5 AI Tools We Actually Use Every Day (Not the Ones Everyone Talks About)

Every AI tools listicle is the same. ChatGPT for everything. Midjourney. Notion AI. They're fine. They're not what we actually use day-to-day at 2BFT. Here are the 5 we do use, and why.

1. Claude (Anthropic) — the default brain.

Every WhatsApp message, every product page, every customer email, every line of code we ship — Claude Sonnet 5 is the default. It's the best at following instructions, the best at code-switching between Tamil and English, and the most consistent on long documents. We've been on Claude since the first Sonnet release. Not switching.

2. Nano Banana 2 (Google) — the default image.

For Stashed product photography and Maruthi Jewellers catalogue shots, Nano Banana 2 full is the default. For lifestyle and social, Nano Banana 2 Lite. The integration with Gemini Studio is the cleanest in the market. The free tier is generous enough that small businesses don't need to pay.

3. Veo 3.1 (Google) — the default video.

8-second social videos, 1080p, native audio, strongest physics consistency. Veo 3.1 Lite is on a public preview that handles 80% of what we need. The remaining 20% is still Runway for now. But Google's catching up fast.

4. NotebookLM (Google) — the underdog.

This is the one nobody talks about and we use it daily. Upload the textbook, ask questions, generate a 5-minute audio summary for slow learners. The audio quality is the best of any TTS in 2026. The free tier is enough for 90% of teachers. We showed this to the 14 teachers at St. Paul's — 3 of them now use it for every chapter.

5. NotebookLM + Gemini — the audio stack.

For 2BFT podcasts, course intros, and YouTube voiceovers. NotebookLM generates the script, ElevenLabs v3 voices it. Both have free tiers. Together they replace a $200/month podcasting setup.

What we don't use daily (but should mention).

ChatGPT (occasional), Gemini (for image work), Perplexity (for research), n8n + OpenClaw (for automations). These are all on the /learn hub with the rest. But the daily 5 is what gets used.