Not all AI tools are the same. Here's the real talk from researching 2026 data: ChatGPT: Best for general tasks, creativity, coding. 100M+ users. Good for: writing, brainstorming, basic coding. Free tier limited but capable. Claude: Best for research, compliance-heavy work, writing, creating. Preferred for sensitive business data. Avoid free versions for business use. Opus 5 strong for coding. Gemini: Strong general-purpose option. Google Workspace integration. Can match or surpass GPT in some cases. Free access if fairly limited. Perplexity: Leads in real-time accuracy. Best for research with secondary content. Great for current events. Free version available. The real talk: I'm not saying one AI is better than the other. I'm saying: pick the right tool for the job you're doing right now. Don't buy 10 tools and never use 8 of them. Start with one. Master it. Then add another. Your turn: Which AI tool do you use most? Reply with the name and what you use it for. I want to hear your experience.

What it does: A Trigger.dev cron job that runs daily at 7am WAT, scans LordGen's build/documentation progress, researches Nigerian SME competitor positioning via Perplexity, drafts a status report with Gemini, and delivers it both by email (Gmail API) and as a live-updating ClickUp task. One thing that broke: The first ClickUp sync design would have posted a new update every run, meaning duplicate/stacking entries over time; Claude Code fixed it by switching update-clickup-task.ts to a PUT full-overwrite of the task's markdown_content instead of creating a new record, so each run just replaces the previous snapshot (update-clickup-task.ts).

What skill I built lordgen-pitch — grounds a client sales pitch (plus an on-brand illustration) in real specifics for one named profession, instead of generic "AI-written proposal" copy. It runs a short Q&A to pin down the actual friction, offer, and proof for that prospect, drafts the pitch through a strict voice check (no invented numbers, no buzzwords, exactly one CTA), renders a grounded illustration, and packages both into a branded 2-page PDF. Trigger: natural language ("write a pitch for a dentist") or /lordgen-pitch <profession>. One optimization I made I kept having to interrupt mid-task to say "use Perplexity for that" or "use Firecrawl instead" — the agent would default to whatever research tool it reached for first rather than the best one available. So I rewrote a companion skill (tool-scout) to pick automatically: Perplexity if it's configured, Firecrawl when the task is scraping a known page, web search as the default fallback. I also explicitly flagged "being told which tool to use mid-task" as a bug in the skill's own instructions, not a normal correction to expect. Hasn't needed reminding since. #AISChallenge

Claude named the skill itself product-sage. It basically builds a how to, care or buying guide based off a products description. For optimization, I included references to banned AI words (no em dashes!) and a content structure template. I think it's great for e-commerce websites and for GEO.

Day 2 of the #7DayAISChallenge is done. Today, I built my project using free tools: - Claude model through OpenRouter - Firecrawl - JobStreet CSV files I was surprised because the results were almost the same as using paid tools. The most important thing for me is that I can keep learning and building projects while saving money. If you're just starting with AI like me, don't let expensive tools stop you. There are free options that are good enough to help you learn and build real projects.