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What I tried: I actively use the major AI tools business owners keep asking about.
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What I learned: For most businesses, the right choice is about trust and fit, not chasing features.
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How you can apply it: Pick one solid platform, understand its strengths, and build your workflow there.
One of the most common questions I hear is, “Which AI should I use?”
What people usually mean is which frontier model they should commit to. Right now, there are a lot of options. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek. It can feel like you need to make the perfect choice or risk falling behind.
Here’s my grounded take, as of today.
For small businesses, I recommend sticking with one more of these: ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini.
All three are strong. All three are improving fast. And for most daily business work, the difference between them is more about preference than capability. It’s a lot like choosing between Apple and Android. They all get the job done. One just feels better to you.
Claude shines for structured thinking and writing. ChatGPT is flexible and great for client-facing work and creative problem-solving. Gemini fits naturally if you already live inside Google’s ecosystem — for example, you can drop a YouTube link into to analyze the video.
Other tools exist, but they come with tradeoffs. Grok has become politicized and unpredictable. DeepSeek is impressive, but I’m cautious about data security there. Copilot is improving, but for most use cases, the big three already cover the ground — especially Claude inside of spreadsheets and other software.
This matters because clarity beats optimization. When you stop hopping tools and start learning one deeply, AI actually reduces friction instead of adding it — and that’s where the real value shows up.