Forget Gemini and ChatGPT — here are 5 unique AI tools I actually use

When you think about AI, what comes to mind? For most of us, it’s chatbots running models like GPT, Gemini Pro, and Opus. I personally use Gemini and Claude, though those are far from the only options out there.

While chatbots are great general-purpose tools, sometimes you’re looking for something that’s more specialized. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few AI tools I use regularly and personally recommend.

Google NotebookLM

Beyond my work at Android Authority, I am also working on several other writing projects, including a non-fiction book. When it comes to research and organizing my thoughts, I trust in NotebookLM. While I’ve used a few other similar alternatives, NotebookLM is still the one I use the most overall.

What I really like about it is that you don’t have to worry about hallucinations, as it only pulls from the data and sources you feed it. This includes PDFs, Google Docs, Slides, website links, and even YouTube videos.

Another area where NotebookLM shines is its Audio Overviews, which transform your uploaded data into conversational, podcast-style breakdowns. This is an easy way to share your notes and ideas with others, or just to see all your data played out in a very different way that might open up new creative doors for you.

Not a fan of Gemini? I should also mention OpenNotebook. While I haven’t been using it as long, it is essentially a clone with a few core differences. First, its audio breakdowns are shorter and less comprehensive. It’s also worth noting that OpenNotebook supports many other AI models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and others.

Midjourney

While Gemini is certainly capable of basic clips and images, I personally prefer a dedicated tool like Midjourney. Not only are the images and videos usually of much higher quality, but there are also many more personalization options. There are also inpainting tools that let you keep most of a generated image while improving segments that don’t fit your vision.

Personally, I use it for special projects like making custom kids’ books for friends and family. I also use it for temporary art in game-building engines like Construct 3 and more. Of course, it also means another subscription. Pricing starts at just $10, but goes up from there depending on how basic or advanced your needs are.

Claude Code

Claude Code is an AI-powered, agentic coding assistant from Anthropic that runs directly in your terminal or IDE. As I’ve been looking to relearn coding after a long break, this has been a great help.

Set up is super easy, and there are many ways you can go about using this tool. Recently, I actually used it to start building an Android app based on a personal progressive web app project I designed for household management.

Although I ran into a few bugs and issues along the way, I currently have an early working build of my app running on Android via sideload. Without Claude Code, this would have taken me days or weeks of trial and error. With its help, I was able to complete a basic project in about an hour.

I’m really looking forward to what else I can do with Claude Code, and while I’ve only been using it for a month or so, I have a feeling this tool will become increasingly important to me in the future.

Flourish

Flourish is a mental health and wellness AI assistant, which makes it notably different from most of the tools on this list. While I personally recommend real therapy over AI, Flourish is a great companion for traditional therapy, making it easy to check in on your emotions, analyze your thoughts, and gain greater clarity.

I’ve been using Flourish every day for about a month now, and I’ve found it’s a much better way to work through your thoughts or get input on your nutrition than using a chatbot. The AI is feature-packed but easy to navigate, and its assistant, Sunny, really feels like talking to a person, in a way I don’t usually experience with chatbots.

Perplexity

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine and research assistant that uses the web to provide direct answers, complete with citations and everything. You might be wondering how that’s different from a chatbot.

On the surface, Perplexity might seem like any other general-purpose AI chatbot. It has a conversational interface and can answer your questions, sure. How Perplexity sets itself apart is that it delves deeper into web sources and provides you with the right places to look for an answer.

While Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT might also handle basic search and citation, I feel like Perplexity goes much further here. For example, if I search for the best Android sites in Gemini, I get a nice breakdown that includes many of the same sites as Perplexity, but there are no web links or anything without asking for it. That’s because chatbots are designed to answer “in place”, while perplexity can answer and summarize in place, but it also makes it easier to view exact sources and use it more like a true search engine.

As my colleague Joe pointed out, it’s not without weaknesses and probably isn’t an effective search engine replacement for Google across the board. That said, if you prefer conversational search, it can be a nice alternative.