I came across a chart titled "AI Tool Collection," divided into over a dozen categories, and it looks really impressive.

Here's a bold statement — you don't actually need that many tools.
The three I actually use every day are:
- Claude: coding + long-form writing + helping it get to know me
- Codex: messing around with stuff
And occasionally, I add three more: Google Stitch for image creation, Whisper for transcription, Claude Artifact for data analysis.
Five tools. That's enough.
So, what's wrong with that chart? It treats "existence" as "usefulness."
One Claude can replace three AI writing tools.
One Google Stitch or similar AI image tool is enough for three AI image generators.
The logic for choosing tools:
Don't ask "What's available on the market?"
Ask "Which of my daily repetitive tasks can AI help with?"
Start from pain points to find tools, not from a list of tools to find pain points.
I've seen too many people — Notion AI paid but never opened, Jasper subscribed for a year and only wrote three articles.
Tools aren't better the more you have. Just enough is fine.