What do you want AI to do?
An honest guide to AI tools for real businesses.
Prices checked July 2026 from the public pricing pages listed at the end. Prices change. Before you buy, check the vendor page again.
This guide is not sponsored. We do not use affiliate links. The point is simple: name the work you want done, pick the plainest tool that can do it, and know the catch before you spend money.
1. Writing emails, quotes, and descriptions
The job
Turn rough notes into clear emails, quote wording, service descriptions, job posts, and customer explanations.
Our pick: ChatGPT Business. OpenAI lists it at $20 per user per month when billed yearly, with a two-user minimum, or $25 per user per month when billed monthly. Use it like a writing partner, not a magic button. Paste the messy draft, say who it is for, say what tone you want, and ask for three versions: short, warm, and direct. Then pick the best parts and edit the final yourself.
What disappoints: ChatGPT can sound too polished, make up details if your prompt is loose, and turn a simple email into corporate fog. Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini can be useful if your team already lives in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, but they often shine more inside their own apps than as a clean blank-page writer.
Skip it if: you expect it to know your prices, policies, or customer history without giving it that information.
2. Researching and summarizing
The job
Find current information, compare options, summarize long pages, and turn research into a plain answer.
Our pick: Perplexity Pro. Perplexity shows Pro at $20 per month, or $200 per year. Use it when the answer needs sources. Ask a narrow question, open the cited pages, and make it separate facts from its advice. For a business owner, this is better than asking a chat tool to guess from memory.
What disappoints: ChatGPT can research too, but people often forget to make it cite current sources. Regular Google search still matters when you need local results, phone numbers, reviews, or anything where the page itself matters more than the summary.
Skip it if: you will not click the sources. A summarized wrong answer is still wrong.