AI · Tools · Work

Why you probably don't need 16 AI tools.

If your AI setup needs an architecture diagram just to remember which tool does what, the tools may have become the job.

Every week there seems to be another list telling us we need a different AI product for writing, research, coding, images, notes, meetings, automation, email and everything in between.

I like technology. I build technology. But I am not interested in collecting tools for the sake of collecting tools.

The flex isn't how many AI tools you pay for. It's how much unnecessary work you've removed.

More tools can create more work

Every extra app creates another login, another interface, another place for context to disappear and another subscription quietly sitting on the credit card.

Sometimes a specialist tool is exactly what you need. But often the better question is: can the tool I already use do this if I set the workflow up properly?

Go deeper before you go wider

I would rather understand a capable tool properly — its limits, its strengths, what I can connect to it and where I still need human judgement — than jump between sixteen products because somebody made a clever carousel about them.

The goal is not an impressive AI stack. The goal is getting the work done.

Build the workflow around the outcome

Start with what you are trying to achieve. Then decide where AI genuinely removes friction. Keep the human decisions where they matter and automate the boring hand-offs where they don't.

Simple can be extremely powerful when it is deliberate.