I've tried a lot of AI tools. Most were impressive demos that got used once. But a few quietly became part of my daily stack.
1. Claude (Anthropic) — The thinking partner
For sustained reasoning: debugging, planning, business logic. My default for "figure this out" tasks.
2. OpenAI Codex / GPT-5 — The execution engine
Not just autocomplete — actual collaborative coding.
3. Perplexity — The research shortcut
For anything that used to require a Google dive, Perplexity gets me an answer in 30 seconds.
4. OpenAI o3-mini — The fast workhorse
For high-volume, lower-stakes tasks, o3-mini is faster and cheaper.
5. Custom prompt libraries — My secret weapon
The real tool isn't the model — it's the prompt. This is where the compounding ROI lives.
The pattern
Notice what's missing: no image generators, no video tools. The tools that stuck reduce cognitive load on things I do every day.