In the last 12 months, I’ve tested dozens of AI tools; some were mind-blowing, most were forgettable. But if you’re tired of bloated “Top 50 AI Apps” lists filled with fluff, this post is for you.
These 7 picks are not just trending, they’re genuinely useful. I’m talking about apps that:
- Save you hours of work
- Help you create things you didn’t think were possible
- Or make you say, “How did I live without this?”
From content creators and coders to students and solopreneurs, these tools are already powering workflows worldwide. And they’re only getting smarter.
I’ve handpicked 7 categories that matter in 2025, like chat assistants, video generators, note-takers, and chosen the best AI app in each. No clutter, just the best-in-class winner per use case.
If you’re ready to cut through the noise and discover the 7 best AI apps that actually deserve a spot on your phone or desktop, let’s dive in.
🧠1: ChatGPT (Best AI Chat Assistant)
🧠 Why It’s Worth Trying
ChatGPT isn’t just another chatbot; it’s the AI that redefined how we interact with technology. From helping students write essays to assisting CEOs with strategy summaries, it’s become a daily tool for millions. Whether you need quick answers, creative ideas, or a shortcut through mental clutter, ChatGPT feels like having a personal assistant that listens.
In 2025, its usefulness has only grown, now integrated into apps, keyboards, browsers, and even your phone’s native OS.
🚀 What Makes It Great in 2025
ChatGPT has levelled up massively in 2025:
GPT-4o (Omni) — The new flagship model understands not just text, but voice, image, and even live video, in real time. You can show it a photo, ask a question aloud, and get an instant reply.
Free Tier Upgraded — Unlike many AI tools, GPT-4o is now available to free users. That’s huge; most competitors keep their best behind paywalls.
Cross-App Integration — ChatGPT now works seamlessly within popular apps like WhatsApp, Gmail, and iMessage. It’s becoming your universal layer of intelligence.
Memory & Personalisation — It remembers what you ask, your tone, and even your goals, delivering tailored responses over time.
🌍 Real-World Use Cases
✅ Students: Summarise long readings, brainstorm assignments, or practice interview questions.
✅ Professionals: Write emails, analyse data, and prep for presentations.
✅ Developers: Instant code fixes, documentation help, and debugging support.
✅ Content Creators: Video scripts, outlines, and idea generation, in seconds.
✅ Travellers: Plan trips, translate phrases, or find hidden gems in any city.
And now with voice and image input, people are even using it to troubleshoot physical objects or talk through emotional decisions.
🛠️ Key Features (That Actually Matter)
🌐 GPT-4o model (text, image, voice capable) — more human, more natural.
💬 Voice conversations — talk to it like Siri, but it understands.
🧠 Custom GPTs — create personalised AI assistants (e.g., workout coach, nutritionist, or writing editor).
💾 Memory — remembers preferences, recurring questions, and your context.
📱 App + browser + system-wide shortcuts — works on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows.
🖼️2: Best AI Research Assistant — Perplexity
🧠 Why It’s Worth Trying
Perplexity isn’t just another AI chatbot; it’s like ChatGPT, Google, and Wikipedia had a super-smart baby. While most tools just generate responses, Perplexity cites its sources, so you’re never left wondering, “Where is this coming from?”
Whether you’re researching a school project, a YouTube script, or the latest tech trend, Perplexity gives you fast, reliable answers with links to back them up. It’s like having an expert research assistant on-call, 24/7.
🚀 What Makes It Great in 2025
In 2025, when information overload is real, trust and accuracy are more valuable than ever. That’s where Perplexity shines.
It now combines live web results with deep AI summarisation, meaning it doesn’t just guess, it knows. With its Pro plan, you can even access top-tier models like GPT-4 and Claude 3 to get deeper, more nuanced responses.
It’s also one of the few tools that’s already optimised for AI Overviews (AEO), Google’s next-gen search experience.
🌍 Real-World Use Cases
✅ Students: Summarise long research papers or find trusted sources in seconds
✅ Content creators: Script YouTube videos, generate blog outlines, cite trending topics
✅ Researchers: Compare multiple sources, verify facts, and go deeper than ChatGPT
✅ Travellers & casual users: Ask real-world questions like “Best places to eat in Rome in May?”
🛠️ Key Features
🔍 Source citations on almost every result
🌐 Live internet access, even on the free plan
💬 Follow-up questions (context-aware)
🤖 Switch between GPT-4, Claude, and more (Pro)
📱 Available on iOS, Android, and desktop
💼 3. Microsoft Copilot — Best AI App for Productivity
🧠 Why It’s Worth Trying
If you’re juggling meetings, emails, and docs all day, Microsoft Copilot can feel like having a second brain.
Integrated directly into tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams, Copilot doesn’t just help you write better; it helps you think better.
Whether you’re managing projects, analysing spreadsheets, or just trying to get through your inbox faster, Copilot quietly turns your workflow into a well-oiled machine. It’s not hype, it’s productivity, reimagined.
🚀 What Makes It Great in 2025
Microsoft has deeply integrated Copilot into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, making it practically invisible, in a good way.
In Word, it drafts, summarises, and rewrites content at lightning speed.
In Excel, it helps you spot trends, automate formulas, and generate data visualisations from plain-English prompts.
In Outlook, it can write polite responses, summarise email threads, and even extract to-dos from long messages.
In PowerPoint, it builds presentations from bullet points, with layout and design suggestions already baked in.
In Teams, it acts like your meeting memory, offering summaries, key points, and next steps.
Copilot is seamlessly woven into the Microsoft 365 tools you already use, but it’s also available as a standalone app on the web and mobile.
Whether you’re deep in Word or using the dedicated Copilot app, it’s always tuned to your workflow. That’s its real superpower.
🌍 Real-World Use Cases
✅ Solopreneurs: Speed up document writing, reports, and outreach
✅ Corporate teams: Summarise long meetings, create slides, clean up email overload
✅ Analysts: Get instant chart suggestions and formulas without Googling functions
✅ Students: Draft essays, organise research, or analyse class data in Excel
✅ Managers: Use it as a digital assistant to create agendas, action points, and clean documentation
It doesn’t try to be everything; it just quietly makes everything easier.
🛠️ Key Features
✨ Deep integration with Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.)
🔄 Contextual understanding of your files & workflows
🧾 Auto-generated email replies, summaries, and slide decks
📊 Excel automation: chart creation, formula building, trend insights
🔐 Enterprise-grade privacy and security (backed by Microsoft)
🗣️ Natural language prompts across tools
🎨 4. MidJourney — Best AI Art Generator
🧠 Why It’s Worth Trying
MidJourney isn’t just another AI art tool; it’s the one that made AI-generated visuals go viral.
From magazine covers to movie concept art, MidJourney has powered some of the most stunning, surreal, and detailed AI images the internet has ever seen. If you’ve ever thought, “AI can’t do art like humans,” this app will flip that belief on its head.
Whether you’re a designer, marketer, or just someone with a wild imagination, MidJourney gives you the power to bring your visions to life in seconds.
And in 2025, it’s better than ever.
🚀 What Makes It Great in 2025
MidJourney continues to push boundaries with each version update. As of now, it’s on v6+, delivering even more photorealism, better hands (finally!), and advanced lighting/shadow dynamics.
Unlike some AI art tools that give overly smooth or generic outputs, MidJourney has a signature artistic style that feels rich, layered, and alive.
Key 2025 upgrades:
Inpainting/outpainting: Edit specific parts of an image without starting over
Real-time prompt adjustment: Instantly tweak outputs without resending prompts
Zoom-out + pan: Expand your artwork with contextual consistency
Style tuning: Control how abstract or realistic the output looks
Web experience (in beta): No Discord required anymore (finally!)
These updates make it more usable for pros and beginners alike, no tech barrier, just creativity.
🌍 Real-World Use Cases
✅ Graphic designers: Generate concept art, thumbnails, ads, and posters
✅ Marketers: Create visual assets without needing a photographer or stock site
✅ Content creators: Design YouTube covers, social media carousels, or illustrations
✅ Authors/game devs: Visualise characters, settings, and storyboards
✅ Entrepreneurs: Craft product mockups, brand mood boards, and website visuals
🛠️ Key Features
🎨 Ultra-stylised image generation with high fidelity
✍️ Prompt-based control (just type what you want)
🧠 New “describe” command: reverse-engineer your image prompts
🔄 Fast rerolls & variations on a single click
🧭 Web gallery + public prompts for inspiration
📍 Discord-based UI (with web beta launching in 2025)
💻 Best on desktop, but usable on mobile, the Discord app
Note: MidJourney still primarily runs on Discord, which may feel confusing at first, but the results are worth the learning curve. A proper web interface is rolling out in stages throughout 2025
🎬 5. Runway ML — Best AI App for Video Creation
🧠 Why It’s Worth Trying
Creating high-quality videos used to require a studio, a camera crew, and hours of editing. Not anymore.
Runway ML brings Hollywood-level tools to your laptop, no editing experience required.
From text-to-video to removing objects with a click, Runway makes video creation fast, intuitive, and shockingly powerful. If you’re a content creator, marketer, or educator, this tool is like adding an entire production team to your workflow.
It’s not just a video editor, it’s video creation, rewritten by AI.
🚀 What Makes It Great in 2025
Runway has exploded in capability over the last year with Gen-2 and newer features like:
Text-to-Video Generation: Just describe the scene, and it creates original footage.
Motion Brush: Animate specific parts of your video frame-by-frame.
Advanced Inpainting: Remove people or objects without leaving a trace.
Video-to-Video: Stylise or change existing clips, anime, cinematic, surreal in seconds.
Multi-Modal AI: Combine audio, video, and text prompts to direct the AI.
What used to take hours now takes minutes or less.
In 2025, Runway is the most accessible way to generate original AI video with real creative control.
🌍 Real-World Use Cases
✅ YouTubers & Content Creators: Generate B-rolls, intros, or even full scenes
✅ Marketing Teams: Create explainer videos and ads without hiring a crew
✅ Educators: Visualise abstract ideas or create teaching materials
✅ Short Filmmakers: Use AI to storyboard or build entire sequences
✅ Solopreneurs: Produce polished product demos or promos in-house
Runway isn’t just a shortcut; it’s a launchpad for imagination.
🛠️ Key Features
🎞️ Text-to-Video Generation (Gen-2)
🧽 Object Removal & Inpainting Tools
🎨 Style Transfer for Videos
✍️ Multi-modal prompting: text, image, video, audio
📈 Collaboration Tools for Team Editing
💻 Browser-based — no heavy software installs
📦 Templates for product videos, ads, shorts, and more
✍️ 6. Jasper — Best AI App for Writing & Content Creation
🧠 Why It’s Worth Trying
Whether you’re staring at a blank page or racing to meet a deadline, Jasper helps you turn ideas into finished content fast.
Built for marketers, bloggers, and businesses, Jasper isn’t just another AI writer. It understands brand voice, creates long-form content, and even helps with SEO, all while sounding human.
In 2025, it’s the closest thing to having a full-time content team, without paying for one.
🚀 What Makes It Great in 2025
Jasper has evolved into a full-suite content creation platform. It’s not just about writing articles anymore; it’s about brand-aware AI that adapts to your style and goals.
Here’s what makes it stand out this year:
Brand Voice Memory: Train Jasper to write in your tone, casual, professional, quirky, whatever fits your brand.
SEO Mode: Integrated Surfer SEO-style optimisation while writing.
Templates for Everything: Emails, blog posts, ads, social media, product descriptions.
Content Calendar + Workflow Tools: Plan, assign, and manage projects.
Multilingual Support: Reach global audiences in 25+ languages.
It’s not just about faster writing, it’s about better writing at scale.
🌍 Real-World Use Cases
✅ Bloggers: Generate full blog posts with SEO-optimised headers, intros, and conclusions
✅ Marketing Teams: Run entire campaigns with ads, emails, and landing pages in one place
✅ Freelancers: Boost output for clients without sacrificing quality
✅ Startups: Launch product pages, newsletters, and social content without hiring writers
✅ Agencies: Scale content across brands with custom tones and workflows
Jasper turns content from a bottleneck into a growth engine.
🛠️ Key Features
🧠 Brand Voice AI Training
📝 50+ Templates for Copywriting & Content
📈 Integrated SEO Optimisation
📅 Content Calendar & Workflow System
🌐 Multilingual Writing in 25+ Languages
🤝 Collaboration Tools for Teams
🔄 Long-form Article Writer with Outline-to-Draft Flow
📝 7. Notion AI — Best AI App for Note-Taking & Knowledge Management
🧠 Why It’s Worth Trying
If your digital life is scattered across sticky notes, docs, and browser tabs, Notion AI is your antidote.
It’s not just a note-taking app. In 2025, Notion AI feels like your second brain, helping you write, organise, summarise, and even think better.
Whether you’re a student, solopreneur, or team of ten, Notion AI brings clarity to chaos, turning scattered thoughts into structured knowledge.
🚀 What Makes It Great in 2025
Notion AI isn’t bolted on; it’s deeply baked into the Notion experience. And in 2025, it’s smarter, faster, and more integrated than ever.
AI Autofill: Turn a rough bullet point into a polished paragraph instantly
Smart Summaries: TL;DR any page, meeting notes, or research dump
Auto-Tag & Organise: Suggests database tags, links, and structures
Q&A Over Your Notes: Ask questions like “What were my goals in April?” and it finds the answer
Brainstorm Mode: Generate outlines, pros & cons, or ideas inside any doc
Notion AI doesn’t just store your ideas; it refines and retrieves them like a personal assistant.
🌍 Real-World Use Cases
✅ Students: Summarise lectures, generate study guides, and ask AI to quiz you
✅ Writers: Turn messy notes into polished blog posts or book chapters
✅ Productivity Nerds: Auto-organise goals, tasks, and project wikis
✅ Remote Teams: Draft meeting notes, action items, and OKRs in seconds
✅ Knowledge Workers: Build a smart, searchable system of all your ideas
Notion AI gives structure to your thinking and superpowers to your notes.
🛠️ Key Features
🧠 Inline AI Assistance in All Notes & Pages
📋 Smart Summarisation, Rewriting, and Brainstorming Tools
🗂️ Q&A Over Entire Workspaces & Notes
🔗 Linked Databases + Suggested Tags & Structures
📝 Auto-generated To-Dos, Bullet Points, and Tasks
🔄 Works Seamlessly Across Web, Desktop, and Mobile Apps
🔐 Privacy-Focused and Encrypted by Design
🧩 Wrapping Up: Which AI App Will You Try First?
There you have it: 7 AI apps that matter in 2025, across writing, research, design, and productivity.
Each one is a category leader, handpicked for real-world usefulness, not hype.
> Whether you try just one or integrate all seven, these tools can genuinely upgrade your workflow, creativity, and thinking.
And since AI evolves fast, we’ll be keeping this post updated, so bookmark it and check back for new favourites.
Curious to go deeper? I’ll be posting full reviews, workflows, and tutorials for each app soon. Stay tuned.
Or better yet, join the newsletter and get the next post straight to your inbox.
👉 If you’re an iPhone user, don’t miss our deep dive into 11 iOS 18 features that make a difference.
