How to summarize a long PDF or contract with AI
You have a 60-page report or contract and need the key points, numbers and risks today, without reading every page.
Best pickClaudeTime saved1 to 2 hours per documentFind the right AI for your work.
Practical, tested AI workflows. Tell us the task and get the best tool, the exact prompt and the time it saves.
- step-by-step workflows
- 11
- AI tools in the directory
- 58
- fields of work covered
- 8
Best pickClaudeTime saved1 to 2 hours per documentAI for your kind of work
Pick your field to see the use cases and tools that fit it.
- AI for writingDrafting, editing and rewriting with AI without sounding like a robot.Guides coming soon
- AI for marketingEmails, ads, social posts and campaign research.1 guide
- AI for researchReading, summarizing and fact-checking in a fraction of the time.3 guides
- AI for small businessSpreadsheets, meetings, customer emails and the admin that keeps a business running.3 guides
- AI for codingWriting, explaining and fixing code, even if you are not a developer.1 guide
- AI for creatorsVideo, audio, podcasts and turning one piece of content into ten.1 guide
- AI for designImages, presentations and visual ideas from a text prompt.1 guide
- AI for studentsStudying, note-taking and learning faster without shortcuts that backfire.1 guide
New use cases
All use casesHow to make a presentation with AI that doesn't look AI-made
You need a decent slide deck by tomorrow and you don't have the time, or the design skills, to build it from scratch.
Best pick: GammaUp to 3h savedHow to reply to emails faster with AI (without sounding like a robot)
Your inbox eats an hour or more a day, and half of the replies are the same few kinds of message.
Best pick: Microsoft CopilotUp to 1h a dayHow to research a topic with AI and get sources you can actually cite
You need to understand a topic quickly and back up what you write with real sources, but chatbots sometimes invent references.
Best pick: PerplexityUp to 4h savedHow to take meeting notes automatically with AI (and get action items you can trust)
You spend meetings typing notes instead of listening, and the action items still get lost afterwards.
Best pick: Fireflies.ai20m+ per meetingHow to study with AI without cheating (and actually remember more)
You want AI to help you learn faster, not do your homework for you and get you flagged for it.
Best pick: Gemini NotebookUp to 1h savedWhat is an AI model, and why do new ones come out every week?
Every week brings a new AI model with a confusing name, and you can't tell which ones matter for your work.
New AI models, in plain English
What launched, who can use it today, and what it is actually good for.
| Model | Type | Status | Released | Context | API price per 1M tokens | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 GPT-6.1 TerraOpenAI | Fast & cheap | Live | Not published | $1 in / $5 out | Computer use, Reading screenshots and charts, High-volume tasks | |
 Kimi K3.1 ProMoonshot AI | Flagship | Live | 1M tokens | $2 in / $10 out | Coding agents, Financial research, Long documents | |
 MiniMax M3.1 FlashMiniMax | Fast & cheap | Live | 1M tokens | $0.15 in / $0.60 out | Cheap agents, Coding, Computer use | |
 DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (1017)DeepSeek | Open weights | Live | 1M tokens | $0.30 in / $1.20 out | Low-cost API use, Coding, Self-hosting | |
 Muse Spark OpenMeta | Open weights | Live | 1M tokens | Not published | Self-hosting, Coding agents, Private data |
Tools we reach for most
The ones that keep coming up as the best pick in our workflows.
ChatGPT
by OpenAI
General-purpose assistant for writing, analysis, files, images and voice.
Free; Go $8/mo (US); Plus $20/mo; Pro from $100/mo
Claude
by Anthropic
Assistant known for long documents, careful writing and coding help.
Free; Pro $20/mo ($17/mo yearly); Max from $100/mo
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- You choose
- Minimum age
- 18+
- Free, Pro and Max users choose whether their chats can be used for training. Team, Enterprise and API data is not used for training.
Descript
by Descript
Edit video and podcasts by editing the transcript like a document.
Free; Hobbyist $16/mo yearly ($24 monthly); Creator $24/mo yearly
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- Yes, opt-out
- Minimum age
- 13+ (under 18 with a parent)
- Its terms ban cloning the voice of a speaker who has not consented.
Gamma
by Gamma
Turns an outline or notes into a presentation, doc or web page.
Gemini Notebook
by Google
Formerly NotebookLM. Upload your own sources and ask questions grounded in them.
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- No
- Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026.
- Your sources and chats are not used for training unless you send feedback. Workspace and education accounts are not reviewed by humans.
Perplexity
by Perplexity AI
Answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources.
Privacy & risks
- Trains on your data
- Yes, opt-out
- Minimum age
- 13+ (minors need a parent's acceptance)
- "AI Data Retention" (use of your data for training) is on by default for Free, Pro and Max. Enterprise data is never used for training.
- In August 2026 the Ninth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction Amazon had won against Perplexity's AI agent shopping on its site.