In business, efficiency is money. If you want to save time and streamline your operational processes, AI tools can help. In this blog post, we’re discussing how you can use AI technology to improve overall business productivity—and which tools are worth checking out.
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How to use AI for business productivity
The day-to-day tasks involved with running a business—from responding to emails to updating documents—can eat up a lot of precious time. AI-powered productivity solutions are designed to automate these backend tasks and processes, freeing up you and your employees to work on more high-value initiatives.
In the US Chamber of Commerce’s 2023 Impact of Technology on Small Business Report, 82% of businesses using AI said it improved their operational efficiency.
That’s because AI productivity software can help with:
- Research
- Reports
- Note-taking
- Knowledge management
- Team collaboration
- Inbox management
- Scheduling
- Transcription
- Business planning
- Presentations
The best AI tools for small business productivity
Here are 13 great options to consider:
AI tools for knowledge management
1. Mem
Mem is an AI notes app that helps you stay hyper-organized—without having to do any of the organization yourself. Mem can answer questions about your notes, summarize insights, automatically organize notes into categories, draft unique content for you, pull up related notes to compare side by side, and give you recommendations for work actions to take based on your notes.
Cost: The basic plan is $8.33 a month; the team plan has variable pricing.
Mem is a great option if: You rely on a lot of documents and to-do lists to complete your day-to-day work or strategize for your business, and want more help staying organized.
2. Notion AI
Notion, the all-in-one workspace tool, now has Notion AI to uplevel your task management and backend organization. Notion AI reviews the data from all of your documents to answer questions, analyzes meeting notes to give you action items, summarizes documents, and shares takeaways from team calls and research sessions.
You can also use Notion AI to translate notes and documents into over 30 other languages and turn your document data into auto-filled charts and graphs.
Cost: The Notion AI add-on is $8 a month per member.
Notion AI is a great option if: You want a central hub that your employees can access to maintain and organize company information.
AI tools for project management and collaboration
3. Zapier
Zapier AI is an AI-powered automation software that creates streamlined workflows for every area of your business. With Zapier, you can choose a process or task you want to automate—like responding to emails or generating internal reports—and Zapier’s AI functionality instantly sets up your new “Zap.”
The platform also lets you turn forms into blog posts, generate images, create personalized to-do lists for different team members, and generate diagrams for sales and marketing processes.
Cost: Contact the sales team for pricing.
Zapier is a good option if: You want a comprehensive automation solution that uses AI to simplify every workflow.
4. Motion
Motion is an AI assistant that helps busy teams collaborate with ease and meet deadlines on time. Motion’s AI will create an ideal daily schedule and workflow for you, accounting for all your different tasks, priorities, and deadlines, then optimize your schedule according to your personal preferences—and update it automatically.
Motion also creates the ideal daily schedule and plan for everyone else on your team, tracking tasks and progress across hundreds of different projects and initiatives with different assignees, deadlines, and levels of urgency.
Cost: The individual plan is $19 a month; the team plan is $12 a month per person.
Motion is a great option if: Your business is project-based and you need more help managing deadlines and action items, or if you work with a small team that collaborates frequently.
6. ClickUp Brain
ClickUp Brain is an AI-powered business platform that connects all your tasks, documents, team members, and internal knowledge in one place. ClickUp Brain’s AI project manager sends automatic progress updates and status reports for documents and tasks, and automates action items and data auto-fills.
The platform also has a knowledge manager and an AI writing assistant.
Cost: It’s $5 a month.
ClickUp Brain is a great option if: You want a relatively affordable AI solution for managing your projects and tasks.
Curious about what else AI can do? Here are 8 practical AI business applications.
AI tools for scheduling
7. Clockwise
Clockwise is an AI scheduling and calendar automation tool that sets up your ideal day. By reviewing individual preferences and to-do lists, Clockwise’s AI scheduler figures out the best time for meetings, tasks, deep work, and breaks throughout your work day—so you and your team all have your own optimal schedules as often as possible.
The AI scheduler can also automatically view multiple people’s schedules to select the best meeting time for everyone, and block, cancel, or modify multiple events at once.
Cost: The AI scheduler is rolling out to select users right now; contact Clockwise for pricing. Otherwise, there’s a free version of Clockwise and a team plan for $6.75 a month per user.
Clockwise is a great option if: You want a smarter way to sync you and your employees’ calendars for meetings and tasks, you want to connect more easily with remote workers, or you want help protecting what matters most in your schedule.
8. Trevor
Trevor AI calls itself the most intuitive daily planner and task scheduling system. Trevor’s AI feature automatically organizes your tasks and suggests optimal task duration times, then gives you personalized scheduling suggestions.
Trevor AI also analyzes your schedule every day to identify overdue or recurring tasks, send you progress updates, and offer practical tips for maximizing your schedule.
Cost: It’s free, but the Pro Plan—which has more AI features—starts at $3.99 a month.
Trevor AI is a great option if: You want a simple scheduling tool that integrates with your existing calendar and still lets you take advantage of AI suggestions and automations.
AI tools for inbox management
9. Superhuman
Superhuman is an AI-powered email management solution designed to give you your time back. All you have to do is jot down a few key phrases, then Superhuman’s AI turns them into a complete email response. Superhuman combs through your past emails to get a better idea of your unique voice and tone, so they can match it when writing new responses.
The platform also automatically categorizes emails by sender or type of content, so you can reply to what’s most critical—and never miss an alert. Other features include automatic follow-up reminders (and suggested messages), automatic responses for recurring messages, and read statuses that show you when people opened your message and on what device.
Cost: It’s $30 per month per user for individuals and teams.
Superhuman is a great option if: You and your team have super busy inboxes, and need more help managing internal responses and customer or client-facing correspondences.
10. Mailbutler
Mailbutler is an inbox management tool that uses generative AI to speed up—and round out—your email responses. With Mailbutler, you can track emails, add notes to your emails and contact names, create custom email templates, and get insights into your contacts.
Mailbutler’s AI email assistant can also write and respond to emails automatically, summarize messages for you, create new contacts, and automatically generate tasks based on the content of your messages.
Cost: The AI plan is $14.95 a month per user.
Mailbutler is a great option if: You want a smarter, faster way to correspond with current customers and maintain relationships with prospective customers.
AI tools for presentations and transcriptions
11. Storydoc
Storydoc is an AI-powered business software solution that makes it easier to create formal presentations, proposals, and plans. Their AI Interactive Presentation Maker turns bullet points and static slide decks into dynamic assets people love to engage with.
Storydoc has AI-guided presentation templates for company presentations, business proposals, business plan one-pagers, sales one-pagers, project proposals, pitch decks, annual reports, and brochures, just to name a handful. You’ll also get real-time analytics on your assets, so you know what people read, clicked on, or shared.
Cost: The starter plan is $30 a month per user.
Storydoc is a great option if: You want cleaner, more compelling presentations for internal company-wide communication, customer-facing marketing materials, or external fundraising pitches.
12. Fireflies.ai
Firelies.ai is an AI-driven transcription solution that helps you get more out of your business meetings. Fireflies doesn’t just automatically transcribe recorded conversations—the tool can also summarize conversations, pull out insights, and suggest tasks.
You can search the app using their advanced AI filters to find key topics or questions, or add comments and pins to specific parts of a conversation to share with team members. Plus, get helpful analytics on speaker talk time, sentiment, and more.
Cost: The individual plan is free; the Pro Plan is $10 a month per seat.
Fireflies is a great option if: You regularly conduct meetings with customers and/or employees, and want a better way to share the substance of your calls and take follow-up action.
AI tools for business planning and entrepreneurship
13. Upmetrics
Upmetrics is an all-in-one business planning software that uses AI to help you build a better business plan. With their AI Business Plan Generator, all you have to do is answer a few questions about your business, strategy, and goals, and you’ll get a custom template and step-by-step guide to filling out every section of your business plan.
Along the way, you can ask questions to Upmetrics’ AI Business Coach and improve your writing tone, style, and grammar with AI-supported writing assistance.
Cost: The starter plan is $7 a month.
Upmetrics is a great option if: You’re starting a business for the first time and want strategies and practical examples for tailoring and refining your business plan.
Learn how to start a business using AI.
How to choose an AI productivity platform
You could find an AI business solution to improve every single aspect of your operations, but you don’t need to. The key to successfully incorporating an AI productivity solution is to pick the one (or two or three) that solves your biggest backend problems or annoyances—and yields a decent ROI.
Of course, the solutions that will work best for you depend on your business model, operational processes, workplace collaboration habits, resources, budget, and personal work preferences. For example, an email management platform might sound appealing in theory, but if answering and tracking emails only takes you about 30 minutes a day, you might want to put your budget toward something you don’t have as great a handle on.
In general, try to prioritize:
- Tools with multiple functions
- Tools that integrate with your other tech platforms
- Tools that reduce your stress
- Tools that get you better results
For more advice on picking the right AI tool for you—and optimizing it for success—check out our guide to incorporating AI into your business.
