AI

ChatGPT

The default AI assistant for freelancers. Genuinely useful for first drafts, rewrites, research summaries and awkward client emails, as long as you treat what it gives you as a starting point rather than finished work.

Claude

Anthropic's assistant, and the one freelancers tend to reach for when the job is long or the writing has to sound like them. Strong on big documents, contracts and code, with the same care needed over facts and client confidentiality as any AI tool.

Cursor

An AI code editor built on VS Code, and the one most freelance developers try first. Quick on routine work and good at reading an unfamiliar codebase, with client confidentiality and usage costs to settle before you point it at paid work.

ElevenLabs

AI voice generation, and the one to know if audio is part of what you deliver. Strong text to speech, voice cloning and dubbing, with real questions to settle first about rights, disclosure and what your client actually agreed to.

Perplexity

An answer engine rather than a chatbot: it searches the live web and cites its sources, so you can check what it tells you. Useful for research you have to stand behind, though ChatGPT and Claude now do much the same thing.