u/Rage_thinks

there's a lot of hype about AI tools but most lists I see are theoretical ("you COULD use AI for X"). here's what I actually use AI for daily at a real job (I'm in marketing operations) ranked by real time saved.

5. image generation with midjourney ($10/mo)

blog headers, social graphics, internal deck visuals. saves me from using stock photos or waiting for design requests. maybe 30 minutes saved per week. useful but not transformative.

4. research with perplexity ($20/mo)

replaced most of my work-related google searches. I get answers with sources I can verify instead of scrolling through SEO-optimized blog posts. saves maybe 20-30 minutes a day.

3. meeting notes with granola ($10/mo)

AI listens to my meetings and generates summaries with action items. I stopped trying to take notes during calls and just pay attention now. saves maybe 15-20 minutes per day of note-taking and post-meeting cleanup.

2. writing and analysis with claude ($20/mo)

drafting docs, analyzing data, brainstorming campaigns, thinking through strategy. I use claude for 1-2 hours per day across various tasks. probably saves me 45-60 minutes daily vs doing everything manually.

1. dictating everything with willow voice ($15/mo)

I know dictation doesn't sound as exciting as the other tools on this list but it saves me more time than any of them. every email, slack message, claude prompt, meeting debrief, doc draft. I talk and it types into whatever app I have open. probably saves me 60-90 minutes per day.

the reason it saves more time than claude: I use claude for specific tasks. I use dictation for EVERY writing task throughout the entire day. the minutes add up constantly. a 2-minute email becomes a 15-second dictation. a 3-minute slack thread becomes a 30-second dictation. multiply that by 50+ messages per day and the savings are significant.

the other thing is it makes claude better. my prompts are way more detailed because talking for 30 seconds gives more context than typing for 2 minutes. better prompts = better outputs.

my messages come out matching the tone of whatever app I'm in. emails professional, slack casual. strips out filler words. no android app, $15/mo. there's a free tier with 2,000 words/week if you want to test it.

total estimated time saved per day across all 5:

about 3-3.5 hours. some of that is reclaimed from tasks I was doing manually. some of it is tasks I just wouldn't have done at all (like detailed meeting debriefs).

what AI tools are you actually using daily, not just ones you tried once?

we are down to two options for outbound and i already know both sales teams can give me a clean story.

what i am missing is the messy middle. not launch week, not screenshot metrics, but what happened around week 5-8 when real ops issues show up.

if you used either one in production, what actually became annoying:

- routing issues

- quality drift

- deliverability surprises

- reporting gaps

happy to hear good outcomes too, just trying to avoid the polished version of events.

we turned on visitor-intent workflows in Artisan and day one looked amazing. lots of fresh accounts, lots of activity. after a month, we realized a chunk of those signals were weak:

• one-page visits
• research traffic from non-buyers
• repeat views with no relevant role match

we are now filtering harder before routing to reps, which helped quality but reduced volume a lot. curious how others score these signals so reps are not wasting half their week on low-intent accounts.

my screen time report says I spend about 4 hours a day on my phone. used to be mostly instagram and reddit. over the last year I've replaced a lot of that with apps that are actually useful. here are 6 that I use more than any social media app now, ranked.

6. Pocket Casts podcasts. I listen during commutes, workouts, and cooking. the trim silence feature saves about 15% of listening time on talky shows. the queue management is way better than apple podcasts.

7. Readwise Reader every article, newsletter, and PDF I want to read goes here. I do most of my reading on my phone during downtime. highlights sync to obsidian automatically.

8. YNAB budgeting. I enter every purchase as it happens. 5 seconds per transaction. the awareness of where my money goes has saved me hundreds per month.

9. Claude AI assistant on the go. I use it for quick research, brainstorming, drafting, and answering questions. the mobile app is solid.

10. Willow Voice voice dictation. I compose texts, emails, slack messages, and notes by talking into my phone. tap the overlay, talk, text appears in whatever app I have open. accuracy is noticeably better than apple's built-in keyboard dictation, especially on names and anything technical. cleans up filler words, and my texts come out sounding like texts while my work emails come out sounding like work emails. I use it while walking, driving, in line at the grocery store. the Mac app works the same way. $15/mo, no android app, free tier 2,000 words/week.

11. Todoist task management. every task and commitment lives here. the natural language input ("email jessica by friday 2pm") makes capturing tasks instant. the widget shows what's due today. I've tried things 3, reminders, notion, and I keep coming back to todoist because the quick-add is faster than all of them. the inbox-zero approach to tasks changed how I think about productivity entirely.

what apps do you use more than social media?

we use artisan for outbound now, but we are definitely still adjusting things.

we turned on visitor signal workflows and at first everyone was excited because we suddenly had a lot of fresh accounts to prioritize.

then reality showed up:

- some traffic was students/researchers

- some visits were one page for 8 seconds

- some looked like intent but had no buying context

we now score visitor events with stricter rules before routing to sales, but i still worry we are either over-filtering good leads or sending too much noise.

for revops teams doing this well, what filters have been most reliable:

- repeat visits

- page depth

- role matching

- recency windows

would love specifics from people who have moved this from novelty to stable pipeline input.

for context, artisan is part of our outbound setup now and we are still ironing stuff out.

not doom posting, genuinely trying to think ahead.

a lot of first-touch work is getting automated at my company. list pulls, first drafts, basic follow-up logic. i still book meetings, but i can feel the role changing fast.

my manager says the path is to become stronger at:

- qualification judgment

- account strategy

- call quality

- handling nuanced replies

that makes sense, but i am curious what skills people here think will matter most in the next 2 years for someone early in career.

if you moved from pure activity bdr to higher-value work, what did you focus on first?

graduated from NYU last may and figured I'd just keep my college social life going. lol. every single one of my close friends moved away within 6 months. like one went back to California, two went to grad school, one's in Chicago now.

I stayed because I got a decent entry-level job and I love NYC but my entire social infrastructure just disappeared. I went from hanging out with people every day to not seeing anyone socially for weeks at a time.

I'm 22 living in astoria and I feel like I'm starting from absolute zero. how did you rebuild a social life after your college friends scattered? any advice that isn't "just go to bars" because that hasn't worked