January 20th, 2025
By Connor Martin · 8 min read
Chances are, your business could probably be improved in one way or another. And software solutions, particularly command-and-control and generative AI tools, can be an excellent way to get speedy assistance without breaking the bank.
But if you just look at all the various AI-powered tool designs that are meant to help you run your business, you’ll find an overwhelming amount of choice. That’s why we’ll cut down that list to the eight AI tools for business you shouldn’t miss.
- AI tools like Julius AI and Zapier offer free, accessible solutions for businesses of all sizes to boost productivity, automate workflows, and gain actionable insights.
- AI can revolutionize business operations by enhancing customer support, optimizing marketing strategies, and simplifying project management with tools like HubSpot, StoryChief, and ClickUp.
- Scalable pricing options make AI accessible. Free plans and premium features allow businesses to start small and expand as their needs grow.
At its core, artificial intelligence utilizes natural language processing to either generate text or perform commands. For a business, it means that you essentially get an AI assistant that can do simple things that a human being would’ve previously done. While there’s practically no aspect of business where an AI tool won’t be able to help, three situations will typically come to mind.
AI apps can be excellent productivity boosters. With immense capabilities to control and integrate with other apps, as well as function as research tools, they can help you keep the business running smoothly while you focus on doing what you do best.
Marketing and sales are the next obvious choice. A sales team can leverage an AI agent to help it crawl through background repositories and maintain the proper onboarding and retention process. Then, generative AI tools can help design perfect social media posts, marketing campaigns, or onboarding pitches.
Customer support is one of the few ways AI particularly outshines previous “dumb” tools. An AI assistant can essentially replace a part of customer support, dredging up answers for common queries based on a wide array of customizable options.
With so many aspects of business that could use an extra hand, there are going to be hundreds of artificial intelligence tools that you might find useful. We’ve streamlined the list to the essentials that will work for most industries while still giving you a wide berth of options:
1. Julius AI
2. HubSpot
3. StoryChief
4. ClickUp
5. Scheduler AI
6. Notion
7. Madgicx
8. Zapier
Unlike “traditional” AI tools that use large language models to crawl through and generate text, Julius AI excels at working with numbers, statistics, and data. This makes Julius AI your personal data assistant, helping you uncover patterns and discover insights in piles of seemingly disconnected events or datasets.
Julius AI is particularly handy for businesses that need to work with complex data or those that have enormous datasets that need to be cleaned or visualized.
If you hear the words “customer relationship management,” then HubSpot shouldn’t be far behind. This CRM tool is practically a one-stop shop for both the internal and external pipelines of customer management.
Its control parts allow you to set up innovative, effective, and, most importantly, scheduled marketing campaigns. Its AI tool will enable you to rewrite emails and other marketing content so they flow perfectly with your company’s brand and your customers’ expectations.
StoryChief leverages generative AI to streamline the entire content marketing process, most notably for content creation and distribution. For the first part, StoryChief comes with an impressive SEO- and marketing-oriented text generator, which helps your campaigns nail the tone and stay on brand while still ranking high on search engines. It also comes with image generation to tie the content together.
In terms of distribution, the AI tool can integrate with practically every major social media platform, helping you build and retain an audience no matter the industry.
ClickUp calls itself the “everything app for work,” and that’s true to an extent. With a heavy focus on project management, this AI tool helps you figure out the behind-the-scenes of your business and how it correlates with your inevitable success.
ClickUp’s AI assistant (ClickUp Brain) will allow you to leverage the app’s features more intuitively, help you stay on schedule, or streamline the project creation process based on previous results.
Scheduler AI is one of the few AI assistants that has a very narrow purpose, but that only makes it better. As a chat assistant, it allows potential (and current) customers to get real-time insights on your company that might be hidden away on your website. The AI’s scheduling-oriented control tools also provide a seamless way to set up meetings and demos.
In a way, Scheduler AI might be your next sales assistant.
By itself, Notion is a streamlined tool that helps you take notes, keep your productivity at its maximum, and integrate various aspects of product management and CRM into one platform. Notion AI improves the tool’s overall usability further by providing smarter suggestions through its natural language processing and generation to create more meaningful content.
Additionally, the AI tool can crawl through the entirety of your project board, designing accurate summaries and providing insights into your company’s current standing.
If your marketing campaigns primarily focus on the Meta ecosystem (particularly Facebook ads), then Madgicx can be the perfect ad optimizer solution. It’s an AI tool that leverages extensive records of Facebook trends to generate new ads or modify existing ones.
Alternatively, its savvy AI marketer can optimize Facebook ads to help you reach more customers, retarget old ones, or adjust existing bids, all to determine the optimal ad spending to increase your ad ROI.
What Zapier does differently from most other tools is that it primarily works through other apps. The tool’s app integration, connection, and cross-communication capabilities allow you to create automated workflows that would traditionally need multiple separate apps or tools.
Zapier’s AI tool brings those capabilities to the next level, using natural language processing to help you design intelligent automation with minimal technical knowledge and maximum freedom.
For every aspect of business out there, there’s an AI-powered platform that can help. But you might need to determine what exactly you need help with first. And that’s where an AI tool that can crawl through raw, unfiltered data is practically invaluable.
With Julius AI, you won’t need to guess what you need to do to succeed. The tool’s AI assistant will help you make data-supported decisions regardless of your industry. You can get started with Julius AI today and experience next-generation AI capabilities.
What is the best free AI tool for business?
The best free AI tool for your business depends on your needs. Still, tools like Julius AI (for data analysis) or Zapier (for workflow automation) offer incredible value at no cost to start. These tools streamline processes, boost productivity, and provide insights without requiring a significant investment upfront.
How do I use AI to help my small business?
AI can revolutionize your small business by automating tasks, improving decision-making, and enhancing customer interactions. Tools like Julius AI can help you analyze data for more innovative business strategies, while HubSpot or Scheduler AI can streamline customer management and scheduling.
How much does AI cost for businesses?
AI costs for businesses vary, with tools like Julius AI offering free plans and others charging from $10 to thousands per month, depending on features. Start with free or affordable tools to maximize ROI while scaling as your needs grow.