Most “best AI tools” lists feel like content-marketing fluff because the writers haven’t deeply used the tools. Here’s a different take: I tried most of them, and I’ve narrowed it down to two for everything I do outside of work. Here’s the breakdown and why.
Tool 1: Claude — for everything that involves thinking
What I use it for:
- All AI Baltics content research (Baltic regulation, blog posts schedule and topics drafts, webinar prep)
- Pair programming with Claude Code on DevArc — built the frontend, most of the backend integration code, the Stripe billing flow. Claude Code wrote the executable layer while I held the architecture in my head.
- Personal learning — when I want to understand a new concept (e.g., Spring AI patterns, prompt engineering best practices)
- Self-development — career thinking, reading recommendations, structured reflection
- Tweaking my own personal documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint plugins) — for AI Baltics decks, personal admin, business cards spec
Why Claude and not the alternatives:
- Long context window — I can paste entire research documents and have a real conversation about them
- Writing quality is consistently the most natural and least “AI-slop”-feeling of any tool I’ve tried
- Code generation is genuinely strong for senior-engineer pair programming where I want a thinking partner not a code completer
Honest caveat: not the cheapest. Max subscription is ~ €105/month. Worth it if you use it daily. Or consider using Pro subscription for about €20/month if you don’t need Claude Code
Tool 2: ChatGPT — for the things Claude isn’t ideal for
What I use it for:
- Reviewing pull requests on my own personal projects — different second opinion has caught things Claude missed
- Health-related questions (ChatGPT’s medical knowledge feels more cautious and citation-friendly in my experience)
Why ChatGPT specifically for these:
- The “second opinion” effect — having two different models with different training cuts through individual model bias
- Medical context: I’ve personally found ChatGPT more reliable about not over-reaching on health topics, more likely to recommend a doctor
Honest caveat: I don’t use ChatGPT for primary work. It’s a complement, not a substitute. If you only have budget for one, Claude.
What about all the others — Cursor, Perplexity, Midjourney?
Quick honest take on the ones I haven’t adopted:
- Cursor — I’ve tried it, but my Claude Code workflow is enough for me. Different fit for different developers.
- Perplexity — interesting concept, but I haven’t found it more useful than Claude with web search.
- Image generation tools (Midjourney, DALL-E) — I haven’t needed AI-generated images yet. AI Baltics uses simple typographic design, not generative art.
The point isn’t that these are bad tools. The point is: you don’t need to adopt every popular AI tool to get value from AI. Pick the one that fits your actual work, learn it deeply, and the rest is mostly noise.
The AI tooling space moves fast and creates anxiety: “Am I missing out by not using X?” Mostly, you’re not. Depth in one or two tools beats shallow familiarity with twenty. The skill is using the tools well — not collecting them.
If you’re still picking your first AI tool, start with Claude. Use it daily for a month. Then decide if you need anything else.
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