A Snapshot in Time

I reserve the right to change my mind in two weeks.

That’s my honest caveat with my favorite AI. I find myself changing my mind with what I find most valuable about every two weeks. So let’s call this a snapshot in history. I’m going to share my three favorite AI tools right now, throw in a couple of bonus ones, and be totally candid about what’s working and what’s not.

For context, I’m testing these tools mainly for go-to-market martech stacks — outreach, content samples, and a variety of outbound sales motions. I’m also doing some content creation, image creation, and solving some technical aspects of sales and marketing. That’s the wheelhouse I’m working in.

One thing I will say about AI: context really matters. When we’re looking at our favorite tools, it matters very much where we’re using those. To be a generalist tool is incredibly difficult. But in the sales and marketing space, there’s a lot of hustle and human work output that is really highly valuable if you can supersize that person and supersize that effort.

Before We Get Into Tools 

Given the context I’m working in, I want to make a point that while seemingly obvious gets less obvious each day as we turn over more work to our AI tools. 

None of these tools will work very well without solid messaging. You still have to understand the problems your target audience, your niche, they’re having deeply and be able to communicate in a clear way what their problems are and why you have a solution. If you don’t have that, none of these systems will work.

And yes, AI can help you with developing that messaging. But be careful what you lean on it too much, because AI only has the context that humans give it. Nothing replaces solid questions in customer discovery by talking to your clients and your customers.

All right, with that additional caveat, here are my three favorite tools.

Tool #1: Replit

I’ve used Replit for a while now. I do not think I have pushed this far enough and I have a ways to go in perfecting what I’ve created, but I think for creating a Saas with no-code, it does a great job. One point to note, I am on the paid version. The free version did demonstrate the capabilities of the tools, but you’ll quickly need to jump to paid to put anything real into production which feels fair. There is an argument to be made that you can do what you can do with Replit with LLMs. That is true, but I don’t think they do it as well or as intuitively for non-developers. I just find the infrastructure piece to be really difficult. Replit is really solid and I think it’s a great tool. I created a lead scoring SaaS with it. You can use it for free on my website, ellentwomey.com.

There are many competitors — Lovable, Base44, even arguably Copilot and GitHub. I think that’s going to be a really powerful combination; that was a super smart strategic move by Microsoft. But I picked Replit and I used it and I went with it.

It’s important to stick with these tools for a while. That is where the real power is. We need to max them out so we can really understand the power we can execute. That may be the best advice when picking your favorite tool. Continue to use one tool and level up until you’ve proven that you need another tool.

Tool #2: Claude Cowork (Opus 4.6)

My next favorite tool — which is waning a bit — is Claude Cowork. I’m on Opus 4.6. I use Sonnet a bit, but mainly I’m on Opus.

Quick distinction: Claude Chat is generative AI. Claude Cowork is an agent. Claude Code is for development (Replit competitor), but I haven’t used it much. I’m putting all my effort into the agent component of Cowork.

Why it’s one of my favorites: I compare the work product and the ability of Cowork to actually execute (like post on LinkedIn, upload to my Google Drive, help me create a martech system) against Chat’s agent. The Cowork recommendations and thought processes behind it are next level compared to what I get in Chat. It’s much more focused on being able to do the work. So I think Chat GPT still has some work to do there.

Why it’s waning: I’m hitting limits way before noon, especially on graphic-heavy projects. It told me to come back at 3 p.m. which was really frustrating when it’s 11 a.m. Eastern. And then the other day I got a 4 p.m. Annoying. I’m paying for the pro version and I want to be able to use it. From what I’m reading online, other people are experiencing this too. The more this happens, the more it will diminish my perspective on it.

The other frustration I have with it, is it was performing tasks I didn’t want it to do. Rewriting and recreating a bunch of documents I didn’t ask it to recreate. I asked it to create one new document, it did it wrong, and then it went through and recreated another eight documents. Frustrating. There are ways I could be using it more effectively, but in this case, my instructions were very direct. I was clear and it just went off the rails a bit. 

Warning: Be really careful what you allow Cowork to do. By accessing different projects and files, it can cause a lot of damage so be careful and backup the folder you are allowing it to work so it does not have access.

Tool #3: Gamma

For those of you who don’t know, Gamma is a design and image creation tool. We can create decks, social posts, and basically anything we can create in Canva. The image creation is really creative. It’s better than some of the ideas I’ve come up with, and it can take input images and put them into the design. Canva cannot do that yet. I’m a Canva Pro user and use it frequently.

I’m still on the free version of Gamma, which is kind of impressive given how much I use it. I’m very nearly getting close to the paid version. Even my less technical hubby has used Gamma. It could be a consultant’s new best friend.

One call-out to the Gamma team: I need that Canva integration. If you had that Canva integration, I would pay for that in a second. Canva’s AI is disappointing. I know their template library is fantastic, but I’m getting really comfortable with Gamma so hopefully that integration is coming!

One more limitation: Gamma does not update well. The original creation is excellent, but if you ask it to correct three things, it will likely get it wrong. It either won’t update it or it will update something different than what you asked so there is more work to be done there.

The Recap

My three favorite AI tools today: Replit, Claude Cowork Opus 4.6, and Gamma. Remember, this is only a snapshot in time and I reserve the right to change my mind. Now here are a few bonus tools I keep coming back to.

Bonus #1: Custom GPTs in ChatGPT

I still love my GPTs. I continue to go back to those all the time. I have multiple projects I’m working on, so I’ll do CRO work, CMO work, podcast work, copywriting. I have a bunch of GPTs set up for each specific task. They’ve just gotten really good over time. I trust them, and they almost never lead me astray.

I think I’ve gotten to be a better email writer because of my GPTs. They’ve given me suggestions, and then I write the emails, and then I like them and they sound better. I love that double check. One point to note, I do write the emails. I rarely say “write me an email” from a GPT or an AI prompt. It’s okay to do that a couple times for learning, but if you’re having AI write all of your emails, I think you’re getting really lazy and it’s a really bad habit. I’m always giving it my input. I think it’s fine to have the AI structure it and be thoughtful, but the thinking has to come from you.

I strongly recommend you set up your GPTs in Chat. It’s really easy and provides a great foundation for learning effective AI strategies. 

Bonus #2: Grok for Image and Video

Grok for image and video creation cannot be beat. The creativity is top notch. You can basically create anything you want. The representations of it are very good. I don’t run into any limits with it. I do have the upgraded Pro.

It is more limited than Gamma in that these are just images and video files so it doesn’t replace Gamma’s full design capability. That’s why I picked Gamma for the top three. But for content pieces and customizing images, Grok is really helpful. I find myself in Grok at least a few times a week.

One important note across all of these: I have Pro for Chat, Grok, Claude, and Replit. If you’re on the free versions, you could run into limitations earlier than I do which change the effectiveness.

Bonus #3: n8n

The last tool I want to mention is new for me for I’m not ready to recommend it yet, but it’s definitely going to be top of the stack if it executes on what I’m planning. I’m working on n8n for a GTM workflow automation.

The thoughtfulness with the integrations is really impressive. Go check them out. They have all of the top tools. N8n is working with a lot of software that you’re already using, which is highly valuable. Also, it supports developers and no-code solutions. That dynamic is really powerful.

A couple of examples are CRM integration with HubSpot, integration with Slack in a full workflow. Not one thing, but think of five or ten tasks chained together throughout different software. And they have a growing library of templates which reminds me of Canva. If you know how and where to apply it, you can really 10x your ability. You can 10x your value to the organization. 

The Takeaway

Those are my top three AI tools. I recommend you pick one. Work with it for at least a week or two daily. Jumping between tools will lead to mental stress and an ineffective solution. Over time, using one tool again and again is how you get the real value out of it.
That may be the best tool of all — continuing to use the tool and leveling up until you’ve proven that you need another one.