Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t new, but it’s blown up in popularity over the past few years. Rapid technology advancements mean that AI tools for productivity are increasingly more present and useful in the workplace. 

And while some professionals are still skeptical about using AI in their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities, there’s no doubt that this powerful technology has the ability to free up time and energy by taking simple, automated tasks off your plate. 

Here are six ways AI can help boost efficiency to streamline your work day, plus 14 different AI tools for productivity to check out today. 

6 Ways AI Helps Boost Productivity at Work

AI can be a little daunting if you haven’t experimented much with it before. The huge variety of AI tools for productivity can make it feel overwhelming to get started, not to mention the learning curve and psychological hurdle of trusting and working with robots. 

That said, AI has the potential to transform your work life by freeing time and energy that you would otherwise spend manually performing tasks.

Because of this, it’s worth investigating the impacts AI could have on your workday. Here are six areas AI can boost productivity at work: 

1. Prioritizing and Managing Tasks

Busy professionals have a lot to do during the day and we all feel the time pressure to get it all done. AI’s ability to automate and manage your tasks is about the closest thing you can do to gaining more time in the day. 

Instead of manually scheduling or prioritizing tasks, AI can do it automatically for you. This saves time, energy, and brain space while still ensuring that everything gets done. 

2. Automating Emails and Scheduling

Another area of automation is emails and scheduling. AI can handle routine communications like auto-responding to specific emails with a pre-determined script. 

There are also apps and AI integrations that handle your calendar and scheduling issues. This saves so much time from having to go back and forth with someone just to set up a time to meet. 

3. Streamlining Document Handling and Data Entry

Documents and data are some of the tedious—but important—tasks that take up a lot of time. You can free up room in your calendar by outsourcing this to AI platforms. 

AI can send notifications to clients who need to sign documents, auto-fill fields, input data, check for inaccuracies, and so much more. 

4. Automating Customer Service and Support

Today, a lot of online customer service communication is done via AI, such as chatbots or automated call-in services. And while there’s always going to be a need for human-to-human interaction—especially regarding complex issues—AI can easily handle simple and routine customer inquiries. 

5. Enhancing Creativity and Content Generation

Creative professionals can find it hard to constantly be thinking of new and innovative ideas. AI can help you generate ideas or brainstorm options for your project. 

This could look like generating a list of article titles, writing social media captions, putting together a mood board, or creating an artistic sketch in a certain style. AI draws on the power of the Internet to come up with creative new ideas—a great solution when you’re a bit low on innovative thinking. 

6. Optimizing Decision-Making with AI

Business owners and professionals need accurate data and insights to make good decisions, but it can be time-consuming to pull analytics and draw conclusions. AI speeds up this process, allowing you to look at even more data to inform important decisions for your work or business. 

14 Must-Try AI Tools for Productivity

These six efficiencies at work are supported by hundreds of AI platforms and programs that are now available. Because of the proliferation of AI technology, it can be hard to know where to start. 

So, we’ve rounded up some of the must-try AI tools for productivity that help you streamline your workday and get more done. 

1. Butler for Trello 

Butler is an AI integration on Trello, the organizational system that helps you keep track of tasks, projects, timelines, and team members. 

Best for: Integration with Trello; options to create rules and commands to automate actions like due dates, marking things as done, or assigning tasks. 

Price: Trello offers a free basic subscription; paid subscriptions begin at $5.00/month. 

2. TodoBot

More than just a to-do list, TodoBot offers an inbuilt virtual coach to help you identify task priorities. This personalized coaching option spots when you have trouble completing a task and offers suggestions to help you get things done.   

Best for: People who like to-do lists and are looking for an AI boost. 

Price: Contact for details. 

3. Clara

Clara is an AI assistant that will handle the back-and-forth communication about booking a meeting and scheduling it in your calendar. 

Best for: People who handle a large volume of meeting and scheduling logistics. 

Price: Plans start at $99.00/month.

4. SlidesAI

SlidesAI easily extracts the main points from a body of text to create a presentation. You simply need to dump information into the text box and SlidesAI will put it together in a logical presentation, complete with suitable graphics. 

Best for: Professionals who use a lot of Google Slides presentations, as it operates as an add-on to Slides. 

Price: Free tier offers three presentations a month; paid tiers begin at $10.00/month.

5. Rossum

Rossum helps you streamline processes and eliminate the need to manually input information in documents. It helps improve data accuracy so you can deploy your workforce more efficiently. Rossum has solutions for professionals in industries like financial services, manufacturing, technology, healthcare, or insurance. 

Best for: Professionals who handle a lot of documents. 

Price: Custom pricing based on industry and use case.

6. Otter

As one of the simplest AI tools for productivity on the market today, Otter’s AI meeting assistant records audio, writes notes, and generates summaries in real-time. You can also upload audio files to transcribe interviews, videos, or other audio content. 

Best for: Companies and professionals that need voice-to-text transcription services for meetings and interviews.  

Price: Basic plan is free; upgrade your plan starting at $8.33/month 

7. ABBYY

ABBYY is an AI platform for industries like finance, insurance, or healthcare, helping clients get valuable information and data insights to improve operations and enable business transformation. 

Best for: Companies and business owners who need to capture and analyze lots of data and analytics. 

Price: Custom pricing based on industry and use case.

8. ChatBot

Automate and simplify communication with clients with Chatbot’s all-in-one platform. Conversational chatbots help customers get information and resolve inquiries in an easy and natural way. This is one of the AI tools for productivity that directly frees up your time by replacing human labor with AI support.   

Best for: Customer-focused companies.

Price: Plans start at $52.00/month.

9. Zendesk AI

Save time by using AI-powered customer service interactions and communications. AI agents suggest responses to customers and solve requests on their own. They can also help triage conversations and smooth workflows by pointing clients to the right live agent as needed. 

Best for: Companies that regularly deal with customers. 

Price: Plans start at $19.00/month

10. OpenAI ChatGPT and GPT-4

Perhaps one of the most well-known AI tools for productivity, ChatGPT has the ability to create any type of written content you need. Through simple commands and inputs, you can easily transcribe, write, brainstorm, or code text-based content. 

Best for: All-around AI support, specifically related to text-based content creation, writing, and communication. 

Price: Fees are based on tokens (output) and start at $0.03/1K tokens, or approximately 750 words. 

11. Canva Magic Design

Harness the power of AI to develop creative new graphic designs, branding materials, or templates. Canva Magic Design integrates into Canva’s powerful graphic design platform, which is simple and intuitive for all levels of professionals. 

Best for: Creative professionals who require graphic design support. 

Price: Free

12. DataRobot

DataRobot can integrate with existing technology to ensure you are getting the most from your platforms. DataRobot is designed to help solve pressing challenges and make better business decisions in industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. 

Best for: Professionals and businesses seeking predictive analytics and data insights. 

Price: Based on the industry. 

13. ThoughtSpot

ThoughtSpot’s AI-powered analytics allow you to receive insights 10x faster than traditional platforms.

Best for: Companies that need advanced analytics and insights for company decision-making. 

Price: Plans start at $95.00/month

14. Notion AI

Best for: Professionals looking for well-rounded administrative, organizational, and writing support. Notion is a complete workspace and its AI platform can help summarize and analyze notes, improve writing, and offer creative brainstorming options. 

Price: Notion AI is an optional add-on to base plans, including the free plan; Notion AI starts at $8/month per member. 

AI has evolved rapidly over the last few years and continues to do so. And whether you’re fully onboard or still unsure, there’s no doubt that AI tools for productivity have the potential to support your daily work tasks by freeing up time and creating efficiencies. 

These AI tools for productivity are just a starting point to explore how you can better streamline your workday. Which one will you try out today? 

If you’re looking for a workspace that supports your productivity and helps you achieve more each workday, book a tour of The Colab Space today.