10 Best AI Tools For Business Efficiency
Your business holds so much more than what’s visible and ultimately relies on your main business functions.
So, I’ve compiled a list of the best AI tools for business functions such as time tracking and leave management, sales, workflow automation, or streamlining social media management.
These are the best AI tools for business
Timeular to track time automatically and manage time off;
ChatGPT to aid in research and idea generation;
Canva to generate images for any business need;
Asana to manage projects with ease;
Jasper to create content in written formats;
Zapier to automate workflows between apps;
Notion to manage tasks and store knowledge;
Gong.io for sales teams that need insights faster;
Feedhive to streamline your social media presence;
Fireflies.io to capture any meeting notes;
Timeular for time tracking
Timeular tops the list as it’s the only AI-powered time-tracking app with a physical tracking gadget and unique features like leave management.
It’s suitable for any business looking to manage time better and gain objective visibility into where its time goes without dedicating countless hours to time tracking. On the contrary, it’s for those who want to ditch manual timesheets and enjoy the time-capture process with a fully automatic tool while spending only one minute a day tracking time.
AI capabilities:
AI suggested time entries: You can work without bothering to track time, and the AI tool will add time entry suggestions to your timesheet. It captures scheduled and past calendar events and tags them into an activity;
- Automatic time tracking:
Timeular tracks apps, docs, and websites you’re working on and adds them to your timesheet. Note: it tracks automatically if you select this option, and all tracked data is visible only to you;
Designed to notice personal productivity patterns, which are reflected in a dashboard visible only to the primary user. This helps to enhance productivity in a self-led way.
Security and privacy:
100% privacy and GDPR compliance: Though it’s a tool that tracks websites or apps used in the background, Timeular prioritizes data privacy. So, all data is not stored in the cloud like other time-tracking tools; it is stored on the user’s local device.
Anti-surveillance policy: Employees track honestly only if they’re not monitored, and Timeular respects their privacy even more. That’s why managers can see an employee’s tracked data with a 12-hour delay.
Kaitlin Snow Seamons, Executive Creative Director at Harmon Brothers
Other notable features of Timeular:
Clean, simple calendar-like interface makes it easy to track time;
- As a time reporting system, Timeular generates customizable and easy-to-digest reports to share with clients and investors or for any internal analysis to determine how much time is spent on tasks;
- Timeular is a billable hours tracker that lets you track billable hours with one click to use the data for streamlined client billing;
- As an overtime tracker, it captures overtime hours and deficit hours automatically in order for employees to keep a healthy work-life balance;
- As it provides leave tracking, you can easily manage all types of leaves in one place to ensure resource allocation, so it removes the need for a new PTO management tool;
- You receive automated alerts once you’re close to reaching a time budget with budget notifications to manage time better on projects and tasks;
You can track time with the physical time-tracking gadget, which, once flipped on another side, starts tracking another activity. We have to say that it’s one of the most loved features among our clients.
Pricing:
30 days free plan (trial)
Personal: €6.30/user/month
Personal Pro: €9.60/ user/month
Team: €14.60/user/month (unlimited users)
Andrew W, Team Leader at a Marketing Agency
ChatGPT for research
ChatGPT has to be mentioned among other AI tools for business, as you can use it in many helpful use cases. That can be writing a renegotiation email, ideating for a blog post, or training the sales team with role plays.
The examples are endless with ChatGPT, but its main functionality can be translated into helping you generate ideas.
AI capabilities:
Chat-like, simple interface for a smooth user experience;
Highly adaptable and versatile as it ideates endlessly for you – impersonates customer behavior, creates a content strategy based on your prompts, and so many others.
Emulates human-like conversations through its voice mode;
Generates contextual outputs addressing your prompt requests;
Supports over 50 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and Japanese;
What to be wary of:
The output should be double-checked, as the responses can be inaccurate or biased based on user inputs;
The free plan is buggy and crashes, according to user’s feedback on the OpenAI community.
Pricing:
Free
Plus: $20/user per month
Team: $30/user per month
Enterprise: Custom pricing
The most effortless AI time tracker
Say goodbye to disjointed time and leave management AI tools. Timeular’s AI time entry suggestions, automated tracking, and smart productivity insights are linked within the same app.
Canva for image generation
As I’m a huge advocate of this AI tool, I had to include it in this article.
Why? It helps me create some of the best AI-generated images as a non-specialist (AKA no graphic design skills, visual orientation, or color theory whatsoever).
You’ll discover that Canva is the simplest AI-powered app for generating images at a small investment in design resources. You can generate any visual for a blog post, social media posts, to presentations.
So, don’t worry. You can start creating visual marketing materials without being a design pro.
AI capabilities:
Generate design templates out of text queries or uploaded photos;
With the help of the AI generator, you’ll be creating presentations for an investor meeting, a client call, or good-looking product descriptions;
You’ll obtain unique and differentiated imagery for your brand with the Magic Media feature, allowing you to create original images and videos based on text prompts;
Get access to countless templates containing all design needs like logo creation, LinkedIn carousels, Facebook ads, and others;
Transform one object into another by simply typing a text command, making your design alteration process quick;
What to be wary of:
Most of its features are available only online, not without an internet connection or in the desktop app;
Prices:
Free Plan
Canva Pro: $14.99/month for a single user
Canva for Teams: $29.99/month for the first five users
Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Asana for project management
Asana might already be on your radar, or you might have used it. This project management app has recently implemented AI models. That’s why it gained its spot in the AI tools for business lists.
It has been a leader in its niche even before integrating artificial intelligence, but now Asana enables users to save time by automating repetitive tasks to another extent.
Just like other AI tools, Asana generates valuable insights so you can better control project outcomes and plan projects based on data insights rather than gut.
AI capabilities:
Automatic project risks detection: Identifies automatically project risks and bottlenecks to help you control outcomes and adapt business processes if needed;
Smart goals: Helps you generate smart project goals based on your previous goals and objectives;
Smart answers: Ask away questions in the app and gain valuable insights to determine the next steps in your projects;
Smart status: The generative AI software pulls from real-time work data insights for you;
What to be wary of:
Compared to other tools of its kind, Asana still relies on a lot of manual work – an example is continually pushing back due dates manually in your backlog in order not to fall behind with your work.
Pricing:
A free plan is available
Paid plans start at $10.99 per month
Jasper to write content
Let’s be honest— the content creation process ( in this case, writing) is tedious and time-consuming. Hence, using an AI solution to generate text is a game changer.
Whether you’re a copywriter or business owner, you can use Jasper as your AI assistant to write blog articles, product descriptions, or opinion pieces.
However, I would highly recommend revising and fine-tuning your text, as Jasper is still in its infancy, like many AI tools.
AI capabilities:
Emulates your brand voice: Jasper browses your website or landing pages about your product and services, decodes the brand voice, and produces content with that language;
It gives you access to 50+ templates, even if you have minimal writing experience or writer’s block;
Generates high-quality images, too, though it’s primarily a writing AI tool;
You can quickly prompt it with your voice through its chat function;
Jasper Everywhere, its extension, accompanies you in Google Docs and many other platforms and sends edit suggestions or just continues writing for you with its generative AI function;
What to be wary of:
No free plan;
Technical writing is not something you can use Jasper on, as it falls short of researching specific and very detailed information.
Check out the best AI tools for marketers to discover 11 effective marketing tools that can be added to your toolkit.
Pricing:
No free plan: 7-day trial for paid plans
Creator: $49/month
Teams: $125/month
Business: Contact for pricing
Zapier for app integration
Zapier is the ultimate automation tool that helps you interconnect any tool with another. It essentially is a third-party connector between any two tools you’d choose. The mandatory criterion, however, is for these apps not to be linked through a direct integration already, as it would be redundant to use Zapier.
In other words, Zapier helps you create workflows and integrations. All that is done in simple coding logic, if-then – no coding skills are required.
AI capabilities:
Instant automation: Just mention what integration you need, and Zapier automatically creates the workflows between the apps;
6871 Platform integrations: The odds are that you can create virtually any automation between the apps of your preference;
Filtering feature: This feature allows users to run filters only once specific conditions of the workflow are met
What to be wary of:
The free plan offers limited options to create automation ( e.g. it allows only single-step automation, but in general, you’d need more steps to properly integrate two apps);
Pricing:
A free plan is available
Paid plans start at $29.99 per month
Read also: The best software to automate repetitive tasks
Notion for task management
With Notion, you can plan, manage, and execute projects, as well as manage and store your knowledge assets with ease.
Since implementing natural language processing features, Notion allows you to focus on your projects while the AI digs into your data. It fetches answers and connects the dots between business data points with ease, and you get an interconnected environment.
AI capabilities:
Automatically extract valuable insights from your meeting notes in the form of key takeaways;
Automate tasks with automatic to-do lists resulting from meeting notes;
Its AI aids with task management by prioritizing work based on urgency and importance; It also automatically generates new tasks once others have been finished.
Smart data pointing by quickly directing you to past entries that you might have even forgotten the folder it’s stored in.
Auto-generated text drafts for when you’re out of ideas for brainstorming or writing a text
What to be wary of:
Notion is customizable, but at the same time, it can be overwhelming. You’d need to enjoy structuring and organizing information first to enjoy all the options in Notion.
Tip 1: There are countless Notion templates that you can use to systematize your data.
Tip 2: Read about the concept of “building a second brain,” which also demonstrates how to organize your digital data in Notion and make it into your second digital brain.
Pricing:
A free plan is available
Paid plans start at $10 per member per month
Gong.io to simplify sales
Your business’s success has one of its foundations in the sales you’re closing. Gong.io addresses these needs with its new AI-powered features.
The primary utility of Gong.io is analyzing customer interactions with artificial intelligence and providing actionable feedback for sales teams. It will analyze vast amounts of customer queries and interactions of a sales team on your behalf so you can make data-driven decisions and strategies.
AI capabilities:
Provides insights into customer preferences and needs in order to tailor future offers and increase chances of deal closures;
Tags customer interactions through conversation analytics and stores call with different tags for easy access;
Automatic suggestions with improvements for sales representatives based on call analysis;
It integrates 100+ apps, including Salesforce, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.
What to be wary of:
Users report on Getapp.com that the search function is confusing and might take a while to track down a specific call;
On the same platform.
FeedHive for social media
Within your toolkit as a business, you need to manage your social media presence, rank high in Google with SEO-optimized articles, and create content with customer data in mind.
FeedHive offloads some of these tasks so you can focus on better business operations and strategize to keep your competitive edge. FeedHive incorporates functionalities that automate content creation, recycling content, monitoring, and posting.
AI capabilities:
Social media posts auto-generation with machine learning algorithms;
Content recycling and re-purposing for better potential customer engagement;
Automatic follow-ups for trending posts that amplify your reach on social platforms;
It has predictive analytics on post engagement or followers’ growth;
Suggests enhancements for content and audience reach, saving time from data analysis.
Inbuilt AI chat with an assistant that comes up with ideas to improve your social media posts;
What to be wary of:
Limited Integrations: Some clients complain on TrustRadius about the lack of integrations with Google My Business, TikTok, and Canva.
Pricing:
Creator: $15/month (up to 4 social accounts)
Brand: $22/month (up to 10 social accounts)
Business: $69/month (up to 100 social accounts)
Agency: $239/month (up to 500 social accounts
Fireflies.ai for note taking
A meeting notes assistant can be your savior if a customer disputes a price already settled in a call or you forget vital details for a client project mentioned during the intro call.
That’s where Fireflies.ai comes in. This AI tool generates meeting notes in real time and converts your calls into detailed notes.
Its AI assistant, known as Fred@Fireflies, joins your calls across all meeting platforms like Google Meet or Zoom, enabling you to have access to all that has been discussed.
AI features:
Automatic call summaries: Creates meeting highlights and next steps, as well as adding clickable timestamps;
Includes sentiment analysis performed by its machine learning algorithms to aid in identifying the tone of a meeting and highlight critical parts;
Has versatile sharing options so that you can share the meeting notes of a call either via a link or QR code;
Allows transcript editing, including correcting or commenting on transcripts;
What to be wary of:
This AI software struggles to catch technical language, accents, or dialects.
Its free version limits your storage allowance.
Pricing:
A free plan is available
Paid plans start at $10 per month
Other AI tools for business efficiency
We wrote about many AI tools for business in different articles, so here’s a brief list of what you’ll find:
GitHub for writing code, Descript to create videos at scale, and Zen.ai for simple accounting in the Best AI tools for small business article;
In the AI tools suitable for designers, we’ve included tools for tracking time to systematizing work to vector graphic tools;
This guide covers 15 Best AI tools for Productivity, covering software tools for many business processes and functions;
The most effortless AI time tracker
Say goodbye to disjointed time and leave management AI tools. Timeular’s AI time entry suggestions, automated tracking, and smart productivity insights are linked within the same app.
Conclusion
Regardless of the reasons you’re searching for AI-powered tools, be it enhancing your business operations, improving customer experience, or riding the AI revolution to keep your competitive edge, choose the tool that suits you best. That means choosing according to your needs and budgets and keeping in mind the learning curve of a tool, as well as its integration capabilities.