Hundreds of AI tools emerge every week. I’ve picked five new ones worth exploring. They’re free to try, easy to use, and signal new directions for useful AI.

1. Sesame ⚡️ Talk with a surprisingly lifelike AI 

Of all the AI bots I’ve communicated with, this one sounds the most lifelike. Pick either Maya or Miles to talk with for free in Sesame’s conversational demo. Try one of these topics. You can download your conversation afterwards. It’s deleted from the company’s servers within 30 days to protect your privacy.

I’ll keep an eye on this company: Sesame aims to build “an ever-present brilliant friend and conversationalist, keeping you informed and organized, helping you be a better version of yourself.”

Another intriguing new AI conversationalist: I’m also intrigued by my experiments with Natura Umana’s “AI people.” Rather than one AI bot that covers everything, the NatureOS ecosystem hosts multiple conversational bots, each with a different focus. I’ve talked with Hector about well-being and Athena about fitness. The NatureOS interestingly includes hardware, so you can summon these lifelike AI characters with a quick tap of special earbuds. (See a video demo).

2. Convergence 🎯 Assign tasks to an AI agent

Ask Convergence’s AI agent to buy groceries for you, find a gift on Amazon, get you a restaurant reservation, research what people say about your company, or do any number of other tasks. This is just one of many new AI agents trained to use a Web browser for you, and none are yet fully reliable. When I tasked Convergence with making a list of LinkedIn profiles of speakers at the upcoming Perugia International Journalism festival, it got some right and many wrong. With simpler tasks your odds of success are higher. You can request up to five tasks for free per day, or pay $20/month for an unlimited number of tasks.

3. Scribe 🖋️ Transcribe super accurately. Temporarily free

Until April 9, Scribe — a remarkably accurate new transcription model from ElevenLabs — is completely free. In my tests it got the names of websites right, — — most transcription tools get those wrong. It also captured tiny speech nuances so well that I’d recommend this over other tools for anything requiring top accuracy. It works in 99 languages.

4. Google Career Dreamer 🚀 Imagine a new job

Dream up potential new directions for your career with this simple, well-designed free site. You don’t have to log in, enter your name, or share any personal info. Just type in the kind of work you do and confirm whether you have certain skills and interests. Add your education if you want.

The AI immediately gives you a “career identity statement” and shows you a map of jobs that might interest you. Hover over any to learn more about them. You can even open up nearby job openings in that field. You can then jump to Gemini, Google’s alternative to ChatGPT, to work on a cover letter or continue your career ideation.

Gems are now free You can now create a free Gemini “Gem,” which is an AI tool customized with your specific instructions and up to 10 documents you upload. It’s Google’s answer to ChatGPT’s Custom GPTs.

Try this: Create a new “Career Gem” by uploading your resume, past cover letters, career planning docs, and any other relevant materials. Provide instructions if you have a particular style, language, or approach in mind. This new trained AI assistant you’ve customized can then help you anytime you return to it to refine a cover letter, update your resume, practice for an interview, or even brainstorm career ideas. Alternative: You can use Google’s default “Career Guide” gem without uploading anything, but it’s not personalized.

5. Adobe Enhance Speech 🎙️ Improve audio

Adobe recently upgraded its audio cleanup tool. Upload any audio recording with background noise and immediately get a clean version to download. There are new sliders for adjusting the enhancement and background noise.

You can then use Adobe Podcast to edit the cleaned audio by trimming the transcript just as you would in a Google Doc. It now works for recordings in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English.

If you’re making a podcast, you can choose from royalty-free sound collections with intros, outros, transition sounds, and background music. It’s free to try for a month and included with existing Adobe subscriptions.

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Peek inside Shannon Almeida’s toolkit

I love learning how creative people do the work they’re most proud of. I’m curious about the tools they rely on, so I’ve been interviewing people to discover more about their workflows. Below is an example:

Meet Shannon: After growing up in Mumbai and studying finance and economics at Boston University, Shannon co-founded multiple ventures, including Benefactory and Volv, a social news app that delivers nine-second article reads.

Tool Philosophy: Less is More

“I'm about making the best out of the least amount of things because life is overwhelming enough. It's about how to make my life as simple as possible.”

Favorite Tool: Endel

Shannon says the Endel sound app’s "sorcery" has transformed her productivity. She relies on its focus sounds in 25-minute increments throughout her workday. It helps her block out external distractions.

Her 4 daily tools

* Apple Notes serves as Shannon’s morning “brain dump” destination for capturing thoughts and tasks before organizing them elsewhere

* Apple’s iCal acts as her primary calendar, connecting to all her Google accounts

* Notion functions as her "second brain," with multiple databases for learning projects, life management, and product research

* Meco keeps her email inbox clean by redirecting newsletter subscriptions to a dedicated app, with customized notifications for favorites

Biggest workflow challenge

Saving content across platforms. Saving screenshots and social posts is tricky, Shannon says, because these either get stuck online or pile up in her camera roll. Transferring valuable content to Notion requires 30-minute weekly sessions.

Current Curiosity

How culture, design and technology shape consumer needs in the economy, particularly how brands can develop long-term identity in an era dominated by algorithmic taste-making.

Shannon recommends

* Newsletters: Puck Line Sheet & What I’m Hearing by Lauren Sherman, Matt Belloni and others

* Books: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Dana Thomas, and The Politics of Aesthetics by Jacques Rancière

* TV & Music: White Lotus and Doechii

* Podcast: "Fashion Neurosis" with Bella Freud. The appeal? Fashion designers lying down (as if in therapy) to discuss their mindsets, not their collections.

What’s in your toolkit?

Share the top tools in your toolkit in a comment below, or in this short form.