In the first post in this ultimate guide to AI tools, we introduced the first three AI apps in our curated list of the very best AI can offer to creatives, writers and entrepreneurs in late 2024. We have tested each product in all parts of our business over the last 6-12 months. We have received no reward for recommending these tools. Part 1 started by explaining the ins and outs of Chat GPT, Claude and Gamma AI. This post focuses on Midjourney – an AI Image creator; Notebook LM – A research tool; and Eleven Labs for audio – a text-to-voice generator and voice cloning tool. Part 3 gives you our costed conclusions and recommendations on how to build your ultimate tech stack.
Tool 4: NotebookLM (Google)
Price Range: Free (Currently) to Google Account holders
Best For: Research organisation and content synthesis, and an amazing “one-click”podcast tool.
We were amazed by this when it came out. You drag in documents and Notebook LM analyses them and offers almost instantaneous analysis of them and automated standard outputs like FAQs, content summaries, and Learner guides with knowledge testing questions. You can also use it like chat GPT to interrogate all of the source materials to compare, contrast, test and synthesise.
NotebookLM Strengths:
- Excellent document analysis capabilities
- Strong integration with research workflows
- Built-in fact-checking features
- Clean, intuitive interface
- Efficient information organization
Limitations:
- Limited availability (still in beta)
- Requires Google account
- Fewer features compared to competitors
- Limited export options
- Sometimes struggles with complex queries
Ideal For:
- Researchers and academics
- Content creators requiring fact-checking
- Students organizing study materials
- Professional research projects
- Knowledge management
Tool 4: NotebookLM by Google
NotebookLM: Developed by Google, NotebookLM is an AI assistant designed to support research and knowledge work. It uses advanced language models to help users organise all kind of notes, summarise information, and generate insights from their curated sources.
Access here: NotebookLM
Price Range: Free (Currently) to Google Account holders
Best For: Research organisation and content synthesis, and an amazing “one-click”podcast tool.
No ultimate guide AI tools in 2024 would be complete witout a look at Google’s NotebookLM. We were amazed by this when it came out. You drag in documents and Notebook LM analyses them and offers almost instantaneous analysis of them and automated standard outputs like FAQs, content summaries, and Learner guides with knowledge testing questions. You can also use it like chat GPT to interrogate all of the source materials to compare, contrast, test and synthesise. we have used it extensively to bring course notes, visuals and briefing documents together in one place and then ask the tool to create original content based on our (finally) collated source notes.
NotebookLM Strengths:
- Excellent document analysis capabilities of many forms of documents from Word through PDF and URL
- Strong integration with research workflows
- Built-in fact-checking features
- Clean, intuitive interface makes it so easy to use
- Efficient information organisation and access
- ‘One click export’ to create a high-quality, 2 voice podcast out of your generated content- example here:
Limitations:
- Limited availability (still in beta) – but it works and will only get better.
- Requires Google account – but it’s a small ‘price’ to pay.
- Fewer features compared to competitors – true
- Limited export options – cut and paste is a bit fiddly.
- Sometimes struggles with complex queries
Ideal For:
- Researchers, students and academics – recommended it to my son at University for research purposes, and he loves it.
- Content creators requiring fact-checking – and marketers looking for evidence.
- Students organising study materials
- Professional research projects
- Knowledge management
Visual and Audio Content Tools
Now let’s look at the visual and content tools available. Chat GPT, Claude and Notebook offer some of this capability, but these tools, based on our 3-6 months testing of them are much better.
Tool 5: Midjourney
Price Range: $10-30/month
Best For: High-quality AI image generation
Strengths:
- Exceptional image quality
- Strong artistic style control
- Regular feature updates
- Active community for learning
- Versatile application possibilities
Limitations:
- Discord-only interface
- Steeper learning curve
- No free tier available
- Queue times during peak usage
- Prompt sensitivity requires practice
Ideal For:
- Designers needing quick concepts
- Marketing teams creating visuals
- Content creators
- Social media managers
- Brand identity development
Tool 6: ElevenLabs
Access here: ElevenLabs
Eleven Labs: Eleven Labs specialises in advanced AI voice synthesis. It’s a tool for creators who want to generate lifelike, expressive speech from text. Useful for podcasters, audiobook creators, and content producers, Eleven Labs can convert written content into human sounding audio, offering lots of customizable voice options. By simplifying voice production, it saves time and adds a professional touch to audio projects. You can even clone your own voice if you have the time to record up to 2 hours of your own voice.
Here’s my voice cloned version of this last paragraph. You can hear how I tweaked the delivery from first (too forced) to last (spookily like me).
Price Range: Free (Limited), $5-330/month
Best For: Professional voice synthesis and audio content
Strengths:
- High-quality voice synthesis and voice cloning
- Multiple language support
- Voice cloning capabilities – from quick and easy to much more real.
- Good emotion control – as proved by the demonstration above.
- Regular quality improvements
Limitations:
- Premium features can be expensive – you buy tokens and longer documents can be expensive.
- Limited free tier – but both it to try it out.
- Some voices sound artificial – so do some voices in real life, but there’s a great range.
- Resource-intensive processing – yes but not too bad on a modern PC or laptop.
- Language limitations for some features
Ideal For:
- Podcast creation
- Video narration
- Audiobook production
- E-learning content
- Multi-language content
These 6 tools have really added an extra edge to our business. We pay maybe $120 per month to have all of these tools in our arsenal, and we use them a lot. If I had to pick just one to rely on it would be Chat GPT because it does everything the others do from creation, analysis, coding, research, writing and image creation albeit to to a lesser degree. If I had to choose two I’d choose Chat GPT and GammaAI because Gamma is just so good a turning content into beautiful documents, presentations and websites. But the choice is yours:
Making Your Choice: Key Considerations
When selecting AI tools for your business, consider:
- Budget
- Free tiers for testing
- Scaling costs with usage
- Return on investment potential
- Integration Requirements
- Compatibility with existing tools
- API availability
- Export options
- Learning Curve
- Available training resources
- Community support
- Interface intuitiveness
- Output Quality Needs
- Professional requirements
- Brand alignment
- Consistency requirements
Part 3 gives you our costed conclusions and recommendations on how to build your ultimate tech stack.
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Jim Harvey
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