AI Tools Nobody Told You About (But You’ll Want to Use)
🤖 You’ve heard of ChatGPT, MidJourney, maybe Notion AI...
Great — but they’re just the tip of the iceberg.
If you’re already comfortable using AI for writing or design, the next level is about exploring the “hidden gems”: tools that don’t always trend on Twitter but solve real problems.
Here’s a curated list of AI tools nobody talks about enough, perfect if you’re ready to move from beginner experiments to smarter, faster workflows.
1. Perplexity AI – Research without drowning in tabs
Think of it as “Google meets ChatGPT.” Instead of throwing 10 blue links at you, Perplexity gives concise answers with sources attached. Perfect for:
- Market research
- Academic-style digging
- Quick fact-checks without hallucinations
👉 Use it when ChatGPT feels too generic and Google too overwhelming.
2. Gamma.app – Beautiful decks, zero pain
Making slides is boring. Gamma uses AI to turn your outline into a polished presentation in minutes. You just write bullet points → it designs the slides with clean layouts.
Why it’s underrated:
- It saves hours on design
- Great for freelancers, consultants, and teachers
- You can tweak the design later, but 80% is done instantly
3. Runway ML – Beyond MidJourney: video magic
If you’ve ever thought “AI images are cool, but what about video?”, Runway is the answer. It lets you:
- Remove backgrounds with one click
- Generate B-roll from text prompts
- Experiment with video-to-video transformations
This is the tool filmmakers and marketers quietly use to create “expensive-looking” edits without a big budget.
4. ElevenLabs – Voices you won’t believe are synthetic
Text-to-speech is nothing new, but ElevenLabs feels uncanny. It creates natural, emotional voices (in multiple languages) from plain text.
Use cases:
- Narrate blog posts into podcasts
- Add voiceovers to explainer videos
- Create multilingual content at scale
It’s the kind of tool that turns a solo creator into a full production studio.
5. Otter.ai – Meetings you’ll actually remember
Not glamorous, but life-changing. Otter joins your meetings (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet) and creates real-time transcripts, summaries, and action points.
Perfect if you:
- Hate writing minutes
- Juggle multiple client calls
- Want to focus on conversation instead of notes
6. Claude AI (Anthropic) – Your “second brain”
If ChatGPT is your go-to, Claude is its quieter cousin with a superpower: handling huge documents. You can paste entire PDFs, contracts, or long reports, and Claude will read, summarize, or analyze them like an assistant that never gets tired.
7. Notion AI (Advanced) – Organizing chaos
Yes, many know Notion AI exists. But most people only scratch the surface. Beyond summaries, it can:
- Rewrite messy notes into structured documents
- Draft blog posts directly inside your workspace
- Act as a task manager that “thinks”
Think of it as a brain upgrade for your Notion, not just an add-on.
🚀 Why these matter
The hype around “big names” hides a bigger truth: AI is strongest when combined. Using ChatGPT alone is fine; combining it with Perplexity for research, Gamma for slides, and ElevenLabs for voiceovers makes you a one-person creative agency.
📝 Takeaway
Don’t stop at the surface. The next wave of productivity comes from knowing the tools others haven’t discovered yet — and weaving them into your own workflow.
AI is no longer about replacing tasks. It’s about extending what you can do in one lifetime.