I Found 7 Must-Try AI Tools, and They're Free!

I sometimes sit and look at all the small things I have to do. Replying to messages, making little changes to my work, trying to find one piece of information. Each thing is small, but all together, they are like a big mountain. I think I can not climb this mountain today. I just want to do the fun things, you know? Like maybe baking some cookies. It feels like there is no time for the good stuff.

Then, I find something that changes everything. I find some tools that use AI, you know, artificial intelligence. It sounds like something from a movie, but it is real. And many of them are free! These are not just any tools; they are very smart. They can help with all those small, boring tasks. Suddenly, the mountain of small jobs starts to look like a small hill.

Today, I want to show you some of these amazing helpers. I found 7 must-try AI tools that are really, really good. They can help you get your time back. So you can focus on what is important, or just bake some cookies. Let’s look at these powerful ai tools together.

1. Zapier: Your Personal Robot for Boring Tasks

I want to talk about Zapier first. This one is special to me. Imagine you have a little robot that connects all your computer programs, your apps and makes them talk to each other. That is Zapier. It helps you stop doing the same thing again and again. It automates the repetitive tasks.

Let me give you my own story. I have a little cookie business, the Kevin Cookie Company. It is just for fun. I made a Google Form for customers to give me feedback. When someone fills out the form, I want to thank them. But I am busy. I forget sometimes. So the feedback just sits there. This is not good.

With Zapier, I fix this problem. I went to the Zapier website. It is free to start. I just have to type what I want to do. I typed something like, “When someone fills my Google Form, send them an email from my Gmail.” Zapier then suggested a “Zap.” A Zap is their funny word for automation, like a recipe for the robot.

It showed me the steps. First, it connects to my Google Form. It asked me which form to watch. Then, it connects to my Gmail. I can write a nice email. I can even put the person’s name in the email to make it special. I just set it all up one time. It was not too hard. Now, when a customer gives feedback, Zapier sees it right away. And poof, it sends my personalized thank you an email. I do not have to do anything! The customer is happy, and I look very professional.

This is just one little thing. Zapier can connect thousands of apps. Think about it. Gmail, Notion, Excel, Slack… all the big ones are there. You can make a Zap for almost anything. Maybe when you get an important email, Zapier can send a message to your Slack. Or when you add a new row in a spreadsheet, it can create a task in your to-do list. The list goes on and on. It’s one of the best free ai tools for anyone who wants to save time. It lets you focus on the big ideas, not the small clicks.

Tip: Learn how to use Zapier MCP to connect ChatGPT and Claude to do tasks for you.

2. Google AI Studio: A Teacher for Your Screen

Have you ever been stuck trying to do something on the computer? For me, it is Microsoft Excel. It is so powerful but so confusing. I know it can make charts and tables, but I don't know how. I try to watch videos, but I have to pause, and go back, and I get lost.

This is where Google AI Studio comes in. It’s like having a very patient teacher sitting next to you, looking at your screen, and telling you what to do. It is amazing. It can see your screen in real time and give you instructions, step-by-step.

I try this myself. I had some sales data for my cookie company. I wanted to see how many cookies I sold in each location. I know a “pivot table” can do this, but how to make one? I opened Google AI Studio. I clicked on “stream real time” and gave it permission to see my screen and hear my voice.

Then, I just asked my question. “Hi, I want to see units sold by location. How do I do that?”

And a calm voice started to talk to me. It said, “You can use a pivot table.” Then it gave me the first step. “First, select all of your data, including the headers.” I did that. Then it said, “Go to the insert tab… and click on the pivot table.” I follow the instructions. A new window appeared, and the voice told me to just click okay.

A new sheet opened with this strange pivot table thing. I was stuck again. I asked, “Okay, what do I do here?” The AI was not bothered. It said, “Now, in the pivot table fields pane, drag location to the rows area and units sold to the values area.” I dragged the little boxes, just like it said. And like magic, the table I wanted was there! I could see all my locations and how many cookies each one sold.

It was incredible. I learned something new, and it was not frustrating. This shows the real power of AI. It can help us learn and not feel silly for asking simple questions. I think one day it might even be able to click the buttons for you, with you still in charge of course. That would be even more amazing!

3. ChatGPT: More Than Just a Chatbot

I am sure many of you have heard of ChatGPT. It is maybe the most famous AI assistant. You can ask it questions, and it gives you answers. But it can do so, so much more. There are some advanced functions inside that you might not know about. It’s one of those featured AIdeeply tools you must explore more deep.

First, there is something called the Canvas. It is a big, open space where you can work on long writing, like a report or even computer code. It is not just a chat box. You can write many paragraphs. If you want to change only one paragraph, you can highlight just that one and ask ChatGPT to make it better, shorter, or funnier. It even has a version history, so you can see all the changes it made. This is so useful for writing.

Then, there is a special “reasoning model.” You click a button to turn it on. This is for when you need to do some serious thinking. For complex problems or things that need many steps. For my cookie business, I can ask it a hard question. For example, “I have this sales data from the last few years. How many cookies should I bake in December?” It can analyze the numbers and give me a smart suggestion. It thinks more like a business analyst.

You can also create a “project.” This is like giving the AI a whole file cabinet of information. You can upload documents, spreadsheets, anything that gives it context about your work. Then, when you ask questions, it uses all that information to give you the best, most relevant answers. It remembers everything you gave it for that project.

It also understands more than just text. It has “multi-modal support.” This is a fancy way to say it can look at images and files. I tested this. I have a world map image with pins on all my Kevin Cookie Company locations. I uploaded this picture to ChatGPT. Then I asked it, “Can you give me a list of all the locations from this image?” And it did! It read the image and typed out all the city names for me. It was perfect.

And last, there is a new thing called Sora. This is crazy. It can create high-quality videos just from you typing a description. You can say “a golden retriever puppy playing in the snow” and it will make a little video of that. ChatGPT is not just for chatting anymore. Maybe they should call it EverythingGPT! It’s one of the most powerful ai tools for sure.

4. Udio: Make Your Own Music

Do you love music? Have you ever dreamed of making your own song? I have, but I cannot play any instrument. I cannot sing very well. But now, that does not matter. There is an AI tool called Udio that can create music for you. It is an AI-powered music creation tool, and it’s so much fun.

It is very simple to start. You just describe the kind of song you want. The more details you give, the better the song will be. You can say, “A happy pop song about summer, with a guitar and a female singer.” Or maybe “a sad piano music for a rainy day.”

After you type your description, Udio creates two different songs for you to listen to. You can choose the one you like most. If you are a writer, you can even write your own lyrics! You can tell Udio where the verse is, where the chorus is, and where the bridge is. It will structure the song exactly how you want it.

You can also change some settings. You can make the song longer or shorter. There is also something called “prompt strength,” which I think means how closely it follows your instructions. When you are happy with your song, you can download it as an audio file and share it with your friends, your family, or the whole world! Imagine creating a custom birthday song for someone, or making background music for your own videos. It’s a wonderful tool for being creative, even if you think you are not a musician.

5. ElevenLabs: Voices That Sound Real

This next tool is one you have probably heard before, even if you did not know it. It’s called ElevenLabs. It makes AI voices that are so realistic, that they sound like real people. It is very possible you heard these voices on YouTube videos, or maybe even in a commercial on TV. They are that good.

When you sign in, it is very easy to use. On the left side, you click on “Text to Speech.” Then, you just paste in any text you want it to say. I tried it with a sentence for my cookie company: “Hello, you should buy cookies at the Kevin Cookie Company.”

On the right side, you have choices. You can pick from many different voices. Male, female, old, young. You can also choose the AI model and change some settings to make it sound just right. Then, you click “Generate.” The voice that came out was so clear and natural. “Not bad,” I thought. It really sounded like someone was in the room saying it.

But that is not all. ElevenLabs has other tools too. It has a Voice Changer, so you can make your own voice sound different. It can also create sound effects using AI. And one of the most useful features is that it can dub or translate audio into other languages. Imagine you have a video in English, and you want people in Spain to understand it. ElevenLabs can take the audio and change it to Spanish, using a realistic voice. This is a very powerful tool for anyone who makes content for a global audience.

6. Perplexity AI: A Smarter Search Engine

Do you ever feel like when you search on Google, the quality is not so good anymore? Sometimes you have to look through so many pages to find a real answer. If you feel this way, then you should try Perplexity AI. It might be the search engine you have been looking for.

It looks simple. In the middle of the screen, there is a box where you type your question. But here is what makes it different and so powerful. You can tell Perplexity where to find the answers. You can choose from the whole web, from “academia” (which means scientific papers and research), or from “social” (which means Reddit).

I wanted to do some research, so I turned on the “Academic” setting. I asked a question. Perplexity gave me an answer, but it also did something amazing. It showed me where every piece of information came from. It had little numbers, like citations in a book. I could click on any number, and it would show me the original scientific paper. This is perfect for research, for fact-checking, and for getting insights that you can trust. It helps to avoid “hallucinations,” which is when an AI makes things up.

You can even remove a source if you dont think it is good and run the search again. It gives you so much control. It is a fantastic tool for students, writers, or anyone who wants to find true and reliable information. It is free to use, and there is also a paid version with even more features. This is one of the free ai tools that can make you smarter.

7. Descript: Edit Videos Like a Word Document

The last tool I want to share is for people who make content, like me. If you edit videos or podcasts, Descript will change your life. It is a real game-changer. It makes editing a video as easy as editing a Word document.

How? It takes your video and it transcribes it. It writes out all the words that are spoken. Now, you can edit the video by editing the text. For example, when I record my videos, I sometimes pause for a long time. In the text, Descript shows these pauses as little dots (…). I can just select the dots with my mouse and press delete. And just like that, the long pause is cut out of the video! It is so fast and easy.

What if I said the wrong word? I do not need to record the whole thing again. I can use a feature called “overdub.” First, you have to train the AI to learn what your voice sounds like. After that, you can just type a new word or sentence, and Descript will generate the new audio in your own voice. It sounds just like you said it. It is like magic.

Descript also has many other AI features to make your video look and sound professional. There is a “Studio Sound” button that you can click, and it will improve your audio quality, making it sound like you recorded in a professional studio. You can remove the background of your video with just one click. You can also automatically create captions for your video, in English and even in other languages.

Descript is one of the best tools for making the whole process of creating content much faster and simpler. It saves me so much time and makes my videos much better.

Tip: Use VideoExpress 2.0 for unlimited video generations.

These are the seven tools I wanted to share with you. I hope you found this helpful. All of them have a free way to try them, so you can see for yourself. Let me know which one is your favorite!