Beyond ChatGPT: discover the best unknown AI tools per task

The market today counts more than 15,000 AI products. Which do you use for what? That is the question that occupies every entrepreneur and marketer, and that most “top 10 AI tools” lists do not answer. Those lists always revolve around ChatGPT, Midjourney and Perplexity. Useful tools, but you already know them.

This guide works the other way round: start from the task, then the tool. Per category the best AI tools that make the difference for marketers and Belgian SMEs in 2026, including the names you probably do not know yet.

Want to know more about how ClickForest uses AI for concrete marketing results? Read our guide on AI for online marketing or see our AI services offering.

1. Writing, reasoning and research

The large language models need little introduction: Claude for long, nuanced documents and code, ChatGPT as the all-rounder with deep research and built-in image generation, Gemini for those who work natively in Google Workspace and need a context window of two million tokens. A fair comparison of these models can be found in our article ChatGPT vs Claude vs Perplexity: the practical guide.

More interesting are the tools alongside them:

NotebookLM (Google) works fundamentally differently from a regular chatbot. You load your own documents, PDFs or websites into it, and the model answers questions exclusively based on those sources. No hallucinations, because it has no other information than what you have provided. A special feature: it automatically generates a listenable podcast episode from your business documents. Free available at notebooklm.google.com.

Genspark has meanwhile grown from a research tool into a fully autonomous AI workspace. You ask a question or give an assignment, and Genspark orchestrates multiple specialised AI agents to handle that task independently: from web search and data analysis to generating presentations, spreadsheets and complete reports. A notable feature is the “Call For Me” function: the tool can independently make phone calls, including reservations and business requests, via a realistic AI voice. For complex, open research questions it is stronger than a search engine; for routine tasks like report generation less suitable than specialised tools.

Napkin deserves a separate mention. The platform requires no prompts. Paste a piece of text or write something in the editor, click the lightning bolt icon, and Napkin automatically generates multiple visual options: flowcharts, mindmaps, hierarchy diagrams or infographics. The AI reads the text, understands the relationships and chooses the most appropriate format. Everything is editable and exportable as PNG, SVG, PDF or directly to PowerPoint. Free up to 500 credits per week, paid from 9 dollars per month for higher volumes.

For AI-assisted content production at scale, from SEO articles to social media posts, ClickForest helps with strategy and execution. See also: AI copywriting vs. human writing: what works better? and how to write better prompts.

“We believe that in 2025 we will see the first AI agents enter the labour market and noticeably change the output of companies.”

— Sam Altman, CEO OpenAI

2. Image generation and design

Midjourney remains the aesthetic benchmark for photorealistic images. Ideogram has the strongest output for text in images, something most generative models still struggle with. Adobe Firefly is the safe choice for those who need licence-free images, directly integrated in Creative Cloud.

Recraft V3 is the tool that makes professional designers stop and take notice. It is as far as is known the only AI model in the world that generates real, editable SVG vectors. That sounds technical, but the implication is significant: the output is exportable to Adobe Illustrator, Figma or as a CMYK-ready file for print. Midjourney, DALL-E and Flux only deliver raster images that become blurry when scaled. Recraft has occupied the first position on the Hugging Face Text-to-Image Leaderboard for more than five consecutive months, above Midjourney and all OpenAI models. The tool is used by Shopify, Salesforce and large design agencies for generating consistent brand assets at scale. A freemium model is available; the free plan does not deliver commercial rights.

Photoroom focuses specifically on e-commerce product photos: remove background, replace with a studio look, colour adjustments, batch processing of hundreds of product images at once. For those running a Shopify webshop this is one of the most direct time savings. More AI tools specifically for Shopify can be found in our overview of AI Shopify apps for automation.

Freepik AI bundles multiple generative models in one interface (Flux, Imagen, Ideogram) and is cheaper than most individual subscriptions. Useful for those who switch between styles or experiment regularly.

3. Video, audio and ad creation

In video generation the landscape has moved rapidly. Sora 2 (OpenAI) delivers the highest cinematic quality with realistic motion behaviour. Veo 3 (Google) automatically generates synchronised audio with the images: sound effects, atmosphere and speech that organically connect to what is happening on screen. Runway Gen-4.5 offers the most advanced camera controls and is used for VFX production.

For content marketing two specific tools are particularly strong:

OpusClip takes a long video interview, webinar or YouTube episode and automatically generates short clips from it suitable for TikTok, Reels or LinkedIn. It detects the strongest moments, adds captions and optimises the format. No editing knowledge required.

Descript goes further: it lets you edit a video like a text document. Remove a passage by selecting and deleting the words. Filler words like “um” or “er” disappear with one click. For those who regularly produce video content but do not want to hire an editor.

ElevenLabs has become the standard for voice cloning and voice-overs in 32 languages. The quality is realistic enough that most listeners cannot tell the difference. The tool also has a dubbing feature that re-voices existing videos with synchronised lip sync. Available via API for automated production pipelines.

Arcads has a specific but valuable position for ad creation. The platform focuses entirely on UGC-style video ads: you write a script, choose an AI actor from a library of more than 300 realistic avatars filtered by age, gender, tone and background, and generate an ad ready for TikTok or Meta within two minutes. No film crew, no creator negotiation, no weeks of lead time. The actors are not recognisable as AI to most viewers. Limitations: the actor cannot hold or demonstrate a physical product, and basic editing like captions or music you still add in a tool like CapCut. Starting price is around 110 euros per month for ten video credits.

Also read: video marketing trends and user-generated content strategies. For the complete approach to performance marketing and AI we explain how to build this into a profitable advertising strategy.

“I want every task that can possibly be automated with artificial intelligence to actually be automated. I promise you: you will still have work.”

— Jensen Huang, CEO Nvidia

4. Presentations and visual documents

Gamma generates a complete interactive presentation from a prompt or existing text. The output is editable, shareable as a web link and looks immediately professional. No PowerPoint, no template searching.

Beautiful.ai goes a step further in layout suggestions: add a slide and the platform automatically proposes a logical structure based on the content. For teams that regularly produce presentations this saves time.

Napkin (see also category 1) also works well as an intermediate solution: generate a diagram or infographic and import it directly into your presentation or document as PNG or SVG.

5. Coding and building without a developer

Most developers know GitHub Copilot as their first introduction to AI in code editors. That is the entry level. Cursor is the next generation: a complete code editor with a built-in AI agent that understands the complete codebase, modifies multiple files simultaneously and executes complex tasks independently. Windsurf is a cheaper alternative with comparable capabilities. Claude Code works via the terminal and is particularly strong on large, existing codebases.

For those who are not developers but still want to build something:

Bolt.new generates a complete working application in the browser from one prompt in less than a minute. The code is exportable. Lovable delivers polished web apps with visual editing possibilities, suitable for founders who want to build an MVP without a technical team. V0 by Vercel focuses on UI components: describe an interface in text and receive ready-to-use React code.

6. Automation and AI agents

n8n is the choice for marketing automation that must be fully GDPR-compliant. Open-source, self-hostable on your own server, and now equipped with native AI Agent nodes that can orchestrate complex workflows. The learning curve is steeper than Make or Zapier, but the control and privacy guarantees are greater.

Make.com offers the most intuitive visual workflow builder and the broadest integration list for those who want to move quickly without much technical knowledge.

Gumloop deserves separate attention here. Where n8n and Make.com were originally app connections with AI added later, Gumloop was built from scratch around AI. Every node in a workflow can call an AI model for tasks like categorisation, sentiment analysis, data extraction or generating content. You can describe in plain language what you want an integration to do, after which the tool automatically writes the code. Companies like Shopify and Webflow use the platform in their workflows. For marketers who want to build marketing automation workflows, lead qualification or content pipelines without a developer, this is the most mature no-code AI platform at this moment. Freemium available, paid plans start from 32 dollars per month.

Relevance AI lets you build fully autonomous AI agents that independently carry out tasks across multiple tools, without needing to draw a workflow for each step. Suitable for more complex automation scenarios.

Want to read more about the broader impact of AI agents on marketing? See our article AI agents for marketing. Thinking about AI chatbots for customer service or an automated chatbot for your website? Or want to know where your business is missing opportunities? Our AI audit helps you map that out.

“The value of AI lies in fundamentally rethinking how businesses work.”

— McKinsey & Company, State of AI 2025

7. Meetings and productivity

Fathom is the strongest free option for meeting transcription: unlimited recordings, no bot visible in the meeting, automatic summary directly after the session. Available as a Chrome extension, works on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet.

Granola distinguishes itself in a different way: it also does not enter your meeting as a bot, but instead captures the system audio from your device. That audio is processed in the cloud, not locally. The result is structured notes that supplement and refine your handwritten notes with AI, so you can stay present in the conversation.

Krisp addresses a different problem: it removes background noise locally on your device for a clear audio recording, combined with transcription. Useful for those calling from a home office or busy environment.

For planning: Reclaim analyses your calendar and automatically plans focus time, meetings and recurring tasks at the moments that suit them best. Motion goes further and actively replans your entire week based on new priorities and deadlines. Both tools are particularly useful for entrepreneurs and marketers with full agendas.

Goblin Tools stands out for its specific angle: breaking down vague or overwhelming tasks into small, concrete steps. Small tool, sharp idea.

The tool is not the problem

McKinsey analysed 25 factors that contribute to financial AI return. Workflow redesign had the greatest impact, greater than the model, greater than the budget. Almost eighty percent of organisations now use generative AI, but only six percent demonstrably get results from it. The difference lies not in the tool you install, but in the question of which tasks you redesign, which you delegate to AI and which you simply drop.

Want an honest picture of where your business stands? A website audit or AI audit gives you a baseline measurement. More background on the broader shift can be found in AI transforms online marketing and the AI marketing guide.

“Everyone’s job will be affected. Some jobs will disappear. Many new jobs will emerge, and what I hope is that the productivity gains we see across all sectors move society forward.”

— Jensen Huang, CEO Nvidia

Want to know which AI tools deliver the most for your specific situation, and how to build them into a working marketing or sales flow? Book a video call or get in touch and we will discuss it concretely.