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AI Tools Guide: which tool for which need

At a glance

There are lots of AI tools out there now, and from the names alone it's hard to tell which one does what. This guide is organised not by brand name, but by what you actually need — like "I want to understand a document" or "I want to work by talking". For each need, it says what to look for and which familiar names exist, so it's easy to see where to start.

One important thing first

Exactly what's free in an AI tool, how much you can use, and when features arrive or disappear — all of this changes often. So this guide gives no exact prices, limits, or "free up to this much" claims. The most reliable way is to open the app and see for yourself. And no single tool is called "the best" here — which tool is convenient changes with the job and with the person. Try one or two yourself and you'll soon know which feels easy for you.

Four familiar names

There are many AI apps, but these four names are usually the ones you hear most. All four are "general-purpose" AI assistants — meaning they aren't built for one particular job, but can be used for lots of things, from questions and answers to writing.

  • ChatGPT

    An AI chat app made by a company called OpenAI. You ask in writing, and it answers in writing.

  • Google Gemini

    An AI assistant made by Google. If you already have a Google account (Gmail), it's easy to get started.

  • Microsoft Copilot

    An AI assistant made by Microsoft.

  • Claude

    An AI assistant made by a company called Anthropic. Many people use it for understanding text and for writing.

Any one of these four can be used for most of the needs below. Where a difference is important enough to mention, it is stated below. Besides these four, there are many other general AI assistants such as Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek and Perplexity — to see them all at a glance, have a look at the More AIs page.

Tools by need

For each need, a few familiar tool names are given below. Where ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude from above can do the job, that's stated clearly too — you don't need to collect a separate app for every task.

  • Getting answers or explanations by asking questions

    You want to understand something, or find the answer to a question — for this need, every general AI assistant works. What to look for: how simple the language of the answer is, and whether it can say it even more simply when you ask. Just open any of the four above and type your question straight in.

  • Writing and editing

    For writing job applications, letters, Facebook posts and emails — or fixing something you've already written — AI assistants are very handy. What to look for: whether the tool writes naturally in the language you want, or whether it sounds like a translation. All four above do this job — try getting each to write in your own language and you'll quickly hear which sounds most natural to you.

    • ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot — these four are enough for ordinary drafts, letters, posts, or fixing earlier writing.
    • Grammarly — a familiar tool for fixing the spelling and grammar of English writing.
    • QuillBot — a familiar tool for showing a piece of writing arranged in a different way, with different words (paraphrasing).

  • Translation

    From one language to another — if you want to know the meaning of a piece of writing or a single word, you can hand the text to a general AI assistant and ask it to translate. There are also separate apps built just for translation, which can be handy for quickly translating short sentences or words.

    • ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot — just give the text and ask for a translation, and the job is done.
    • Google Translate — one of the best-known and oldest apps built only for translation.
    • DeepL — a well-known translation tool that's often talked about for its translation quality.
    • Microsoft Translator — a translation tool made by Microsoft.

  • Reading and understanding from photos and documents

    A photo of an electricity bill, a doctor's handwriting on a prescription, some form — you can take a picture, show it to AI and ask what it says. What to look for: whether the app has an icon for adding a picture (usually a camera or a paperclip). The four apps above usually all let you add pictures — the icon may be in a slightly different place in each app, so you'll have to look around a little.

    • ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot — you can add a picture and ask about it, in all four above.
    • Google Lens — a familiar Google tool for pointing at a picture and understanding what's in it.
    • Microsoft Office Lens — a familiar tool for photographing paper or a whiteboard and turning it into a clean, scan-like image.
    • Adobe Scan — a familiar tool for photographing paper and turning it into a tidy document.

  • Talking / voice

    When your hands are full, or typing is difficult — that's when asking by voice is handy. There are two ways to do it: your phone's keyboard usually has a microphone icon; tap it and speak, and your words turn into text, which you can then send to the AI app. Many AI apps also have their own microphone icon, and tapping it lets you speak straight to the AI. How it works in each app, you'll find by opening the app and looking around a little.

    • ChatGPT, Gemini — these two have their own microphone icon, so you can ask just by talking.
    • Google Assistant — a familiar, older voice assistant for getting things done on your phone by talking.
    • Siri — a familiar voice assistant for getting things done by talking on an Apple phone.

  • Making pictures

    Some AI tools can also make a brand-new picture from a description in words. Exactly how this works in each tool changes often, so it isn't spelled out here. One thing can be said with fair confidence: Claude is mainly known for working with text, documents and information, not as a picture-making tool. For how picture-making works in the other tools, it's best to open the app and see for yourself.

    • ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot — these assistants also include picture-making.
    • Midjourney — a familiar tool for making pictures from written descriptions, talked about most for artistic-style images.
    • DALL·E — a picture-making tool made by OpenAI.
    • Adobe Firefly — a picture-making tool made by Adobe.

  • Studying and explanations

    Understanding a chapter in simple terms, making practice questions on a subject, getting feedback by showing an essay or an answer once you've written it — general AI assistants can be used for all of these. What to look for: whether the explanation is simple enough for your level — if not, you can ask again, saying "explain it more simply" or "explain it as if to a fifth-grader".

    • ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot — you can ask any of them to explain any chapter or topic in simple terms.
    • Khan Academy — a well-known platform that helps with studying, and which has added an AI tutor.
    • Photomath — a well-known app for photographing a maths problem and seeing the solution step by step.
    • Duolingo — a well-known app for learning languages, which has added AI-based features.

  • Accounts and spreadsheets

    For a shop's sales records, a list of expenses, a small budget — spreadsheet software is used to organise these and add them up. You can give an AI assistant a list of figures written out as text and ask it to make sense of it, but these assistants aren't spreadsheet software themselves — for keeping a real accounts sheet, you'll need a tool like those below.

    • Microsoft Excel — a familiar, long-established program for working with sheets of figures, which now also has Copilot as an AI helper.
    • Google Sheets — a spreadsheet tool made by Google, which now has Gemini built in.
    • ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude — if you give a list of figures as text, they can make sense of it for you, and work out totals or summaries.

  • Presentations and design

    School or college presentations, a poster for a shop, a designed post for a Facebook page — a few tools are especially well known for making these. What to look for: whether you can describe what you want in words and get a draft design or slides that you can then change in your own way.

    • Canva — a widely known tool for designing posters, presentations and social media posts, and it now has AI features too.
    • Microsoft PowerPoint — a familiar, long-established program for making presentations, which now also has Copilot as an AI helper.
    • Gamma — a newer tool known for making a draft presentation from a description in words.

  • Video and audio

    Editing short videos for Facebook or YouTube, cleaning up the sound of a voice or audio — a few tools are known especially for these jobs. What to look for: whether you can use it straight from your phone, because most people do these jobs on a phone.

    • CapCut — an app that lots of people know for editing video on a phone.
    • ElevenLabs — a familiar tool for making natural-sounding voices from text.
    • Adobe Podcast — a familiar Adobe tool for cleaning up the sound of audio.

  • Code and technology

    This isn't needed by most readers, but for people who are learning a little programming or writing some small code, here's a short note: general AI assistants can handle writing code, understanding it, or finding mistakes.

    • ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot — all four can be used for writing code, understanding it, or fixing mistakes.
    • GitHub Copilot — a tool well known among programmers as a helper for writing code.

  • Help with small-business work

    Writing product descriptions for a shop, making posts for a Facebook page, drafting a polite reply to a customer's message, making sense of a list of accounts — for small jobs like these, AI assistants can save time. What to look for: AI doesn't know your business's real details (prices, product names, address) — you have to write those in, and AI will only put them together neatly. For separate tools for these jobs, see the writing, picture-making, and presentations and design sections above.

  • What to do if your internet or phone is limited

    If your internet is slow or your phone's memory is low, a few things are worth keeping in mind.

    • Sending only text uses less internet data than sending pictures or voice.
    • Instead of installing an app, opening the website directly in a browser (such as Chrome) saves space on your phone.
    • Instead of sending one huge question or lots of pictures at once, asking in small pieces works even when your internet is weak.
    • Which apps are light and which are heavy — you find out by using them; that can also change over time, so trust your own experience most.

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