Curious Companion: My Current AI Tech Stack

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No gatekeeping here. In this episode I share my current AI tech stack, breaking down everything from my daily driver to my “once in a while but good to know about” tools. AI is inside of literally everything these days, and the majority of it isn’t helpful at all. I’m here to share the things that I actually use and that truly move the needle for me.

Sharing the Goodies

It feels like these days everything is powered by AI and packed with protein, and yes, my friends, the limit does exist.

That said, there are cases in which AI is super helpful, and I want to put you on to the tools that I’ve found really make a difference for me. Some of these tools I’ve actually dedicated entire episodes to in the past, so I’ll note that where appropriate. Others I’ve either only mentioned in a “How I Used AI This Week” section, or perhaps not at all. So we’re opening up those gates and sharing the goodies.

Top of the List: Claude

No surprise here: Claude is my daily driver.

I use Claude literally every single day, typically for work-related tasks. Anything I share in the “How I Used AI This Week” section of this newsletter that doesn’t specify an LLM, I’m using Claude.

I use Claude for brainstorming, proofreading, and as a thought partner. I use Claude Code for any and all of my builds. I’ve yet to find a personal use case for Claude Code, but maybe some day.

Regarding the other LLMs out there, I will say that I do use the free tier of ChatGPT to make my images for this podcast. They ain’t getting any of my money, but I will use their shit. For simple questions, I’m finding myself using Google’s Gemini via their AI summaries more and more these days. Claude is my homie but sometimes he be saying too much. I just want to know if the word has a hyphen or not.

The Ultimate AI Notetaker: Granola

Next up we have Granola, and I fucking LOVE this software.

Granola is an AI notetaker, and it is insanely accurate and SO fast. It does real-time transcription, which is helpful as well, and it generates post-meeting notes immediately as soon as the meeting ends. The notes take less than two minutes to generate, and they are fantastic. The notes are organized by topic, they include everything from the meeting, and a ‘next steps’ section is automatically generated.

I used the Zoom AI notes for quite a bit, and while they’re good, you have to wait for them to be generated and emailed to your account. Granola’s notes are produced immediately directly in the notetaker and they are just So. Damn. Good.

No affiliate link here because I’m on the free tier. The paid tier gives you longer access to the transcripts and notes (the free tier is currently limited to 30 days of access), but I just manually copy them immediately after any meetings and that works for me.

Yes, you do have to grant Granola access to your calendar, but it’s worth it to me because it starts the notes automatically and they’re honestly just so damn good. There might be a workaround for this, but honestly, I don’t care.

Real talk: I feel like they can’t keep this thing free forever, so perhaps get in now and use it while you can, and maybe they’ll do some sort of discount when they inevitably raise the price.

Talk it Out with Wispr Flow

If you prefer talking to typing, Wispr Flow is definitely worth checking out.

Wispr Flow is an AI voice dictation software that was originally released in 2024, and honestly, it just works really well. Plain and simple. I actually did an entire episode about Wispr Flow, Ep 45: Stop Typing, Start Speaking: Wispr Flow Explained, so head there for the deep dive if you’re interested.

I mainly use Wispr Flow when I’m at the computer, especially when I’m working with Claude and I just want to riff. I actually don’t use it as much with writing tasks because I tend to write slightly differently than I speak, but I will use it to create the first draft of some of my blogs and newsletters.

It’s been my experience that Wispr Flow is exponentially better than whatever the iPhone uses natively, especially if you are someone who speaks quickly. Wispr Flow:

Makes things into lists
Uses appropriate punctuation
Can make things more or less formal depending on where you’re “writing” (I don’t love this setting, but I understand the utility)

Overall it’s just super fucking accurate and does what it’s supposed to do, which is transcribe what you’re saying. They recently rolled out a note taker, which I don’t use, and hopefully they continue to just focus on being the best voice dictation software because as of right now it’s really, really good.

I absolutely do have an affiliate link for this one, so use this link and we’ll both get a free month of Pro.

A Sometimes Use Case: Descript

Descript markets itself as an AI video editor, and that is literally NOT at all how I use it, or, IMO, what it is. When it first hit the scene, it was marketed as “edit your videos from the transcript”, and it is still that, and it is absolutely phenomenal at that.

As someone who is proficient with Adobe and also DaVinci, I actually think that Descript is a really good editing software, so definitely check it out if you’re looking for one. As it relates to this episode and my AI tech stack, Descript does have a bunch of AI features, the majority of which I do not use. It made the list because there is one AI feature I’ve used a handful of times: “Generate media with AI”, and it’s proven to be super helpful.

I’ve used this feature to generate sounds that were not in the sound library and also to create a static opening scene for one of my Reels because I didn’t want to go into Canva and have to deal with all of that. These things may seem trivial, but the ability to generate these pieces of media with AI saved a ton of time and also allowed me to create exactly what I wanted, not just use something that was “close enough”.

So, I’m literally using the minimum as it relates to the AI features inside of Descript, but it is worth knowing about Descript at all, and the ability to generate media with AI is really helpful.

Last Up: Google NotebookLM (aka Gemini Notebook)

Last up we have Google NotebookLM, which, as of July 2026, goes by the name Gemini Notebook. I did a full episode about this too, Ep. 25: Google NotebookLM: The Best AI Tool You’ve Never Heard Of, so check it out if you want the deep dive.

Quick refresher: Gemini Notebook is an AI tool that only works from the sources you give it (documents, links, YouTube videos, pasted text). You can ask it questions, get summaries, or turn the material into audio, visual, or video overviews.

I honestly haven’t used it in a bit, but it’s a really cool way to learn things.

My favorite use case was creating custom podcasts back when I was learning about AI, vibe coding, and web development. I would have it find sources from the internet, I’d check those sources and sometimes recommend a few of my own, and then I would have it make podcast episodes for me that I would listen to when I cleaned the house.

They were always SUPER helpful, and honestly, really fucking cool. Of note, the podcast episodes it generates are a back and forth conversation between two hosts, and it sounds like a legit episode with two people, not robots. It’s kind of mind-blowing.

For my educators in the crowd, Gemini Notebook is also a super helpful tool for creating one sheets and flow charts. It can make slide decks as well, but honestly, now that Claude can do that I don’t even worry about trying to use Notebook.

How I Used AI This Week

Each episode I share a quick example of how I used AI that week.

This week I used Claude Design for the very first time to mock up a website that I’m building.

If you read last week’s episode, you know I submitted a proposal for a website build, and I got the gig! I’m actually super, super stoked about it but I don’t know what I can and cannot say, so I’m just saying that I got the gig and we out here building the things!

I wanted to play around with what the site was going to look like before actually building it with Claude Code, so I asked Claude how to use Claude Design, had it write me the prompt, and then Claude Design mocked the whole thing up for me! The improvements since the early days of Claude are just astonishing.

Claude Design works just like Claude, so you use natural language to instruct it on what you want, and it can export in different formats as needed.

It’s honestly an incredible tool, and if you haven’t tried it out yet, perhaps don’t rush to do so. Instead, wait for a use case like needing to build a sales page, and then have your mind blown.

Da Wrap-up

So there you have it: my AI text stack, everything from my daily driver to the “once in a blue moon, nice to know it exists” type of tool.

I’m clearly a big fan of AI, but I don’t need it everywhere in everything. I use it when it makes sense and I want it when it’s actually helpful and not going to give me more work.

I’d love to know what your list looks like. Anything I didn’t mention that you think I should know about? Reply to this email and share the goodies.

As always, endlessly grateful for you and your curiosity.

Catch you next Thursday.

Maestro out.