Seemingly overnight (but specifically, since the end of 2022), artificial intelligence (AI) has gone from an abstract, futuristic-sounding concept to a very real, tangible presence in our working lives. In fact, more than 77 percent of companies are currently using or planning to explore using AI in the coming year. 

Though it's understandable to feel a little uneasy about AI's increasing popularity (especially if you’re in a creative profession like content marketing), I'm definitely in the camp that says you can—and should—learn how to make it work for you. That’s because, regardless of the type of role you have, AI tools can help you seriously streamline your productivity in ways you may not have known were possible. 

For instance, you could use AI tools to record and transcribe interviews, summarize sections of text, analyze data to discover trends, suggest article outlines and packaging ideas, or point out what additional information your audiences might want to learn. Over the course of a project, you can win back tons of time and channel that back into more creative thinking.

My first instinct was to tap ChatGPT for everything, but I learned that it’s not a one-size-fits-all resource for marketers. That’s because it’s not purpose-built for our specific needs in both supporting clients and for our own brand marketing. 

Here, I’m sharing some of the newer marketing-specific tools my team and I have been excited about and actively trying out. While still in the experimentation phase, they've already saved us countless collective hours.

Perplexity.ai

While ChatGPT is the popular kid, Perplexity is fast becoming the shiny new toy on the playground. Similar to OpenAI’s bot, this version has the ability to cite news and recent studies, hugely cutting down on research time. OpenAI is working on adding this feature to ChatGPT, but Perplexity is up, running and ready to help. The free version allows unlimited quick searches and five Pro searches a day, which are a little more involved than the answers you’ll get from the free plan. The Pro version is $20 a month and gives you the ability to upload and analyze files and generate AI images, too. 

Otter.ai

This AI tool is one my team and I use all the time in meetings. Otter.ai is the perfect note-taking companion—we use it to record calls (with permission, of course), and generate transcripts and summaries afterward. You can even query the AI following the call to get more specific about action items and takeaways, and it’s also handy for transcribing audio or video files. Otter.ai has a great free plan if you just want to dip your toe with 300 transcription minutes per month. The paid plans start at $10 for 1200 minutes per month.

Craftly.AI

I'm particularly excited about Craftly.AI because it was founded by Iman Bashir, a 2021 Women in Content Marketing Awards (WICMA) winner! Billed as a "custom AI content assistant," Craftly.AI generates data-driven product descriptions, Google and Facebook ad copy, and can even help brainstorm blog topics. This tool is especially ideal for marketers who focus on e-commerce businesses and spend time developing digital advertising copy and concepts. Pricing starts at $29 per month for the "starter" set of tools, which includes around 20,000 words.

Narrato Workspace

Beyond copywriting, AI can support content marketing processes, too. Narrato Workspace's AI-powered platform offers tools for content planning, including task assignments and scheduling, and generating content briefs for writers. It can handle social media post creation and publishing blog content directly to your platform. Narrato has a free trial and a Pro offering that starts at $11 per user, per month.

Keyword Insights

Looking for some extra help with SEO? Keyword Insights could be the best aid for you. It’s an AI writing assistant that helps you optimize as you go. Generate metadata, tweak copy and headlines and classify search intent with this helpful search-focused tool. It can even help with keyword clustering and discovery. Though we don’t use AI as a replacement for actual, human writing, this is a handy addition from an SEO perspective. Pricing starts at $1 for a four-day trial or $58 per month for the basic plan that includes up to 12,000 keyword clustering credits.

Seventh Sense

If your email marketing strategy could use a little zhuzhing up, you might want to check out this AI wonder. Seventh Sense is AI software that is designed to work with your existing email marketing program (Hubspot or Marketo) to increase engagement. The tool builds personalization profiles, like unique send-time optimizations, to help ensure your email reaches the right person at the right time. Prices start at $80 per month for Hubspot users and $450 per month for Marketo users.

Ready to Send

If you need a little help in getting back to all of your emails (is inbox zero still a thing?), Ready to Send can jump in to help. It starts by checking out your emails to determine what’s from a real person—and what’s just another retail promotion or spam—and drafts a potential response to anyone who looks meaningful to you (you’ll have full editing powers, of course, and don’t have to send anything the tool creates). RTS also analyzes your audience's behaviors and preferences to optimize send times. It integrates smoothly with most email marketing platforms (like Google Workspace, which we use here at Masthead) and provides actionable insights for larger email campaigns. Pricing starts at $50 per month.

Giga

This is one of the more unique on the list—but incredibly useful. Giga aims to make people the “atomic unit of our knowledge ecosystem” rather than websites. Put simply, this free browser extension conducts Reddit research. Really! It combs through Reddit posts according to your query and filters them to the most relevant comments out there—or the TLDR of what you’re looking for. Our team has used it for social listening and to garner knowledge on brand audience sentiment. It could also put a new, innovative spin on trend reports using one of the biggest social platforms out there.