It’s on every founder’s mind these days: “Where do we even start with AI?”
It’s a fair question. The current AI situation is overwhelming to say the least. New tools dropping every week, endless hype, and a lot of noise. At Work Heartily, we’ve made it our business to stay ahead of what’s working and what’s worth your time. We’re not AI maximalists. We’re not replacing our team with bots.
We believe in being human-led and AI-powered, using these tools to sharpen our thinking, accelerate work, and ultimately deliver better results for our clients.
So instead of another listicle of 47 tools you’ll never actually use, we’re sharing what some of our executives are personally using right now. Real picks. Honest takes. No hype.
Kari Brown, Fractional CMO
Claude and Manus are her go-tos, with Perplexity Computer currently on trial.
“I made the switch from ChatGPT to Claude a while back, and I haven’t looked back. The language just feels more natural, the way it reads a prompt, the way it writes back. It’s hard to articulate, but it feels less like talking to a machine. I still pull up ChatGPT for specific things, but Claude is my home base now.”
Kari‘s second pick is Manus, an AI agent that can handle complex, multi-step research tasks autonomously. Where most AI tools respond to one question at a time, Manus digs deeper, surfacing connections, synthesizing sources, and doing the kind of extended research that used to eat up hours of her week.
“Manus is quickly changing how I approach research for clients. It goes further than I can go in the same amount of time, and it comes back with things I wouldn’t have thought to look for. The most recent use case was an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) project. I tried out the ‘wide research’ skill. The results were frankly astonishing.”
She’s also been experimenting with Perplexity Computer, though the jury’s still out.
“I’m still learning it. I may end up putting it on the shelf for a while and just doubling down on Manus and Claude. We’ll see. I’d rather get really good at two tools than mediocre at five.”
That measured approach is very much on-brand for how Work Heartily thinks about AI adoption.
Shane Sloan, Fractional COO
Shane‘s recommendation cuts straight to the point, especially for individuals and early-stage operators: start with the Claude stack.
“For solopreneurs and individuals, the Claude stack is probably your best bet. The Cowork capability in particular is phenomenal. It lets you automate genuinely complex tasks without writing a single line of code.”
Cowork is Claude’s desktop automation tool, designed for non-developers who want to put repetitive workflows on autopilot. Shane’s using it for something most people would never think to automate.
“I currently use Claude’s Cowork tool to handle all my expense management tracking. It sounds small, but it’s one of those tasks that used to take up more mental energy than it deserved. Now it just… happens.”
That’s the unlock Shane wants growing companies to see: AI doesn’t have to start with a big transformation. It can start with the task that’s been quietly annoying you for months.
Jonathan Barnes, Founder
Jonathan keeps it simple: Claude for most everything and Granola for meetings.
Claude has become his core thinking partner, whether stress-testing ideas or getting a first pass on something he needs to refine. The quality of reasoning and the ability to iterate quickly make it the tool he reaches for first.
Granola is the other half of his stack, and if you’re not using an AI meeting tool yet, it’s a good place to start. It runs quietly in the background during calls, captures what’s said, and automatically generates smart, organized notes. No more half-remembered action items. No more deciding between listening and writing.
“Granola goes to every meeting I go to. It just handles the notes, clean, accurate, done. That alone frees up a significant amount of mental space during a call to actually be present.”
For anyone who spends a lot of time in meetings (which, let’s be honest, is everyone leading a growing business), this is one of those tools that quickly pays for itself.
The Bottom Line
The AI tools above work because they fit naturally into the way we already work. If you’re a growing company trying to figure out where to start: pick one or two tools, go deep on them, and don’t let the pressure to “do AI” send you chasing every new thing that launches. The companies winning with AI right now aren’t the ones using the most tools. They’re the ones using the right ones well.
We’re always testing, always learning. We’ll keep sharing what’s actually working. Got any recommendations for us?
Lets chat about it over coffee!