AI tools, including apps and chatbots, have developed rapidly and gained popularity as their range of services has expanded. AI-powered apps have drafted emails, summarized articles, and even generated artwork.
Apps such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT have demonstrated their versatility and capability in relation to creative and analytical tasks by assisting with writing, coding, and brainstorming.
By 2026, AI assistance will be present in virtually all technologies, driven by the broader agentic AI revolution reshaping how systems act independently.
This guide is part of our broader AI tools and productivity resources. AI will provide services like editing, writing, and graphic design, and even evolve into autonomous AI agents that assist with planning as if they are personal assistants that are eternally available.
AI tools generally have advantages and disadvantages. These tools can increase the speed of tasks, be a source of creative inspiration and provide automation of tedious tasks. Simultaneously, these tools can be wrong and raise privacy issues.
Understanding the proponents and opponents of the tool will improve how the tools are utilized. AI will provide assistance and produce work, but the results will have to be evaluated.
AI Assistant for Professional Platforms and Communication
Numerous AI technologies have the potential to function as intelligent assistant tools for writing and business-related activities. They merge with various business tools (email, documents, task management) and are capable of developing writing content, responding to tasks, or providing summaries of requested items. Here are few examples:
ChatGPT (OpenAI):
This AI Assistant serves multiple roles and functions as an assistant, allowing users to create drafts for various business-related activities, develop computer programs, and manage creative activities. The newest versions (GPT-4 and GPT-5) are capable of analyzing content for business-related activities and even searching the Internet for applicable answers. Users simply enter a question or request, and ChatGPT generates a response to the request. This tool is useful for preparing drafts for blog entries or for fixing errors in computer code snippets.
Google Gemini:
The AI Assistant developed by Google (previously known as Gemini) is incorporated with Google Search and Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, and Gmail). AI can manage text, pictures, and computer programs in a single platform. For example, users can ask Google Gemini to summarize a conversation in an email and, subsequently, assist in preparing a report in Google Docs. Google provides bonuses for using premium features such as editing tools for images and creating short videos. Overall, Google Gemini integrates advanced AI capabilities with commonly used productivity applications.
Microsoft Copilot:
Integrating AI Copilot into Office 365 and Windows 11 is Microsoft’s first attempt to introduce AI into the workplace. It analyzes spreadsheets, generates written content, and builds presentations. Summarizing emails, generating presentations from bullet points, and creating presentations from detailed rough notes are all tasks that Copilot is capable of completing. Copilot is used by a lot of people to make writing and data analysis tasks easier because it is integrated into software used by most people.
Notion AI:
Notion is one of the most well-known applications that combines notes, documents, and databases into a single location. The Notion AI function enables you to create a presentation, generate ideas, and summarize existing documents within your draft.
The Notion AI has the capacity to respond to your inquiries and search and respond using your documents, as well as linked applications (Google Drive, Slack, etc). For example, if you upload a PDF and ask Notion AI to summarize it, it will give you a summary that includes all the important elements and actionable items. If you give Notion AI an image of a sales chart, it will analyze it and give you suggestions for improvement. Notion AI has the feel of a personalized knowledge assistant that is tailored to your work.
Jasper AI:
Jasper is a content creation AI tool. Jasper helps marketers and content creators with blog posts, adverts, social media content, and other related tasks. You can communicate with Jasper with specific keywords and a tone, and it will draft text. It is useful for initiating writing projects or creating concepts for adverts and emails. Jasper focuses more on content creation work flows whereas ChatGPT is more general.
Grammarly:
Grammarly is a writing assistant that works using artificial intelligence. It checks to see if you made grammar or spelling mistakes, and also evaluates your writing style. Grammarly does more than simple spell checks and evaluates the tone and how concise your writing is. Grammarly integrates with your browser, Word, or even your email, and helps you ensure your writing is professional and clear. Grammarly is a useful tool for anyone writing social media posts, emails, or reports to help them avoid mistakes and polish language.
Canva Magic Write:
The design application Canva integrated a new feature, Magic Write, an Artificial Intelligence Writing Assistant, into its suite. Magic Write helps brainstorm and draft text to complement your design work. For instance, it helps create content for social media and presentations. It helps generate bullet points and taglines with just a simple description. It is a writing prompt embedded within a graphic design application. Social media managers and small business owners can use Magic Write to generate text while also creating a draft for a design, all within one application.
Others:
Other writing assistants available include Writesonic’s ChatSonic, a chatbot similar to ChatGPT but with the functionality to search the current online database, and Wordtune, an application that assists you in rewriting your own text. These tools don’t replace the need for you to do the writing, but they certainly speed up writing tasks and improve your efficiency.
Innovative Technologies in Creativity and Media
AI is not limited to just generating text; it can be used to create and collaborate within many creative spaces. As for now, there are tools available to produce and synthesize videos, images, and music. Here are some examples:
Image Generation Tools:
Programs such as this will create an image for you based off a description you provide. Using the OpenAI platform, you can type in the desired image you want to see (example: “ a cat astronaut on Mars,”) and receive an original illustration.
The platform, Midjourney, that uses Discord, is popular for its more artistic and master painter images.
Adobe integrates Firefly into Photoshop, which provides the ability to generate and edit images based on your descriptions, as long as they meet the copyright and appropriate use filters.
Some other services, like DreamStudio, provide access to a model called Stable Diffusion, which can generate images from prompts that are more like photographs. With these tools, people like bloggers and other content creators, are able to make custom images and other content without the need to manually draw anything.
Video Automation:
There are now various tools that generate videos utilizing artificial intelligence, like Synthesia, for instance. This program allows the user to write a script that the software reads to produce a video of a virtual presenter that you can customize. This can be used for explainers or training videos.
Veo is another program that is a part of Google AI Studio and is able to produce videos to be used for social media.
OpusClip is a video editing software that uses AI to create social media videos from longer videos. Although these AI tools are not perfect, they are able to be used to create marketing materials and can save a lot of time during the video editing process.
Audio and Music:
AI can assist in the choosing and creating of music, as well as the generation of voices. ElevenLabs is a software that creates lifelike voice overs, which aids in the making of audiobooks or even voice overs of videos.
For the creation of background music, Soundraw is a program that helps the user streamline the process by making a track in the requested style and of the requested mood.
If you need to isolate the vocals from an audio track, or if you want to trap the drum track separately, or if you want to add more tracks, Moises is a program that combines all of these functionalities into one. These tools can help voice content creators to save the money that would be spent on hiring composers and voice actors.
AI tools for research and summarization
Too much information? These AI tools can help!
Perplexity AI:
Perplexity operates like an AI search engine because instead of searching the web and presenting a list of links for you to decipher, it reads the web and crafts a source-backed answer. For example, if you search Perplexity for information about a new programming library, it will examine some relevant articles and provide a response with source references that you can click. This feature is useful when you need to avoid a lengthy search and scans multiple pages. You can use it to answer research questions, confirm facts, or obtain answers to general questions.
QuillBot:
QuillBot is an AI writing tool that focuses on paraphrasing and summarizing. You can copy and paste a long passage, such as an article or a report, and instruct QuillBot to create a summary or bullet list. This tool is valuable when time is of the essence for students and professionals who need to review long reports or cut a draft to its essence. This tool can also be used to transform your writing by rewriting sentences.
Other Summaries:
When asked directly, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude can summarize text or explain concepts. There are niche tools like Humata that focus on PDF documents, providing summaries and citations. If you read research papers or long manuals frequently, these AI tools pinpoint and summarize what they consider to be important details.
Organization and Project Management
AI is also moving into planning and organization. For example:
Notion AI (again):
We mentioned it for writing, but Notion AI also helps organize projects. You can ask it to create to-do lists or meeting notes based on your prompts. Since it connects to your Slack and Google Drive, it remembers details across apps. It’s like a smart coordinator that keeps track of your tasks and finds information spread out in chats or docs.
AI-powered Calendars/Tasks:
Many apps like Reclaim.ai or Motion use AI to optimize your schedule, automatically rescheduling tasks around meetings. Email tools (like new updates in Gmail/Outlook) can draft responses or sort messages. Even smartphone assistants (Google Assistant, Siri) are getting smarter at understanding context and carrying out multi-step tasks.
Specialized Assistants:
There is an emerging class of AI “agents” (multi-step task solvers). For example, Metatext’s AI Agents and Zapier’s AI can monitor events and manage workflows autonomously (e.g., sorting email attachments into specific folders, editing spreadsheets). While they are still fairly advanced, they will soon be able to help everyone automate complicated routines.
Why Use AI Tools?
All these AI tools may sound futuristic, but they are currently useful. Such tools automate low-value, routine tasks, alleviate writer’s block, and stimulate creativity. A few explanations:
Save time on writing: Instead of starting from scratch, ask ChatGPT or Jasper to generate an initial draft. You will save hours in writing the first draft and only spend minutes editing.
Get creative spark: DALL·E/GPT Image 1.5 and Midjourney can generate an instant illustration or spark design ideas. A simple prompt (e.g., “infographic about productivity”) can provide an example to improve.
Stay organized: AI can do work like sorting your email, or summarize meeting notes so you can be more focused on the decisions to be made rather than on data collection.
Learn faster: Technologies like ChatGPT or Perplexity can help you learn in ways that no human can.
Use AI with caution and remember to cross-verify information and protect your personal information. Use these applications to enhance your productivity, not to replace jobs.
To conclude, workplace productivity applications in AI for 2026 should help make work easier, and feel like extra help for employees. There should be applications for writing, designing, researching, and planning. These tasks can be done with AI and, as these technology improves, they should be more user friendly and valuable. Even now, these applications can be beneficial for employees. These applications can enhance and make daily activities more enjoyable.
