How to summarize a long PDF or contract with AI
You have a 60-page report or contract and need the key points, numbers and risks today, without reading every page.
Best pickClaudeTime saved1 to 2 hours per documentFind the right AI for the job.
Practical AI workflows for real work. Tell us the task and get the best tool, the exact prompt and the time it saves.
- step-by-step workflows
- 7
- AI tools in the directory
- 54
- fields of work covered
- 8
Best pickClaudeTime saved1 to 2 hours per documentAI for your kind of work
Pick your field to see the use cases and tools that fit it.
- AI for writingDrafting, editing and rewriting with AI without sounding like a robot.Guides coming soon
- AI for marketingEmails, ads, social posts and campaign research.1 guide
- AI for researchReading, summarizing and fact-checking in a fraction of the time.2 guides
- AI for small businessSpreadsheets, meetings, customer emails and the admin that keeps a business running.1 guide
- AI for codingWriting, explaining and fixing code, even if you are not a developer.1 guide
- AI for creatorsVideo, audio, podcasts and turning one piece of content into ten.1 guide
- AI for designImages, presentations and visual ideas from a text prompt.Guides coming soon
- AI for studentsStudying, note-taking and learning faster without shortcuts that backfire.1 guide
New use cases
All use casesHow to study with AI without cheating (and actually remember more)
You want AI to help you learn faster, not do your homework for you and get you flagged for it.
Best pick: Gemini NotebookUp to 1h savedWhat is an AI model, and why do new ones come out every week?
Every week brings a new AI model with a confusing name, and you can't tell which ones matter for your work.
The best AI tools for writing marketing emails in 2026
You send a newsletter or sales emails every week and writing them eats an afternoon you don't have.
Best pick: ChatGPT2h+ saved weeklyHow to clean messy spreadsheet data with AI
Your spreadsheet has duplicate rows, five spellings of the same company and three date formats, and the report is due tomorrow.
Best pick: ChatGPTAbout 1h savedHow to turn one podcast episode into show notes, a blog post and short clips with AI
Every episode needs show notes, timestamps, a blog post and short clips, and doing all of it by hand is a second job.
Best pick: Descript3h+ savedHow to automate a boring computer task with an AI-written script (no coding experience needed)
You do the same file-renaming or copy-paste job every week and suspect a small script could do it for you.
Best pick: ClaudeHours saved
New AI models, in plain English
What launched, who can use it today, and what it is actually good for.
| Model | Type | Status | Released | Context | API price per 1M tokens | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Grok Voice 3.0xAI | Voice & audio | Live | Not published | Not published | Voice assistants, Hands-free use, Customer calls | |
 Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle | Flagship | Live | 1M tokens | $2 in / $10 out | Research, Long documents, Google Workspace users | |
 Mellum2.1JetBrains | Open weights | Live | Not published | Not published | Code completion, Coding agents, Self-hosting | |
 Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic | Fast & cheap | Live | 1M tokens | $0.10 in / $0.50 out | Quick summaries, High-volume tasks, Customer support | |
 Mistral Large 4Mistral AI | Flagship | Preview | Not published | $1.36 in / $4.18 out | European data needs, Multilingual work, Business use |
Tools we reach for most
The ones that keep coming up as the best pick in our workflows.
ChatGPT
by OpenAI
General-purpose assistant for writing, analysis, files, images and voice.
Claude
by Anthropic
Assistant known for long documents, careful writing and coding help.
Free; Pro $20/mo ($17/mo yearly); Max from $100/mo
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- You choose
- Minimum age
- 18+
- Free, Pro and Max users choose whether their chats can be used for training. Team, Enterprise and API data is not used for training.
Descript
by Descript
Edit video and podcasts by editing the transcript like a document.
Free; Hobbyist $16/mo yearly ($24 monthly); Creator $24/mo yearly
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- Yes, opt-out
- Minimum age
- 13+ (under 18 with a parent)
- Its terms ban cloning the voice of a speaker who has not consented.
Gamma
by Gamma
Turns an outline or notes into a presentation, doc or web page.
Gemini Notebook
by Google
Formerly NotebookLM. Upload your own sources and ask questions grounded in them.
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- No
- Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026.
- Your sources and chats are not used for training unless you send feedback. Workspace and education accounts are not reviewed by humans.
Perplexity
by Perplexity AI
Answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources.
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- Yes, opt-out
- Minimum age
- 13+ (minors need a parent's acceptance)
- "AI Data Retention" (use of your data for training) is on by default for Free, Pro and Max. Enterprise data is never used for training.
- In August 2026 the Ninth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction Amazon had won against Perplexity's AI agent shopping on its site.