Let's deal with the honest answer first: for most of what you'll do, any of the main tools will be fine. The gap between them is much smaller than the gap between using one well and using one badly.
If you want to stop reading here and just pick something, pick ChatGPT or Claude, pay for a month, and use it properly. You'll be further ahead than someone who spent three weeks comparing.
Still, they do have personalities. Here's what I've found.
The big four
ChatGPT (OpenAI)
The one everyone's heard of, and the safest default. Enormous range, handles images and voice well, and has the largest ecosystem of guides and templates, which matters when you're stuck and searching for help. Its voice mode is genuinely good if you'd rather talk than type.
Reach for it when: you want one tool that does a bit of everything, or you want to talk to it on your phone in the car.
Claude (Anthropic)
Better at long documents and at writing that needs to sound like a person rather than a press release. It tends to be more careful, more willing to say when something is uncertain, less inclined to pad. If you paste in a twelve-page contract and ask what's odd about clause 14, this is the one I'd use.
Reach for it when: you're working with long documents, or the writing needs to sound like you.
Gemini (Google)
The advantage here is Google. It sits inside Gmail, Docs and Sheets, so it's already where your work is. If your whole life is in Google Workspace, the convenience is hard to argue with. It also handles very long inputs well.
Reach for it when: you live in Gmail and Google Docs and want the AI in the same place.
Copilot (Microsoft)
The same idea, but for Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. If your office runs on Microsoft 365 (and most South African businesses do), this is the one your IT person will point you at. It's frequently already included in what your company pays for, so check before you buy anything.
Reach for it when: your work lives in Outlook and Excel.
The specialists
These do one job unusually well, and they're where the "wow" moments in the workshop usually come from.
| Tool | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Perplexity | Research with sources attached. Better than the others when you need to know where a fact came from. |
| Lovable | Describe a website or small app in plain English and watch it get built. Startling the first time. |
| Gamma | Turns a rough outline into a decent-looking presentation in a couple of minutes. |
| Canva | You may already use it. The AI features inside it now handle writing, backgrounds and layout. |
| ElevenLabs | Realistic voice from text. Useful for anyone making audio or video. |
| Otter / Fireflies | Sits in your meetings, transcribes, and hands you notes with action items. |
| NotebookLM | Upload your own documents and ask questions only about those. Good for study notes and research. |
Don't collect tools. Pick one main assistant, learn it properly, and add a specialist only when you hit something it genuinely can't do. Six half-learned subscriptions is worse than one you know well, and considerably more expensive.
A rough guide by job
- Email and correspondence: your main assistant, or Copilot if you're in Outlook
- Long documents and contracts: Claude
- Research you need to cite: Perplexity
- Meeting notes: Otter or Fireflies
- Presentations: Gamma
- Anything visual: Canva
- Studying or working through your own material: NotebookLM
What about the free ones?
All of the big four have a free tier, and they're genuinely usable. You'll hit daily limits and you won't always get the newest model, but for finding out whether this is for you, free is the right place to start. There's a whole page on whether the paid version is worth it.
Try two for a week each.Keep whichever one you actually reached for.