There are thousands of AI tools out there now. Most I’ll probably never use. Some I’ll test once and never open again. A smaller number will become part of how I actually work.
This is my working list for 2026.
I’ve added a brief description of each below.
1. Gumloop
AI automation without needing to build everything from scratch. Gumloop connects AI models with other tools and lets you create workflows and agents. Particularly interesting for research, scraping, sales and repetitive marketing jobs.
2. Claude
One of the main AI platforms I’m working with for research, strategy, content, analysis and more complex marketing jobs. Projects, agents, Skills and connections with other tools make this much more than a chatbot.
3. Surfer SEO
SEO content optimisation. Surfer analyses competing pages, keywords, headings, content depth and other on page signals to help shape and improve content.
4. v0
Build websites, landing pages and prototypes by describing what you want. Particularly useful for quickly turning an idea into something you can actually see and test.
5. Google Labs
Worth watching simply because of the amount Google is building. Google Labs is where a lot of its experimental AI products appear first, covering everything from creative work to research and marketing.
6. Kling AI
AI video generation. Give it an idea, image or prompt and start creating video without a traditional video shoot. One I’m particularly interested in as AI video gets better.
7. Notion AI
AI built into Notion for notes, projects, documents, research and internal knowledge. Useful if the information you need is already sitting inside your workspace.
8. Jasper AI
One of the better known AI copywriting platforms. Useful for creating first drafts of marketing copy, emails, landing pages and other content at scale.
9. Lexica Art
AI image generation with a big searchable library of generated imagery. Useful for creating something more interesting than another generic stock photograph.
10. LALAL.AI
Audio cleanup and separation. Particularly useful for removing unwanted noise from recordings, podcasts and video audio.
11. Crayo
Built around short form video for platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts. It can help with ideas, production, voiceovers and putting short videos together faster.
12. Brandwell
AI focused SEO content creation. Designed for producing longer articles and search focused content rather than just short pieces of AI copy.
13. Originality AI
AI content and plagiarism detection. Useful as another check when reviewing content, although I wouldn't treat any AI detector as completely reliable.
14. Writer
AI writing and brand management aimed more at teams. Particularly useful where multiple people need to produce content while sticking to the same terminology, rules and brand voice.
15. Undetectable AI
Takes AI generated writing and rewrites it to sound less obviously machine generated. Something to experiment with rather than blindly trust. Anything it produces still needs a human reading it.
16. ContentShake AI
SEO content software combining AI writing with Semrush data. It can find topics, build outlines and help optimise content around search data.
17. FullStory
Shows what people actually do on a website. Clicks, journeys, behaviour and the points where users get stuck can reveal problems that aren't obvious from standard analytics.
18. Zapier
Still one of the most useful automation platforms around. Connect different systems together and automate jobs that otherwise involve someone copying information from one place to another.
AI is making those automations considerably smarter.
19. Hemingway
A simple writing and editing tool. It highlights long sentences, passive writing and unnecessary complexity.
Sometimes useful when AI has turned a simple point into three paragraphs of nonsense.
20. Chatfuel
Chatbot and messaging automation. Useful for building automated customer conversations rather than relying on a basic FAQ page.
21. Grammarly
Writing, grammar and editing assistance across different applications. Increasingly AI powered but still useful for the simple job it originally solved: spotting things you've missed.
22. Albert.ai
AI for digital advertising. It uses automation and data to optimise campaigns across paid search and social advertising.
23. Paradigm AI
AI powered research at scale.
Give it a dataset or spreadsheet and AI agents can research companies, competitors, prospects and other information and populate the data for you.
This is the sort of AI use that gets interesting very quickly.
24. Userbot.ai
AI customer conversation management. When the AI can't answer something, a human can take over and the system can learn from the interaction.
25. Browse AI
Web scraping without needing to be a developer.
It can monitor websites and extract information into structured datasets. Useful for competitor research, price monitoring, reviews and any job that normally involves repeatedly checking websites manually.
26. Algolia
Search and recommendation technology for websites and apps. Particularly relevant for businesses with large websites, ecommerce catalogues or lots of information customers need to navigate.
27. PhotoRoom
One of those simple tools that solves a real problem.
Upload an image and automatically remove or replace the background. Useful for products, team photos, social content and website imagery.
28. Reply.io AI Sales Email Assistant
AI applied to sales outreach and email.
It can help create and manage outbound campaigns, automate follow ups and identify responses that deserve attention.
29. Brand24
Brand monitoring across the web.
It looks for mentions across websites, social media, forums and other sources and uses AI to help understand sentiment and conversations around a brand.
As AI search grows, understanding where and how a brand is being mentioned is becoming increasingly interesting.
30. Influencity
Influencer marketing software for finding creators, managing campaigns and measuring results across social platforms.
Seen a white hot AI tool I would love?
Drop me an email at info@hlaio.com. I’m always interested in trying something new, particularly if it solves a real marketing or business problem.
About the Author
Michael Friend is the founder of High Like, a marketing agency based in Monton, Greater Manchester. With around 20 years in marketing, Mike now works with businesses on SEO, Google Maps, AI search optimisation and practical ways of using AI in their marketing and day to day business.