I've tried a lot of AI tools. Most of them I tried once and forgot about. A few of them completely changed how I work. Here's the honest list — what I actually use, what it does for me, and why it's in my workflow rather than in the pile of tools I abandoned.
Cursor — Where I Write All My Code Now
Cursor is an AI-enhanced code editor built on VS Code. I migrated to it from regular VS Code about a year ago and I won't be going back.
What it actually does for me:
The Composer feature lets me describe a feature in plain English and have it written across multiple files simultaneously
I paste error messages and get working fixes, not just explanations
Highlighting a function and saying "refactor this to handle null values" works reliably
It has access to my whole codebase context, so it understands how things connect
On a typical client project, Cursor saves me 2-3 hours per day. Not through magic — through removing the friction of typing boilerplate, debugging syntax errors, and looking up API documentation constantly.
Cost: Free plan available; Pro is $20/month (~£16). Worth every penny.
Claude (Anthropic) — My Writing and Problem-Solving Partner
I use Claude for anything that isn't writing code. Specifically:
Client proposals. I describe the project, paste in my notes from the discovery call, and ask Claude to write a professional proposal. I edit it — always — but starting from something good beats starting from blank.
Scopes of work and contracts. "Write a freelance contract for a 3-month WordPress maintenance arrangement at £150/month" gets me a solid starting document in 30 seconds.
Explaining complex code. Sometimes I inherit a client's codebase and it's confusing. Pasting a function into Claude and asking "what does this do and what could go wrong?" is faster than trying to trace through it manually.
Client email drafts. When I need to send a difficult email — a rate increase, a scope change, a delay notification — Claude helps me find the right tone.
Claude is notably better than ChatGPT for long documents and nuanced writing. The free tier is genuinely useful; Claude Pro at $20/month is worth it if you're using it daily.
Notion AI — Admin That Doesn't Crush Me
I run all my freelance admin through Notion: client projects, invoices, contacts, meeting notes, content ideas. Notion AI integrates directly into all of this.
What I actually use it for:
Summarising meeting notes into action items (turn a page of bullet points into a task list)
Writing project status update emails from my notes
Generating invoice line items from project scope docs
First drafts of blog posts and social content
The key isn't that any single feature is spectacular — it's that the AI is where my work already lives. No context-switching, no pasting between apps.
Cost: Notion AI is £8/month added to any Notion plan.
ElevenLabs — For Video Content and Client Demos
I run the @PromptToCode YouTube channel alongside my freelance work. ElevenLabs handles voiceovers for explainer videos and demos I produce for clients.
Type the script, pick a voice, get broadcast-quality audio in seconds. I can produce a product demo video for a client in a fraction of the time it used to take when I was recording narration myself (multiple takes, noise issues, editing).
For freelancers who offer video as part of their services, this is a genuine service expansion. You can offer voiceovers without being a voice artist.
Cost: Free tier (10,000 characters/month); Starter is $5/month (~£4) which covers most freelance use cases.
OpenClaw — Background Automation
OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent that runs on your machine and executes tasks autonomously. I use it for:
Posting content on a schedule
Monitoring job boards and communities for relevant opportunities
Background research on prospective clients before calls
Generating weekly reports from my project notes
It's more technical to set up than the other tools (I wrote a full install guide for Windows/Ubuntu on this blog), but once it's running, it handles background tasks while I'm doing billable work. It connects to Telegram so I can assign it tasks from my phone.
Cost: OpenClaw itself is free and open-source. You need an LLM API (Claude Pro, MiniMax, or similar).
Perplexity — Research Without Rabbit Holes
For client research, industry background, and technical reference, Perplexity gives me cited, accurate answers faster than either Google or ChatGPT. I use the Pro version which has access to better models and gives follow-up questions.
When I'm researching a new client's industry before a proposal call, Perplexity can give me a solid background in 10 minutes. Previously that was 30-45 minutes of browsing.
Cost: Free plan available; Pro is $20/month.
The Pattern
Every tool in this list solves a specific, real problem in my workflow. I didn't add any of them because they were trendy. Each one earns its place by saving me time I can either bill or use for something more valuable.
Total monthly cost for all of these: roughly £60-80/month depending on exchange rates. For a freelancer billing £3,000-8,000/month in client work, that's a rounding error — and the productivity gain easily covers 10x the cost.
If you're building your freelance workflow and want to see how I actually use these tools in real projects, the @PromptToCode YouTube channel shows exactly that. Real builds, real workflow, not polished demos.