I tested dozens of apps to find the 7 best AI tools for productivity and growth in 2025

It feels like a new AI tool pops up every single day, each one promising to completely change how we work. But let's be real, how many of them actually live up to the hype? Most of the time, you end up with wasted money and a serious case of subscription fatigue.

To cut through all that noise, I rolled up my sleeves and spent time with dozens of these so-called productivity platforms. This isn't just another generic list. It’s my personal, curated guide to the seven AI tools that genuinely made a difference in my workflow and are set to help businesses grow in 2025.

What are AI tools for productivity and growth?

When we talk about AI tools, it's easy to just think of chatbots like ChatGPT. But the tools on this list are a bit different. They’re built to automate, clean up, or just plain improve the specific tasks you do every day.

Think of them less as a replacement for your brain and more as a super-smart assistant that handles the boring, repetitive stuff. This could be anything from transcribing your meeting notes to drafting customer support replies or sifting through data. The whole point is to free you and your team up to focus on the bigger picture, the stuff that actually pushes the business forward. A great AI tool fits right into how you already work, instead of making you learn a whole new system from scratch.

How I chose the best AI tools

To make sure this list was actually helpful, I had a pretty strict checklist for what made the cut. It wasn't about flashy features; it was about real-world results.

• How fast can you actually see results? I prioritized tools that you could set up yourself and see working almost immediately. No lengthy onboarding calls required.

• Does it play well with others? The best tools plug right into the software you already use every day (like your helpdesk or wiki) without a huge, complicated migration process.

• Does it solve a real problem? I looked for tools that tackle a genuine, recurring headache and clearly cut down on manual work.

• Can you customize it? You need to be able to control how and when the AI steps in. Having that control is key to trusting it and making sure it's accurate.

• Is the pricing clear? I leaned towards tools with straightforward pricing that doesn't sneak in hidden fees or penalize you for growing.

A quick comparison of the top AI tools

Here’s a quick rundown of my top picks for 2025.

Tool	Best For	Standout Feature	Pricing Model
eesel AI	Customer support automation & internal knowledge	Risk-free simulation on past tickets	Flat monthly fee
Otter.ai	Meeting transcription & summarization	Real-time speaker identification	Per-user, with a free tier
Notion AI	Centralized knowledge & project management	AI-powered Q&A across your entire workspace	Per-user add-on
Jasper	High-volume marketing content creation	Brand voice consistency and multiple templates	Per-user, based on word count
Perplexity	Research & fact-checking	Cites sources directly in answers	Per-user, with a free tier
Gamma	Creating presentations & documents quickly	AI-powered design from a simple prompt	Per-user, with a free tier
Zapier	Connecting apps & automating workflows	Natural language workflow creation	Tiered, based on task volume

The 7 best AI tools for productivity and growth

After putting them all through their paces, here are the seven tools that really deliver on the promise of AI-driven productivity.

1. eesel AI

A screenshot of the eesel AI landing page, one of the best AI tools for productivity growth.

Best for: Automating customer support and centralizing internal knowledge without changing your helpdesk.

If your team uses a helpdesk like Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Intercom, you should check out eesel AI. Instead of making you move to a whole new platform, it plugs directly into your existing tools and knowledge sources, like Confluence, Google Docs, and past tickets, to automate your frontline support. You can set up an AI Agent to handle common questions, an AI Copilot to help agents draft replies faster, and even an internal chatbot in Slack for your team's own questions.

What really makes eesel AI different is its self-serve setup and a pretty clever simulation mode. You can get it running in minutes, test its performance on thousands of your own historical tickets to see exactly how it would have performed, and then roll it out gradually with complete control. It takes away the risk and drawn-out sales process you often see with other enterprise AI tools.

Pros:

• Get up and running in minutes: It’s a genuinely self-serve setup with one-click integrations for the big helpdesks.

• Test without the risk: The simulation feature shows you accurate performance forecasts before you ever turn it on for customers.

• You're in control: You get to decide exactly which tickets the AI handles and what it can do (like tagging, escalating, or even making API calls).

• It learns from everything: It pulls information from past tickets, help centers, wikis, and docs to give accurate, context-aware answers.

Cons:

• It's mainly built for customer service, ITSM, and internal support workflows.

• Setting up the more advanced custom actions might require a little technical comfort.

Pricing:

eesel AI’s pricing is refreshingly clear. They don't charge you per resolution, so you're not punished for being successful.

Plan	Price (Billed Annually)	Key Features
Team	$239 /month	Up to 3 bots, 1,000 interactions/mo, AI Copilot, Slack integration, train on docs/websites.
Business	$639 /month	Unlimited bots, 3,000 interactions/mo, everything in Team + AI Agent, train on past tickets, AI actions, bulk simulation.
Custom	Contact Sales	Unlimited interactions, advanced actions, multi-agent orchestration, custom integrations.

2. Otter.ai

A screenshot of the Otter.ai landing page, showcasing one of the best AI tools for productivity growth.

Best for: Transcribing and summarizing meetings automatically.

We've all been in meetings that feel like a total time-suck, especially for whoever gets stuck taking notes. Otter.ai fixes this by joining your virtual meetings (on Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams) and creating a live transcript. Its AI chat can then give you a summary, pull out key takeaways, and list action items. It's a simple way to make sure everyone's on the same page and no to-dos get lost.

Pros:

• Accurate real-time transcription that can tell who is speaking.

• Automated summaries and action items save a ton of time on post-meeting cleanup.

• Plugs right into major calendar and video conferencing platforms.

Cons:

• The AI assistant can sometimes pop into meetings unexpectedly if you don't configure it just right, which can be a bit awkward with clients.

• Transcription can get a little shaky with strong accents or bad audio.

Pricing:

Otter.ai has a few different tiers, so it's pretty accessible.

Plan	Price (Billed Annually)	Key Features
Basic	Free	300 monthly transcription minutes, live transcription.
Pro	$8.33 /user/month	1,200 transcription minutes, advanced search and export.
Business	$19.99 /user/month	6,000 transcription minutes, unlimited imports, admin features.
Enterprise	Contact Sales	SSO, custom integrations, dedicated support.

3. Notion AI

A screenshot of the Notion AI landing page, highlighting one of the best AI tools for productivity growth.

Best for: Centralizing wikis, docs, and project management in one place.

Notion has become the "second brain" for a lot of teams, and its AI features make it even more of a powerhouse. Notion AI is built right into your workspace, so you can summarize documents, draft content, or fill out database tables automatically. But the real magic, for me, is the Q&A feature. It can answer questions instantly by searching across every single page and database your team has created. It turns all your scattered knowledge into something you can actually talk to.

Pros:

• It's baked directly into a tool that's already great for project management and documentation.

• The Q&A feature is fantastic for digging up information you forgot you even had.

• It can automate boring tasks like summarizing meeting notes or creating tables.

Cons:

• It can get pretty complex and messy if your team isn't disciplined about organization.

• The AI features are an extra cost on top of the standard Notion subscription.

Pricing:

Notion AI is an add-on to any paid Notion plan. It costs $8 per user/month when billed annually, or $10 per user/month if you pay monthly. That's in addition to the base subscription.

4. Jasper

A screenshot of the Jasper landing page, one of the best AI tools for productivity growth.

Best for: Creating high-quality marketing copy at scale.

For any marketing team, just keeping up with content demands can feel like a full-time job. Jasper is an AI writing assistant that's really good at churning out all kinds of marketing and sales copy, from blog posts and social media captions to ad copy and product descriptions. It has dozens of templates and you can train it on your brand's voice to keep everything consistent.

Pros:

• A huge library of templates for pretty much any marketing task you can think of.

• The Brand Voice feature helps keep all your content sounding like you.

• Integrates with tools like Surfer SEO to help you create optimized content from the start.

Cons:

• It can get pricey, especially for smaller teams, since the cost is tied to how much you use it.

• You still need a human to edit, fact-check, and add that final layer of polish.

Pricing:

Jasper's pricing is aimed at professional marketers and teams.

Plan	Price (Billed Annually)	Key Features
Pro	$59 /seat/month	1 seat, 2 brand voices, essential apps for core marketing workflows.
Business	Custom Pricing	Everything in Pro, plus unlimited brand voices, no-code AI app builder, API access, and dedicated account management.

5. Perplexity

Best for: Accurate, source-backed research and answers.

One of the biggest headaches with general AI chatbots is that they sometimes just make stuff up, a problem people call "hallucinating." Perplexity gets around this by acting more like a conversational search engine. It gives you direct answers to questions but, and this is the important part, it also shows you its sources. This makes it a really trustworthy tool for research, letting you get up to speed on a topic without having to second-guess the information.

Pros:

• It provides citations for all its information, so it's easy to check the facts.

• It boils down information from multiple sources into one clean answer.

• The Pro version gives you access to more advanced AI models like GPT-4 and Claude 3.

Cons:

• The free version limits how many complex questions you can ask per day.

• It's not the best choice for creative writing tasks compared to other tools.

• You have to sign up to see the pricing options on their website.

Pricing:

There's a solid free version available. Perplexity Pro is widely reported to be $20/month, which unlocks unlimited Pro searches and gives you access to better AI models.

6. Gamma

A screenshot of the Gamma landing page, another one of the best AI tools for productivity growth.

Best for: Creating polished presentations and documents in seconds.

We’ve all wasted hours building presentations. Gamma uses AI to generate entire presentations, documents, or webpages from a single prompt. You just give it the raw text or a basic outline, and Gamma handles all the design, layout, and formatting. The results look great and are easy to edit, saving you from messing around in PowerPoint or Google Slides for hours.

Pros:

• It's an incredibly fast way to get from an idea to a finished presentation.

• The designs are modern and look professional right out of the box.

• You can easily add interactive elements like GIFs and embedded videos.

Cons:

• You don't get the same level of detailed design control as you would with traditional software.

• The free version puts a "Made with Gamma" watermark on your creations.

• The credit system for using features can be a little confusing at first.

Pricing:

Gamma's pricing is based on a credit system, where you use credits to access AI features.

Plan	Price (Billed Annually)	Key Features
Free	$0	400 one-time credits at signup.
Plus	$8 /seat/month	1,000 credits/month, remove Gamma branding.
Pro	$18 /seat/month	4,000 credits/month, premium AI models, custom branding, API access.

7. Zapier

A screenshot of the Zapier landing page, one of the best AI tools for productivity growth through automation.

Best for: Automating workflows by connecting different apps.

Zapier is the digital duct tape that holds thousands of apps together. It's not a new tool, but its recent AI features have made it more useful than ever. You can now build automated workflows (they call them "Zaps") just by describing what you want in plain English. For example, you could tell it, "When a new lead comes in through Salesforce, ask ChatGPT to write a personalized welcome email and send it from my Gmail." It connects to over 8,000 apps, making it a must-have for cutting out manual data entry.

Pros:

• Connects thousands of apps to automate almost any digital task you can imagine.

• The AI-powered editor makes it much easier to build complex workflows.

• "AI by Zapier" lets you inject a bit of intelligence (like summarizing text) into any workflow.

Cons:

• The cost can climb quickly as you start using more tasks.

• Setting up really complex, multi-step Zaps can still be a bit of a learning curve.

Pricing:

Zapier's pricing is based on how many "tasks" (or successful actions) you use each month.

Plan	Price (Billed Annually)	Key Features
Free	$0	100 tasks/month, two-step Zaps only.
Professional	Starts at $19.99 /month	For 750 tasks/month, multi-step Zaps, unlimited premium apps.
Team	Starts at $69 /month	For 1.5k tasks/month, 25 users, shared app connections, priority support.

This video explores seven AI tools that can significantly boost your productivity.

How to choose the right AI tool for your business

With so many tools out there, picking the right one can feel like a chore. Here are a few tips to make it easier:

• Start with your biggest headache. Don't go looking for a tool and then try to find a problem for it. Figure out what's slowing your team down the most. Is it repetitive support tickets? Messy meeting follow-ups? Find the tool that solves that specific problem.

• Pick something that fits in. The best tools slide right into the software you already use. Try to avoid anything that requires you to ditch a core system like your helpdesk. It just makes life easier for everyone.

• Find a way to test it without risk. You shouldn't have to sign a year-long contract to see if something works. Look for tools that offer a free trial or, even better, a simulation mode. For example, a tool like eesel AI can show you exactly how many tickets it would have automated last month, so you know what you're getting before you pay a dime.

Get started with an AI tool that actually works

AI is definitely here to stay, but getting more productive isn't about jumping on every new tool that launches. It's about being smart and choosing tools that solve your real, day-to-day problems. The platforms on this list are some of the best I've found for everything from support automation to content creation.

If your team is drowning in repetitive customer questions or wasting time digging for answers in scattered documents, that's a perfect job for AI. With a tool like eesel AI, you can connect all your knowledge and get your frontline support automated in minutes, not months.

Ready to see how much time you can get back? Start your free trial today.