from instrumentals in existing audio tracks. Useful for remixes, karaoke tracks, or isolating stems for production. The quality is better than older free tools. Verify current pricing.

Code

Cursor

Cursor is a code editor built around an AI assistant — it has context-aware autocomplete, chat inside the editor, and the ability to apply edits across multiple files. By early 2026 it has become a primary tool for many solo developers and small teams. Verify current pricing.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot, backed by OpenAI models, is the incumbent AI coding assistant for teams already inside the GitHub ecosystem. Autocomplete, inline chat, and PR review features. Verify current pricing and model versions.

Claude Code (Anthropic)

Claude Code is the CLI agent I use for larger programming tasks — it can read a full codebase, plan multi-file changes, and execute them. Works especially well for refactors and greenfield work where you want the model to hold a lot of context. Available via the Anthropic API; verify current access and pricing.

Research & knowledge

Perplexity

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that answers questions with cited sources rather than a list of links. For factual research where you want to see where the answer comes from, it’s significantly more useful than a generic chat interface. Has a free tier; Pro adds more capable models. Verify current pricing.

Gemini (Google)

Google’s Gemini model family powers Google Search AI Overviews, Workspace features (Docs, Gmail, Sheets), and the standalone Gemini assistant. By early 2026, Gemini 2.5 Pro is the flagship model with strong multimodal capabilities. Useful if you’re already in the Google ecosystem.

Notion AI

Notion AI adds summarization, Q&A, drafting, and database-filling features inside Notion. If you use Notion as your knowledge base, the AI features reduce the friction of finding and updating information. Verify current pricing.

Deep Nostalgia (MyHeritage)

Worth a brief mention separately: MyHeritage’s Deep Nostalgia animates old photos using deep learning — useful for personal and genealogical projects. It’s a narrow tool for a specific use case (animating historical family photos), and it’s been around since before this post was originally written. Still available; verify current access.

Legal Robot was listed in the original post as an AI tool for contract analysis. As of early 2026, this space has moved significantly — large models like Claude and GPT-4+ handle document review directly, and purpose-built legal AI tools have emerged (Harvey AI, Spellbook, and others). The original Legal Robot product’s current status is unclear — verify before relying on it. For general contract review, a capable LLM with a long context window is now a practical starting point.

How I actually use these

In the agent systems I build, I rarely pick one tool and commit permanently. The stack evolves every few months as quality gaps shift. As of early 2026:

Most of these tools ship major updates every few months. Treat this list as a starting point and verify current capabilities before committing to a paid plan.

AI tools — 2026 FAQ

Which AI tool is best for writing?

There’s no single answer — it depends on the use case. For long-form reasoning and document analysis, Claude’s extended context window is hard to beat. For quick drafts and multi-modal tasks, ChatGPT’s integrated toolset (web, image, code) is convenient. For error-checking across any platform, Grammarly remains the most reliable lightweight option.

Are free tiers on these tools actually useful?

Most tools offer meaningful free tiers as of early 2026 — ChatGPT, Perplexity, ElevenLabs, Canva, and Grammarly all have free options that cover basic use. Paid plans generally add higher usage limits, faster models, and commercial licensing rights. Verify current free-tier limits before assuming what’s included.

How often do these AI tools change?

Very frequently. Most major tools ship significant updates every few months. Model versions, pricing, and features from 2023–2024 are largely outdated. Always check the tool’s own documentation for current capabilities before relying on information in any guide including this one.

Which tools are safe to use for commercial projects?

Check the terms of service for each tool individually — they vary significantly. For image generation especially, commercial licensing terms differ between Midjourney, DALL·E, Stable Diffusion, and others. For audio with ElevenLabs, commercial rights depend on your plan tier. Verify current ToS before publishing or selling AI-generated content commercially.

Related reading:

Updated for May 2026

The 2026 AI-tools landscape evolved fast — this section is the operator-side snapshot:

If the post you’re reading recommends a specific AI tool, verify the current model — most ship a new major version every 4–6 months in 2026.

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