In 2025, the most successful businesses won’t resist change – they’ll ride the wave of AI and automation to new heights.
Rather than getting caught up in the endless cycle of AI product updates, focus on identifying the tools that truly benefit your work and set aside the ones that don’t.
You have broader tools like ChatGPT, which can assist with various tasks such as generating content ideas, automating customer responses, or managing schedules. However, there are also specialized tools designed for specific functions like streamlining project management or enhancing data analysis.
In our previous article on the best AI, low-code, and no-code business tools, we explored the top categories transforming the business landscape.
In this article, we take a closer look at some standout tools within those categories that are proving especially impactful, focusing on pricing, specific features, and how they can be integrated into your business for your marketing and business workflows.
Top 12 Automation and AI Tools You’ll Want to Consider in Your 2025 Stack
FlexOS’s report, “Generative AI Top 150: The World’s Most Used AI Tools,” provides compelling traffic and ranking data that confirms ChatGPT reigns supreme.
But there are plenty of other platforms out there with millions of users that you might not even know about. Have you heard of DALL-E? Notion AI? PhantomBuster?
Let’s take a closer look and get to know both the big players and the 12 hidden gems in AI and automation.
Perplexity – Generative AI for Customer Insights
Subscription: $20/month
Why Use It: Perplexity acts as an AI-powered research assistant, delivering instant insights into customer needs, preferences, and emerging trends in your industry. Using NLP and GenAI, Perplexity provides concise answers to complex questions, helping your team make fast, data-driven decisions.
Standout Feature: Its AI-generated insights can be customized for your industry, whether it’s retail, finance, or SaaS, enabling deeper understanding of market dynamics.
Otter.ai – Meeting Transcription and Notes
Subscription: $16.99/month
Why Use It: As we mentioned in our broader overview, Otter.ai helps teams stay organized by automatically transcribing meetings in real-time, generating summaries, and providing action items. With hybrid and remote work environments, this tool ensures no key points are missed and follow-ups are straightforward.
Standout Feature: Otter Assistant, which can join your meetings, take notes, and capture slides, enables team members to stay focused on the conversation instead of note-taking.
Airtable – Advanced Process Automation
Subscription: Starts at $24/month
Why Use It: Known for its flexibility, Airtable combines spreadsheet functionalities with database capabilities. From project management to customer databases, Airtable enables businesses to build custom workflows that adapt to unique needs.
Standout Feature: Airtable’s Automations allow you to set up multi-step workflows that trigger actions based on set conditions, perfect for automating approvals, reminders, and data updates.
Clay – Data Enrichment for Marketing
Subscription: Starts at $149/month
Why Use It: Clay specializes in data enrichment, pulling in critical information on your leads and contacts. It enhances your CRM with details on job titles, social profiles, and more, so you can target campaigns with precision.
Standout Feature: Its integration with CRM systems and marketing automation tools allows for dynamic data updates, so you can maintain accurate profiles for more effective segmentation and personalization.
Zapier – Workflow Automation
Subscription: Starts at $29.99/month
Why Use It: Zapier connects your favorite apps to automate repetitive tasks, making it easy to create workflows without coding. With over 3,000 integrations, you can connect almost any two (or more) apps, streamlining processes across marketing, customer service, and sales.
Standout Feature: Multi-step Zaps let you chain together actions from various apps, creating complex workflows that save hours of manual work.
Notion AI – Productivity and Content Generation
Subscription: Starts at $12/month
Why Use It: Notion AI brings powerful content generation and productivity tools into a single workspace, making it perfect for documentation, note-taking, and project collaboration. It can generate summaries, write drafts, and even handle repetitive tasks like meeting notes.
Standout Feature: With the ability to embed tasks, assign responsibilities, and automate reminders, Notion AI streamlines both individual and team productivity.
ChatGPT Pro – AI Assistant for Customer Engagement
Subscription: Starts at $20/month
Why Use It: ChatGPT Pro offers a conversational AI experience that can be used for customer support, engagement, and even internal operations. Its natural-sounding interactions make it ideal for businesses looking to improve customer experience.
Standout Feature: Contextual memory and a high level of customization allow ChatGPT to tailor responses based on customer history, providing a more personalized and relevant experience.
PhantomBuster – Social Media Automation
Subscription: Starts at $69/month
Why Use It: PhantomBuster is the go-to tool for social media automation, allowing you to scrape, automate, and interact with social media data at scale. From lead generation to trend analysis, this tool provides valuable insights into social media performance.
Standout Feature: The tool’s ability to extract contact details and automate engagement makes it ideal for businesses aiming to grow their audience with minimal manual input.
LeadGenius – Sales Prospecting AI
Subscription: Custom pricing
Why Use It: LeadGenius automates sales prospecting, finding targeted leads and qualifying them to maximize your sales team’s efficiency. By reducing the time spent on prospecting, this tool lets your team focus on nurturing and closing.
Standout Feature: Its AI-driven lead scoring and prioritization ensure your sales reps focus on the highest-value leads, improving your sales conversion rates.
DALL-E 3 – AI-Driven Creative Content
Subscription: Pay-per-use ($0.040 per image)
Why Use It: DALL-E 3 is a GenAI model for creating high-quality visuals, perfect for marketing campaigns, website imagery, and social media content. It’s versatile and easy to use, allowing even non-designers to create stunning visuals.
Standout Feature: This tool allows for high-quality image customization based on text prompts, giving your team a creative edge with on-brand graphics generated in seconds.
Lumen5 – AI Video Content Creation
Subscription: Starts at $29/month
Why Use It: Lumen5 turns blog posts and articles into dynamic video content, which is increasingly essential for engaging audiences on social media. By automating video creation, it simplifies the process of repurposing written content into a more visual format.
Standout Feature: The drag-and-drop interface and AI-assisted features make it easy to create visually appealing videos that convey your message effectively, boosting your content’s engagement.
Cursor – Code Generation and Completion
Subscription: Starts at $20/month
Why Use It: Cursor enhances developer productivity by offering AI-powered code completion and suggestions. Ideal for tech teams, Cursor reduces repetitive coding tasks, allowing developers to focus on creative problem-solving.
Standout Feature: With its real-time coding suggestions and automated code documentation, Cursor speeds up development and reduces errors, making it invaluable for agile teams.
Be a pioneer, not a dinosaur!
The 2025 AI and automation toolstack isn’t just about saving time – it’s about creating a smarter, more adaptable business. By adopting the right tools for data insights, productivity, customer engagement, and content creation, your business will be positioned to lead in your industry.
So don’t let your business fossilize. Embrace these technologies, automate smarter, and watch your team transform into a lean, efficient, and innovative force.
With Bitcot by your side, you’ll never watch from the sidelines. Let us partner with you to harness the power of AI and automation, helping you simplify workflows, boost growth, and stay agile. Get in touch with our team here.
