There are hundreds of AI tools. Most of them will not change how your business runs. These are the ones that will — tested for how much friction they actually remove, not how impressive they look in a demo. Writing, automation, inbox, admin, knowledge management. One tool at a time.
Low Friction AI Membership →Recommended tools
The AI assistant that genuinely sounds like a person when you prompt it properly. Best for writing in your own voice, thinking through complex problems, drafting difficult emails, and long-form content that needs nuance.
The tool I use most. Better than ChatGPT for writing that needs to sound like you — which matters when your voice is part of your brand.
Try Claude →Strong for research, brainstorming, summarising, and structured outputs. The plugin ecosystem is useful. More widely known than Claude — if you're recommending AI to clients, this is often where they've started.
Genuinely useful, especially for research tasks. Claude edges it for voice-dependent writing.
Try ChatGPT →Connects your apps so they talk to each other without you. New client books → welcome email goes automatically. Form submitted → added to your CRM. The best starting point for automation if you've never done it before.
Start here. Pre-built templates mean you can have your first automation running in 20 minutes.
Try Zapier → Affiliate link — I earn a small commission at no cost to youMore powerful than Zapier and cheaper at scale. Visual workflow builder that handles complex, multi-step automations well. Steeper learning curve — worth it once you outgrow Zapier's simpler flows.
Graduate to this once you know what you want to automate. Not the right first tool.
Try Make → Affiliate link — I earn a small commission at no cost to youWhere your thinking lives. Notion has been a small business favourite for years — the AI layer makes it genuinely useful rather than just organised. Summarise notes, generate first drafts from bullet points, search across everything you've ever written.
Most useful if you already use Notion. If you don't, it's worth starting here.
Try Notion →More tool reviews added as they earn a place on this list.
Disclosure: Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up via a link here, I may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you. I only list tools I actually use and recommend.
Most solopreneurs are using AI at 10% of its actual capacity. Not because they're not capable — because nobody has shown them where to start and what actually matters.
Low Friction AI is a monthly membership that goes deep on one area at a time: writing, inbox, life admin, automation, workflows. Practical, recorded, with templates you can use the same day.
Related reading
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