13 AI tools Dr Samantha Imber and Neo Applin use every day

Executive overview

Most people default to one AI tool for everything. Samantha Imber and Neo Applin use a specialised stack of 13 tools, each chosen for a specific job.

The episode walks through their full daily AI stack — from foundational LLMs to niche apps for meetings, research, voice dictation, journaling, and offline use.

The right AI tool for the right job matters more than picking one tool for everything.

The 13 tools in their daily AI stack

1. Claude — preferred for writing and copywriting; sounds most human; go-to for editing drafts
2. ChatGPT — used for research, problem-solving, and voice mode (Advanced Voice) on mobile; good for thinking through problems
3. Gemini — consistently best results for deep research; benefits from Google's data
4. Microsoft Copilot — used as an executive assistant; knows files, documents, and emails
5. Granola — AI meeting notes tool that records words only (no audio/video); augments your own notes with transcript detail; works for face-to-face meetings via phone
6. HyperNote — open-source Granola alternative that runs fully locally; suited to privacy-sensitive content (health records, confidential material)
7. Consensus (consensus.app) — best tool for finding academic research; ideal for evidence-backed yes/no questions; useful for health, supplements, workplace research
8. Perplexity — strong for consumer research, product comparisons, and finding discount codes; good for learning about everyday topics
9. Snipd (S-N-I-P-D) — AI podcast player; one-button capture of key moments so you don't lose your place; avoids the stop-and-write-it-down workflow
10. Whisper Flow (W-I-S-P-R Flow) — AI voice dictation used ~100 times a day; intelligently corrects mid-sentence; formats output with paragraphs and bullet points automatically; triggered by a single keyboard shortcut
11. Notebook LM — Google tool for querying documents and YouTube videos; lets you extract learning from a video without watching it in full; free tier is sufficient
12. Letterly — voice journaling app; record a brain dump, then prompt it to rewrite as a journal entry; solves the blank-page problem for reluctant writers
13. Local LLMs via Anything LLM or Ollama — run AI models (e.g. Phi, Llama, Mistral) on your own laptop; no data leaves your device; useful for privacy-sensitive work or when offline (e.g. on a flight with no Wi-Fi)

Choosing between tools

• Use Gemini over ChatGPT or Claude when deep research is the task
• Use Granola for most meetings; use HyperNote when data privacy is a hard requirement
• Whisper Flow beats built-in dictation in Word or macOS because it self-corrects and auto-formats
• Local LLMs are less capable than cloud models but sufficient for programming help and text cleanup offline
• Otter is a strong alternative to Granola if speaker labelling matters