If you’ve ever felt curious about using AI but weren’t sure where to start, you’re not alone. Many professionals I talk to are excited about the potential of AI but feel intimidated by the jargon, the fast pace of change or the perception that you need to be a tech expert to use it.

The truth is, you don’t need a technical background to start using AI in meaningful ways at work. There are plenty of tools designed specifically for everyday users. Whether you're writing reports, running meetings, working with data, creating presentations, or managing your time, chances are there is a tool that can help.

In this post, I’ve hand-picked a short list of beginner-friendly AI tools that are especially relevant to non-technical professionals. I chose them based on a few key criteria:

There are many other great tools out there, but I’ve kept this list intentionally short and focused so you don’t get overwhelmed. Start with one or two that seem useful in your current work and build from there.

If you try only one tool on this list, make it ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a conversational AI that can help with writing emails, summarising documents, brainstorming ideas, translating text and answering questions in plain English (or other languages). You don’t need to know how to prompt perfectly — just start typing like you would in a Google search or message to a colleague.

ChatGPT is available on the web and mobile, and the free version is perfectly capable for most basic tasks. If you want access to more powerful features, the paid version (ChatGPT Plus) is still very affordable.

Grammarly is one of the easiest ways to improve your writing. Whether you’re working on emails, LinkedIn posts, reports, or documentation, not only does it help catch spelling and grammar issues, it also makes suggestions to improve tone, clarity, and structure.

Grammarly works almost everywhere: in your browser, Microsoft Word, Gmail, Google Docs or even on your phone. There’s a free version that will do most of what you need.

Canva is already a favourite for many professionals who want beautiful visuals without needing graphic design skills. Canva has evolved rapidly since it first appeared. These days it includes AI tools that help you generate images from text, rewrite copy, and instantly resize designs for different platforms.

Canva is ideal for making social media graphics, reports, posters, and presentations. The AI features are baked right into the Canva interface, and you can do a lot with the free version.

Notion AI is a flexible workspace tool that combines notes, databases, calendars and task lists. With its AI features switched on, it becomes even more powerful. You can use it to summarise meeting notes, brainstorm content ideas, write first drafts or create action items.

Notion helps structure information so it’s easier to work with, making it great for planning events, tracking projects or creating repeatable processes. Notion has a free tier to try it out, but you will have to upgrade to the paid version for the full experience.

If you’ve ever struggled to keep up with meeting notes or forgot who said what, Otter.ai can help. It records meetings (Zoom, Google Meet, or in-person), transcribes them in real time and creates summaries you can search and share.

It’s especially useful for people who juggle multiple meetings a day and need a reliable way to follow up. It also helps remote teams stay aligned with written records.

Tome is an AI tool designed specifically for creating presentations. You give it a topic, and it builds a slide deck with text and visuals to get you started. It’s not about perfection — it’s about saving hours of staring at a blank slide.

Tome is perfect for project updates, proposals, and internal briefings, especially when you’re under time pressure and need something polished fast.

Zapier helps you connect different apps and automate tasks between them — all without writing code. You can create simple workflows like “When someone fills out a form, add their details to a Google Sheet and send a thank-you email.”

It’s incredibly useful for admin tasks, follow-ups and reporting. If you’ve ever copied and pasted something between two apps more than once, Zapier can probably automate it.

Like Otter, Fireflies joins your virtual meetings and creates transcripts, but it goes further by highlighting action items, summarising discussions and tagging topics. It integrates with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.

If your role involves team coordination or stakeholder communication, this can be a big time-saver — especially when multiple people need to be kept in the loop.

If you already use Google Sheets, you may have access to Gemini (formerly Duet AI), which helps explain formulas, spot trends and summarises data. You can type questions like “What’s the average cost per client?” and it will help generate the formula or even the answer.

It’s a gentle way to start using AI with numbers, even if you don’t feel confident with Excel or spreadsheets in general. Just use you Google account to log-in and you’re good to go.

For Microsoft 365 users, Excel now includes an AI assistant that can analyse data, create visualisations and help with formulas. It can also answer natural language questions like “Show me which region had the highest sales growth.”

If your work involves reporting, budgets, or KPIs, this can turn hours of fiddling into minutes of insight.

Perplexity is like Google Search meets ChatGPT — it gives you AI-powered answers, but with citations. This makes it especially helpful for doing background research, writing reports or quickly understanding a new topic without falling into a rabbit hole.

It’s fast, accurate, and refreshingly simple to use.

You don’t need to become an AI expert to start using it and reap the benefits. The tools listed above are designed to support your existing work, not replace it. Start with one or two that feel relevant to your current tasks — maybe Grammarly for better emails, Otter for easier meetings or Canva for that upcoming presentation.

As you get more comfortable, you’ll naturally discover more ways AI can support you.

If you’ve tried any of these tools or have others you’d recommend, I’d love to hear about them. Leave a comment or reply to this post. Let’s build a community of curious, capable professionals learning AI together.